I have a situation where we have an employee resigning at the end of this week. Moving on, better job, better pay, gave full notice, helped train their replacement during the “notice period”, etc. Pretty much everything you’d ask in a departing employee.
Only problem is that this person and I absolutely can not stand each other. Simple personality conflict that manifested itself over time into full-blown professional conflict. Neither one of us report to the other one, so that’s not part of the equation.
Is there any good way to say “goodbye” to this person, without coming across as too phony (i.e. “I really enjoyed working with you, and I hope your new job fulfills all your wishes and desires”), or too douchey (i.e. on their last day, blatantly ignoring the fact that their leaving, while they’re walking around saying their goodbyes to everyone else in the department)?
My first thought was “look, you and I obviously don’t have a whole lot to say to each other, but take care of yourself”. Period, end of story, and walk away. That’s probably not the ideal choice of words, so any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks for any input.
I’d probably avoid saying anything about how you feel about them or their future, since you’ll both know it’s a lie. “Good luck; take care” is probably as far as you need to go.
Yeah, it’s best to just say something like “Best of luck to you” and leave it like that.
Though possible the person won’t come by your desk to say goodbye. When I was leaving my job, there were a couple of people whose desks I didn’t stop by.
I think part of the issue here is whether the person leaving just happens to be an okay human you just happen to hate for odd reasons or a person you honestly think is a worthless sack of shit.
If it is the former, an honest “I know we didn’t get along…but I think you are a good person and I honestly hope things at the new place work out for you…” or something along those lines is the way to go.
Actual bitch from hell? Practice your five fingered taint punch of death (I am sure youtube has some instructional videos that will help).
Yeah, the “we don’t have a lot to say to each other…” is kinda douchey. I simply don’t go out of my way to say goodbye to people I don’t like. If they happen by my desk, or we end up in a common area and it comes up, a simple “good luck with the new job” is all that’s needed. It’s not insincere - I really do want the new job to go well for them because if it doesn’t, they might come back! If it doesn’t come up, they’ll simply be gone and your next work day will be absent one source of stress.
“Oh, look, the little baby’s taking their toys and leaving!”
“No notice? Way to just abandon us. I don’t know how we’re going to find a replacement, much less have them trained. Thanks for leaving us all in the lurch. Hope you’re happy.”
“Yeah, you better leave the company, bitch! You were scared… I win! You lose!”
"Well, well, well… what have we here? It’s Mr./Ms. “I’m too cool to work here anymore. You can go straight to hell.”
I’d try one or more of those.
I was in this situation not too long ago, and really, it didn’t come up. She knew she was unpopular within our small work group, so although she said lots of good-byes in other parts of the office, when it came time to leave on the last day she kind of just wandered out and didn’t say anything to us.
If she had, I would have nodded and said “Good luck.” In fact she was emotionally disturbed rather than evil, so although I was glad she was leaving I didn’t hold too much of a grudge or anything.
Roddy
