Ready to Resign? Here's How to Do It

Not all jobs are life-long careers for every employee. In fact, the average person will have 12 jobs in their lifetime.

This means most employees are going to resign from a job at some point in their career… if not at multiple points.

When it comes to resigning, don’t underestimate the importance of leaving the position or company the right way… especially when working with a recruiting and staffing agency. This is because of the vast number of other job opportunities an agency could potentially place you in!

According to research featured in the Journal of Applied Psychology, there are seven ways employees resign. While all seven will probably work for the purposes of quitting your job, we don’t recommend using a few of them.

Recommended:

• By-the-book – You meet face-to-face with your manager to discuss your intent to resign and why, as well as providing a standard notice period (typically two weeks).
• Perfunctory – You meet face-to-face with your manager for a short meeting to provide notice of your intent to resign. Typically, the reasons for resignation are not provided.
• Grateful Goodbye – You express gratitude toward your soon-to-be past employer and offer to help with the transition period.
• In the Loop – You confide in your manager(s) you’re contemplating resigning and/or are looking for another job before quitting.

Resigning in any of the ways mentioned above not only provides you with the opportunity to receive recommendations and positive references from your soon-to-be past employer, but also puts you in a good position to be considered for re-hire down the road if your new job doesn’t work out quite as planned.

(Highly) Unrecommended:

• Avoidant –You tell peers, co-workers, and/or HR that you plan to resign rather than giving notice to your immediate manager(s).
• Bridge Burning – You seek to harm the company or colleagues on your way out the door, most often through verbal assaults.
• Impulsive –You simply walks off the job, never to return or communicate with the employer again.

Resigning from a company in any of these ways is a great way to ensure you won’t get any recommendations or references. And it will probably guarantee that you won’t ever be considered for re-hire at any time later on. Are you 100% positive you’ll never need a good reference, or another job?

It’s always important to consider how to leave a certain position or company you are placed with. Burning bridges or impulsively walking off a job are the fastest ways to make sure you’ll never be considered for employment again – nor will you get any positive recommendations in the future.

Even if it’s difficult, resign the right way to make sure you’re not accidentally ruining any future opportunities.