What’s the best way to quit a job?
Believe it or not, I’m 30 years old and this is the first time in my life that I am going to quit a job and move on to a new one. I’m just really nervous about going to my boss, and I’m not quite sure what to say. I’ve been at this job for almost six years and (I’m not sneak bragging) I do a lot around here. They’ll miss me! 
Anyway, so what do I do/say? Is two weeks notice pretty much the standard?
Unless your handbook says different (in my job it’s 20 working days, actually.) Go in and tell your boss. He or she may ask you to write a letter of resignation.
Check your employee handbook (or equivalent). Some employers have different requirements as to the amount of notice required – I’ve worked a places where the requirement was “same number of weeks’ notice as you have weeks of vacation”. Failing to give adequate notice forfeited any accumulated vacation/holiday pay.
Note whether you will get pay from accumulated vacation or holidays, too. My current employer only pays out on accumulated vacation – you get nothing for unused “floating holidays”. In which case, give notice concurrent with informing them of when you will be using those unspent days.
Put your notice in writing, and give a copy to both your supervisor and HR. Keep it very simple and straightforward – e.g., “Although I have enjoyed working at XYZ Corp., I have accepted another position. My last day at XYZ Corp. will be [last day of work]. Sincerely, Francis”.
There may be an exit interview, or your boss may ask you why you are leaving, or what was wrong. Do NOT take this opportunity to even the score, or get back at anyone, or just vent about how horrible whatever was. Smile, say how much you enjoyed working for them or how much you learned from the job, but that it suits your best interests to take this new job. You hope they understand.
FrancisCastle - Type out a nice letter of resignation, saying great things about your time there. It’s important not to burn bridges, especially since you have such a solid repationship with the company.
"To whom it may concern:
As of 11/22 I will be leaving my position at XYZ company. Thank you for all the support and resources given me at XYZ.
Sincerely,
Francis Castle"
Heh. XYZ Corp is such a bad place to work that we instinctively use it for our sample resignation letters.
Right on. Once I gave 30 days notice because I’m a nice guy. Only later did I discover in the handbook that if you resign, your accumulated vacation time is void. :dubious:
Man was I pissed and I let them know it at the exit interview. :mad:
I think a lot will depend upon the field you are in. It used to be that it was customary to turn in two weeks’ notice in pretty much all fields. And, once you turned in your notice, you could count on being there for the next two weeks, allowing you time to clean out your office, hand off assignments, and (potentially) train your replacement.
However, these days, more often than not when you turn in your notice, you have a good chance of just being escorted off the premises. This seems to be particularly true in fields that deal with money or technology.
I worked at one programming company where there was no set policy on it. One person turned in his notice and was escorted off, and someone from HR went and packed up his desk. When it was my turn, I had surreptitiously cleaned out my desk, leaving only the basics for what I needed for my job, as well as to keep up appearances. I had to be prepared to be escorted off, without making it look like I was planning to leave. In my case, I was not escorted off.
My daughter works in the mortgage lending department of a bank. One of their loan originators, who had been with the company for 30 years, turned in his notice, and was not even allowed to return to his department to say “goodbye”.
You might want to take the time to tidy up your office and clean off (or make copies of) all personal files from your computer. (Technically, you probably shouldn’t have personal files on your computer, but that’s pretty much impractical.) You need to be 100% prepared to not see your office again.
Sorry if this sounds paranoid, but it is just the reality of today’s work environment. Good luck. Congrats on the new job!
The only time I’ve ever resigned in writing was because my 15-year old letter of agreement stipulated it (my employer later dropped that clause for new hires.) I simply gave a one sentence memo to my supervisor.
As for what to say, just say “I’ve decided to leave. I hope two weeks notice is sufficient.”
But don’t be shocked if your employer hands you a box and tells you to clean out your desk. It’s not personal, it’s just business.
I recommend that before you tell anyone you’re leaving that you quietly remove all personal items from your desk, make copies of any personal files on the computer, write down any email addresses you might need, etc. Just in case they escort you out the door immediately. Even if they give you a few minutes to clear out your desk, you don’t want to forget anything.
I don’t really think they’ll push me out the door, but I hadn’t thought about that before either. It is a small family owned business that I work for, so there’s only about 30ish employees. My boss (the owner) is pretty much the HR department. I’ll have to start a draft of that letter to XYZ Corp though.
You never know. Sometimes these little family-owned companies think you’re betraying them by leaving. And they may not be as aware of the rules and regulations as larger companies.
Yeah, I cleaned out my desk and computer before I handed in my resignation at my last job as well. I gave two weeks but only stayed one - I took the last week as my remaining vacation time.
There is no requirment. A two week’s notice is courtesy and really is only needed if your employer pays severence pay. Would you get severence pay? Then you have absolutely no obligation to give two week’s notice.
You can bet your last dollar your employer woud fire you without a thought. So why extend them the courtesy?
OK for one if you don’t give two weeks notice, you’re most likely going to be marked as “not eligible for rehire.” Which means you burned a bridge and if you don’t have a job, when new job applications are checked and they ask, “Is he eligible for rehire?” they will say, “no.”
They’ll miss you but so what? It’ll get done. I was laid off a job and two years later the General Manager said, “I don’t understand why we had to hire two and a half people to do your job? We didn’t save anything and it isn’t even being done as well as when you did it.”
OK did they offer me the job back. No, they don’t care.
Here’s what you do. You give a letter of resignation
You write:
That is ALL YOU SAY. Don’t say more, don’t say less.
One thing is some jobs will “walk you.” That means the second you give notice, you may be told to leave or told to leave by the end of the day. So if you’re counting on having two weeks of pay between the time you give notice and the time you start your second job, be warned, this may not happen.
Except I’d use ‘Due’, not ‘Do’, and ‘resigning from my position’ rather than ‘resigning my job’.
No need to be nervous. Assuming your boss has a sense of business and professionalism* there won’t be any hurt feelings and so there’s nothing to be nervous about. You simply have an opportunity to pursue. How they deal with your absence will be their problem, not yours. No one is irreplaceable - no offence, OP. I’m sure you do a lot, but unless you have some serious super-secret ninja skillz or something, they can find someone else to do all the stuff you did.
*Not a given. I know.
I don’t like to advertise, but… 
Seriously though, I know they will move on, I’m just a scaredy cat.
Sack up, dude.
Ovum up, girl.
I write a letter of resignation in which I thank my boss for the work and explain that the new opportunity was too good to pass up. I offer two weeks notice and explain that I understand if they want me to leave today (this is not uncommon, because developers can do some damage - but it is more common if you are laid off or fired.)
I verbally ask for a letter of reference. If you can get one, never leave without one.
"Dear Boss,
Effective [insert date], I will resign from my position as [insert title.]
Sincerely yours,
[your name]
You seriously don’t even have to extend the courtesy of a thanks, nice workin’ with ya. Chances are, the people to whom you actually mean that will never see your letter of resignation. It’ll be filed away somewhere in HR and nobody really cares what it says except for the effective date of the resignation. That’s the only information that’s relevant to them. Everything else can be handled face-to-face.
Two weeks sounds fair for a business like that - they should easily be able to find someone (especially in this economy) or get someone in the company to assume your duties.
I remember a job I tried to quit in NYC back in the day.
They offered me a raise and stayed.
Tried to quit two months later.
Got another raise and stayed.
Short version - I tried to quit at least four times in a year, getting bribed with raises every time until I finally had to quit, as I had purchased a ticket to move to Berlin, and no raise could convince me to stay (although they tried again).
However, most place today do indeed want you to clear out your desk and leave immediately - which is odd if you offer to stay on, but that is how they work. Your smaller company might not be so paranoid though.
Strongly agree though - burn no bridges! Make nice and smile until the bitter end - you never know when you might need them for a reference, or to come back or whatever!