{"id":145,"date":"2009-08-25T14:09:15","date_gmt":"2009-08-25T14:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/how-to-say-i-quit-and-how-not-to.html"},"modified":"2009-08-25T14:09:15","modified_gmt":"2009-08-25T14:09:15","slug":"how-to-say-i-quit-and-how-not-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/how-to-say-i-quit-and-how-not-to.html","title":{"rendered":"How To Say “I Quit”–And How NOT To"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

First off, don’t do what I did.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think I have mentioned
\nthe mean boss I once had<\/a>. Well, after several months of being browbeat, the
\nday came when I couldn’t take it another minute. <\/span><\/p>\n

What’d I do? I literally packed up my things and walked out
\nthe door that very day. I shot my intolerable employer a polite but firm
\nexplanatory email (fingers trembling the whole time), removed any personal
\nfiles from my computer (there weren’t many), and shook the dust of that ugly
\nplace off in search of greener pastures. Yes, I tied up my loose ends. I even
\nvacuumed the floor and watered the plants. But I didn’t give notice and I didn’t
\nreturn, despite knowing it’d put my boss in a bind. (My employer got her
\nrevenge by not paying me for my last week of work, so I guess karma was at work
\nthere.) I knew it wasn’t classy, walking out without notice. I’ve been taught
\nyou always, ALWAYS<\/i> give notice, show
\ngratitude, don’t burn bridges, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

So I don’t recommend doing what I did, necessary as it felt
\nat the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

And definitely<\/i>
\ndon’t do what this<\/i> guy did.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I won’t say where this happened, but this story came to me recently through a party who was directly affected by the unethical behavior of the quitter. Here’s what happened:<\/span><\/p>\n

After being recommended for a position and having the wheels greased to ease his entry (at great expenditure of professional clout on the part of a friend of his), this person settled in to his cushy new position and made himself at home. However, after just a couple months, another opportunity presented itself. Rather than give his friend a heads-up that he was about to jump ship, this person simply bailed, without any notice<\/i>, leaving his employer in the lurch and embarrassing his friend on the job. Now, I don’t know if this was, indeed, the opportunity of a lifetime, but it better<\/i> have been, because he just totally burned his bridges, made himself look like a flake, ruined any chance of a good recommendation, and<\/i> made his friend look bad for giving him the thumbs-up in the first place. And this was at a job where they’d treated him like gold from the get-go.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, if you’re planning a career change, don’t do that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do<\/i> do these few simple, ethical things:<\/span><\/p>\n

1)     <\/span><\/span><\/span>Find a good time to break the news to your employer. Schedule a sit-down if possible, and prepare a little script explaining your plans and answering any questions you can anticipate.<\/span><\/p>\n

2)     <\/span><\/span><\/span>Offer to help find and train your replacement, if feasible and desirable to your employer.<\/span><\/p>\n

3)     <\/span><\/span><\/span>Give as much notice as possible, but be firm and fair to yourself as well. The standard notice is two to four weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

4)     <\/span><\/span><\/span>Want more tips?  <\/span>Here are some great resources I found online:  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

a)     <\/span><\/span><\/span>Resigning With Class<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

b)     <\/span><\/span><\/span>Leaving Your Job<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

c)    The Work Buzz<\/a><\/p>\n

If you have a boss who gives you guilt trips, gets angry, or acts unethically in response to your ethical preparations to move on, take your concerns to HR, if your company has an HR department. Remember, you owe them allegiance, but you’re not their slave.<\/span><\/p>\n

Have any words of wisdom for the working stiff?  <\/span>Share your thoughts here!<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Subscribe to receive updates from Everyday Ethics or follow us on Twitter<\/a>!<\/strong> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First off, don’t do what I did. I think I have mentioned the mean boss I once had. Well, after several months of being browbeat, the day came when I couldn’t take it another minute.  What’d I do? I literally packed up my things and walked out the door that very day. I shot my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-ethics","category-by-hillary-fields","category-work-ethics"],"yoast_head":"\nHow To Say "I Quit"-And How NOT To - Everyday Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/how-to-say-i-quit-and-how-not-to.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How To Say "I Quit"-And How NOT To - Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"First off, don’t do what I did. I think I have mentioned the mean boss I once had. Well, after several months of being browbeat, the day came when I couldn’t take it another minute.  What’d I do? I literally packed up my things and walked out the door that very day. I shot my…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/how-to-say-i-quit-and-how-not-to.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-25T14:09:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hfields\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How To Say \"I Quit\"-And How NOT To - Everyday Ethics","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/how-to-say-i-quit-and-how-not-to.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How To Say \"I Quit\"-And How NOT To - Everyday Ethics","og_description":"First off, don’t do what I did. I think I have mentioned the mean boss I once had. Well, after several months of being browbeat, the day came when I couldn’t take it another minute.  What’d I do? I literally packed up my things and walked out the door that very day. I shot my…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/how-to-say-i-quit-and-how-not-to.html","og_site_name":"Everyday Ethics","article_published_time":"2009-08-25T14:09:15+00:00","author":"hfields","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/how-to-say-i-quit-and-how-not-to.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/how-to-say-i-quit-and-how-not-to.html","name":"How To Say \"I Quit\"-And How NOT To - Everyday Ethics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-08-25T14:09:15+00:00","dateModified":"2009-08-25T14:09:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#\/schema\/person\/0c57c1fc9d645425d6205fa4f058146f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/how-to-say-i-quit-and-how-not-to.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/how-to-say-i-quit-and-how-not-to.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/how-to-say-i-quit-and-how-not-to.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How To Say “I Quit”–And How NOT To"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/","name":"Everyday Ethics","description":"Moral Ethics Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#\/schema\/person\/0c57c1fc9d645425d6205fa4f058146f","name":"hfields","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/77b\/77bd98aa35acd21a3a7a209185ad8b6cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/77b\/77bd98aa35acd21a3a7a209185ad8b6cx96.jpg","caption":"hfields"},"description":"Hillary Fields is a born-and-bred New Yorker, brought up on the not-so-mean streets of Manhattan's Upper East Side. She attended St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she studied classics and philosophy, and then respectfully declined to spend the rest of her life in an ivory tower. Instead, she turned to the life of a writer and editor, penning three romance novels published by St. Martin's Press and contributing features to such periodicals as Cosmopolitan magazine. Her fascination with the moral dilemmas that crop up in everyday life--and the many intriguing ways people handle them--has always colored her writings. Now, that interest is leading her to take the discussion online; where, hopefully, the addition of reader feedback will bring these quotidian quandaries--and their potential solutions--vibrantly to life. When she's not plumbing the ethical mysteries of humanity, her passions include cooking (especially baking), origami, kittens, reading, watching really bad television and playing online scrabble. (And no, she doesn't cheat... much.)","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/hfields"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}