Moving on from your current job can lead to a mix of emotions – from excitement to anxiety, joy or sadness. These feelings depend on the culture or work environment you’re leaving behind. When you’ve worked with people for however long, they can almost end up like your family members. That is if you had great colleagues and a great boss. Regardless of your work environment or the kind of boss you had, burning bridges during a job transition is never a good idea.
If you are at this bridge, here are a few tips on how to manage the transition.
Don’t say anything until you finalise your plans
It’s in bad taste for rumours to be going around the office about your impending resignation, even worse for these rumours to reach your bosses ears. Make sure you have your letter in hand with a start date. If you start spreading the news and unfortunately something does happen, it may be a bit awkward for you to come back to withdraw your earlier statement. When your plans are concrete, your boss should be the first person you tell before anyone else to give him a heads up and then send an email officially.
Resign and give the notice period required
Yes, you may be ready to drop your letter and leave the next day, happily forfeiting your salary but put yourself in the shoes of your boss. Imagine how you would feel if you found yourself in a managerial position in the future and your colleague just dropped the ball on you like that. Some wait till payday and then resign the next day and leave. It can be quite a blow and even if your boss was wicked I personally don’t think anyone deserves that. You could negotiate for a shorter notice period instead and hope for the best. Don’t let the company you’re moving on to put you in a bad position by insisting that you start immediately. If they really want you they will wait, because to be fair they wouldn’t like it if you did the same thing to them.
Don’t rub it in
It’s tempting to continually express your joy and gladness as you countdown to your last day on your job. But like it or not, that job or company has contributed to your growth somehow, even if you hated the job or found it boring. The fact that you showed up every day has built resilience in you that you might not even be aware of. You don’t have to pretend that you’re sad but it would be a good idea to reflect and be grateful for your time there and to keep your personal celebrations in check til you leave.
Life is in cycles sometimes and you never know where or if you’ll meet your boss or even need him or her in the future. Even if you may never need them again, you don’t know where your name might come up and at that point, it would be nice to have someone willingly put in a good word for you.