How to quit

“I’ve accepted a new job and am about to resign. My current boss has a severe lack of motivational and management skills. My colleagues are unhelpful and the atmosphere is awful. Should I mention that these are my reasons for wanting to leave?”

By Sarah Stimson

There are two schools of thought on this. The first is that you should never burn your bridges, you never know when you might encounter these people again – what if your new firm hires one of your old colleagues? Also there is an issue of professional courtesy. News travels fast in this industry. So, say you resign and tell your boss you hate her guts. How happy is your new boss going to be, knowing that you may say the same to him one day?

The other school says you should tell the truth. It’s a school Adrian Chiles now belongs to. When Chris Evans was brought in to host the Friday night edition of ‘The One Show’, he resigned, jumped to ITV and released a statement that he “would have been happy to stay at the BBC doing the same show on the same terms” and he was disappointed by “the Controller’s decision to change an apparently successful and well-loved show at this stage”. Ouch. Although it makes a change from celebrities ‘exploring new opportunities’.

Chiles has been criticised for being childish in his approach, but some will say that brutal honesty is the way forward. How is an organisation meant to address a lack of managerial skills, if no one raises the issue? Perhaps a balance can be achieved though. Certainly raising issues is better done behind closed doors than in the public eye.

As a rule of thumb, resignation letters should be kept very short and to the point. They are not a great forum for airing grievances and they should state the facts, briefly.

Dear John,

I am hereby giving my formal one month’s notice. My last working day will be 31st December 2010.

Kind regards
Jane

That should suffice.

You may subsequently find that you are never given an opportunity to give your reasons for leaving. But most managers will want to know why, and some firms offer a formal exit interview – usually with someone other than your line manager – so that you can be more open about your reasons. This is a good opportunity to give frank and honest feedback, but do it politely and give cite particular events to back up your claims. Try not to make it personal, talk about management style of the company, rather than the fact that your line manager never bothered to actually manage you.

When giving your feedback keep one thing in mind – can the organisation actually do anything to address the issue? It may help if you offer solutions rather than just give them a problem. So for example you could say “I found my colleagues really unhelpful and unfriendly, particularly when I first joined the firm and I was excluded from lunches and social events. Perhaps it would be a good idea to have long standing employees mentor new ones and take them under their wing?”

You can then move on to your next employer safe in the knowledge that not only have you got your grievances off your chest, but you may have helped to improve the environment for other employees you leave behind.