Help Me Quit

No, not smoking, or drinking, or gambling, or stealing lawn flamingoes.

I need help quitting my job. I need to put my 2 weeks notice in, and I need to do it before the end of this week, preferebly today. I just don’t know how to go about it. I’m leaving the area, moving to the west coast, I don’t particlularly care to share personal details with my employer, to you guys, on the other hand, my life is an open book.
I really loved this job and my boss is great. I just took my vacation last week, so putting in my notice seems a bit tacky to me, I need help smoothing it over, I really need to get a good reference from this company once I make my move and look for employment again. Anybody got any buzz words or phrases that I can borrow? I don’t really want to create a story of any kind, I just want to explain as little as possible, but still get the general idea across. Any ideas would be most appreciated.

Sorry Psycat, with the rules you set down, it would be difficult to put in notice.

Generally, if you and your boss had a good relationship, and it was a good job, he’s going to want to know what’s going on in your life to make you want to quit.

At my last job, I had to quit, and I knew it would cause undue hardship on my manager, but I did it anyways. I told her where I was going, and the details Etc.

I think rather than putting in 2 weeks notice, you should simply quit one day when you’re ready. It would solve a lot of the difficulties that not letting them in on WHY you’re leaving poses.

Just out of curiosity, why don’t you want to tell your co-workers why you’re quitting?

-Sam

Here’s a copy of my last resignation letter:

Be very gentle. You never know if you’ll need that job again…or that boss.

If you truely like your boss, talk to him/her. Tell them that you attempt to keep your personal life seperate from your work life, and at this point, the personal part is more important. Tell him nothing bad is going on in your life so rumors don’t start, but that you’re moving. Good luck, hon! Quitting isn’t fun, especially if you’re not going to have fun telling them to kiss your ass!

It’s totally irrelevant that you took vacation recently and this fact does not need to be smoothed over. If it was earned vacation you deserved it, and if it wasn’t earned you can be sure your final pay will be adjusted accordingly.

Here’s some corporatespeak phrases:

"Please consider this my formal notice of resignation. I expect my final day to be… For personal reasons I am relocating to … and am obliged to seek employment in that vicinity.

“I regret leaving such an excellent organization. I will miss being a part of your company and I will miss working with such fine people, particularly my {manager/immediate supervisor… Mr./Mrs./Ms…}”

“Please do not hesitate to contact me before, or after, my departure with regards to any questions related to my work here. I would be pleased to assist you with any transitional matters.”

(the classic closing) “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

If you are on good terms with your boss you might want to try getting a letter of reference on company letterhead. Many a good boss will let you type it up and then they’ll read it and sign it.

I am a very quiet, private person at work. I tend to keep my personal matters to myself or share with only a few select very trusted friends. From day one at this job I saw the rumor mill in full swing, keeping to myself was a necessity.
At the same time I was beginning a long-distance relationship (which I obviously had no idea would turn out so wonderfully) I took a position which offered me more money, less work, and my own office. I then kept my blooming relationship between myself and a few close friends only for fear of my employees seeing the obvious next step, my moving and leaving this position which I had accepted. So, I would love to say “Hey I’m moving in with my SO, thing is he lives in Cali”, but they don’t even know I have a BF.
I just don’t feel comfy sharing so much personal detail with these people, I’ve seen the bathroom chatter, as I’ve said, I shouldn’t give a damn, but I do, like I said, I need the reference. So there ya go, my dilemma, in a nutshell.

psycat90 Congratulations on your exciting move! Ah, to be free and mobile again. :smiley:

It is natural to feel that you are an integral part of this organization, and that those that you are leaving behind will deeply feel the void that you will leave when you go. The harsh reality is, they will replace you shortly, and move on without much of a ripple.

It isn’t that I don’t think you’re valuable, and that they won’t miss you, but life moves on pretty much status quo.

So, I think that your fears that they will somehow feel abandoned or negatively about your leaving them, are fears that you are creating.

They won’t care much. Just use one of the well-worded examples above, and have a ball!!!

:smiley:

Psycat, the rumor mill is going to grind anyway. I would make up some wild tale about your sister/cousin/aunt/whomever winning a big lottery and the entire family is moving to Tahiti. Or somewhere glorious.
Give the gossip mongers something to get their teeth into.

Just a minor point… this should always be in regard. Just something that was drilled into my head by my English teacher in college!

Good luck with the move and the resignation. I think you’re very wise to try to keep your personal life out of the work place. I am the same way. No one at work knew that I got divorced until 4 months after it was final! I just didn’t want the rumors to fly and I knew they would. Gossip is bad everywhere you’re going to work though. If you can stay away from it you’re gonna be a lot better off!

I would just hand in my resignation and tell them that there are some great opportunities awaiting you in California and you’re going to check them out. Ask your boss if he would write you a letter of recommendation. Even if he gets pissed at you for leaving and won’t write you a letter of recommendation, it doesn’t matter. The only information he can provide to one of your prospective employers is the date you were hired, the date you left, and whether or not he would hire you back. If he talks a lot of shit about you to a potential employer and you find out about it, you can sue him for it! That’s the way it is here anyway.

Good Luck! :slight_smile:

I’m so excited for you, psycat!

I think that the best course of action would be to write your resignation letter (see below), ask for a meeting with your boss, and wait while he/she reads it. Then you can “discuss.” AWB’s format is good.

I’m not sure that you really have to tell him/her anything but that you are moving to California. I like the suggestion of referring to “opportunities” or “family reasons.” Both are truthful without really revealing anything.

You can stress the fact that you are only leaving because you are moving so far away. Speak of your appreciation for the job/company/boss and your sadness at having to leave such a good position.

Make sure to offer to train a new person and do what you can to make the transition as easy as possible. Tie up all the “loose ends” of your work, and then you can be sure your employer won’t get annoyed with you after you are gone.

And that’s it.

Good luck and tell us how it went.

How about, in a letter just explain that you have an opportunity to move to the west coast and you have decided to take it and enjoy the new experiences it will bring for you.

Its really not necessary to explain your SO. As far as your boss will know, you are expanding your horizons so to speak.

My opinion:

in your resignation letter, I wouldn’t include any reasons for which you’re leaving. A resignation letter is a formal, official document. I would only put something like

Verbally, you can tell them that you’re moving for personal reasons, that it has nothing to do with the job, that you loved your boss and the people there, blah-blah-blah.

Any employer that is decent will give you a good recommendation if you’re a good employee. It doesn’t matter that you’ve left after you took a vacation. Wasn’t this vacation time that you had previously accumulated?

What I wouldn’t do is say “I’m moving to California to be with this man” and show a picture of Democritus. You’d be in a straightjacket before you knew it. :wink:

Thanks guys, your thoughts and ideas are right in sync with what I had in mind, guess I just needed a little moral support, who knew quitting could be a difficult thing? This was my first ‘real’ job so to speak, much more formal than other positions I had held, so this is my first formal resignation, I just needed a little help. Yes, the vacation time was earned and accumulated, just feels a little cheesy. I am very excited about the move, thanks again guys!

Arnold, you bastard. I think I will head down for the next So Cal gathering…

:smiley:

Oh yeah, you and what army?

Unless you mean the gaggle of kids that will be in your combined households? :eek: OK, I cry Uncle already.

Just thought I’d keep you guys up to date. The deed has been done. At 2 PM I handed my boss my resignation letter, explaining I really did not want to leave the job itself, it was purely based on personal life choices. My last day is June 1st. (Uh, yea 2 weeks from today :))

He congratulated me, said he was sorry to see me go, thanks for all the work i did for the company, and he offered himself as a reference. So on and so forth. By 3 PM word had swept through the building like wildfire and my office became a combination of Grand Central Station and 20 Questions.
I think I’ve been handling it quite nicely.

Special thanks to Al and Arnie, I used several sentences from your posts here. And thanks to everyone for the moral support. California here I come!

::slugging Dem on the arm in giving him the ol’ “wink-n-shoot-with-both-forefingers”:: Nailed 'er, eh, pal?

Congratulations, both of you. Psykitty, that’s a BIG move. Are you having your stuff sent out or are you steering the UHaul yourself? If for some reason you end up coming through Des Moines (well, we ARE at the crossroads of Interstates 35 and 80, after all…) let me know. I’ll buy ya a cup of coffee.