ALRIGHT! You’ve made up your mind to leave your current employment after careful consideration.
Before you hand over your resignation letter and announce your departure, make sure you check and do all of the things listed below to leave a good impression. As the saying goes, kill them with kindness.
Use your unused medical privileges
Before handing in your resignation later and proclaiming your intention to the whole office, do use up your unused medical privileges first.
While sitting in those appointments, it’ll also give you time to think about your decision and figure out what needs to be done.
However, make sure you don’t book all your appointments on company’s time. You don’t want them to be “onto you” that fast especially when you’re still deciding.
Copy over personal files from company gadgets
Over time, the company gadgets such as the laptop and phone may feel like yours but at the end of the day, it still needs to be returned when you resign.
Before handing in the letter and announcing your decision to resign, take the time to copy over personal files and save your work samples to your own personal computer first.
This is because the company laptop and phone will be wiped before it’s passed to your successor.
Prepare a transition plan for your successor
You’ll want to leave a good impression before you leave and it’ll be nice not to leave your successor in a lurch. Prepare a transition plan for the next person doing your job in an organised file so they can hit the ground running.
Take good meeting notes, list down any on-going projects with brief updates, and save this information in an easy-to-read manner.
It’ll be nice to offer to help select and train your successor too to make the transition process smoother.
Update your resume and LinkedIn profile
If you’re still thinking of resigning, it’s good to keep your resume and LinkedIn profile up-to-date. This will help in your job search to go quicker and smoother when the opportunity arises. It’s better to update your profile and details as you’re making the job change, while everything is still fresh in your mind.
Check your savings
Most importantly, you have to take stock of your financial situation. This is crucial if you’re resigning without a plan or another job in hand.
Depending on your financial needs, you may need to suck it up at the current workplace for a few more months and draw up a budget to follow.
Check if you’re eligible for unemployment benefits
If you’ve been laid off or without a job, you can check if you’re eligible for unemployment benefits such as the Employment Insurance System (EIS).
You can find out more about EIS by visiting the EIS website.
Go over your contract
Before making any final decisions, do go over your employment contract one more time. You need to note down the terms and conditions of resigning such as the number of months to serve, and what are the ex-employee benefits you retain once you resign.
Check unused vacation and sick pay
When you resign, your employer might be required to pay you for your unused vacation time, sick leaves and paid leaves.
This is usually paid out in a lump sum so you may be able to calculate what you’re owed.
Decline counteroffers politely
It’s possible that your current employer will offer a counteroffer in hopes of making you stay. It’s best to refuse any counteroffers politely.
Depending on your reasons for leaving, you’ll likely want to leave again despite the extra perks given. Accepting the counteroffer is also rude to the recruiter who helped you secure another job, and it’s also rude to the other company which decided to hire you.
Once the panic of your resignation settles down, your current company will peg you as a flight risk and you might be booted sooner than you think.
Exit with grace and dignity, not a blaze of glory
It’ll be tempting to give terrible bosses or colleagues a piece of your mind while you exit in a blaze of glory. However, do not ever do this. It’s much better to exit with grace and dignity. You’ll never know who you’ll meet again in another job, and it’s always better to be kinder than mean.
Thank everyone you’ve worked with and don’t brag
Whether you have had a good or bad working experience in the company, it’s thoughtful to thank everyone you’ve worked with.
These are the people who have helped you on last minute deadlines or to be productive in your roles.
Take the time to send a goodbye email to colleagues, clients and vendors. It’s also helpful to provide the necessary contact details to those who might want to keep in touch with you.
While you might be excited for your next job, don’t brag about it to your colleagues. And resist the temptation to badmouth management or staff. It might alienate them and you’ll never know who might be listening.
Even if they aren’t tattle tales, the negative interaction might leave a bad memory in your wake, and it might return to haunt you in the future.
Now, that you’ve exited gracefully, you can finally yell: “FREEDOM!”
This article was first published in theSun Buzz Careers edition. Here’s 10 GOOD reasons to quit and 10 BAD reasons to resign.
If you feel overwhelmed when things seem dire, here’s entrepreneur Kiru’s story about how he lost his business and built himself from the ground up again.
