Are you afraid to quit?
If you’ve never resigned from a job, resigning or quitting can be a difficult thing especially if you are close with your boss, colleagues and company and if you feel a sense of loyalty to them.
I can think of a few occasions where job searchers I was working with sailed along through the job search process until the job offer stage and as soon as they accepted the offer and it came time for them to resign…that’s where the problems started.
I remember one case early in my recruitment career where I’d helped a young guy working in copier sales get a job with one of the major copier companies, a good sales job. He was currently working for one of the small, independent sales agencies that also sold copiers but as his new job was actually with one of the major copier and office equipment manufacturers, it was a much better job in the short and long term. More money, better employer, better long term prospects.
But when it came time to resign, he suddenly changed his mind. I still remember the conversation.
“I started thinking about the job and decided that it’s better for me to stay where I am for the time being” he said.
He started listed all sorts of excuses that seemed to justify in his mind why it was the right decision:
“I’ve only been with this company for a year and I think I should stay here for another year at least before changing jobs.”
“I’m thinking about moving to a different city in the future so it doesn’t make sense to change jobs at this time.”
I remember trying to convince him that the job he’d accepted was the right thing for him (which I truly believed it was) but I just couldn’t convince him. In this instance, it was his first job out of school and for some reason he couldn’t quit even though he was going to go to a better and higher paying job.
I’ve had other occasions where a job offer is accepted and as soon as the resignation phase kicks in, the candidate has difficulty resigning so I walk them through the process, help them put a resignation letter together, help them figure out when and how they’ll tell their boss and then have them call me on the phone to let me know when they’ve resigned.
In the vast majority of time, things turn out just fine.
A big part about resigning is convincing yourself in advance of what is about to happen and understanding that you are about to make this change for the better by moving to a new job. Perhaps thinking about the reason(s) you started interviewing for a new job in the first place can help to jog your memory, too.
The first time I resigned from a company wasn’t easy because I liked my boss and colleagues but I was working in New Zealand at the time and had decided to move home so there was a bigger picture for me to consider.
Another big part of resigning is planning ahead to reduce the stress you’re facing. It can be a bit difficult sometimes when you get a new job and finalize the offer on say a Monday and are expected to start in two weeks but are required to give two weeks notice. In this case it takes planning ahead and perhaps a bit of negotiating. If you accept an offer on a Friday and are expected to start two weeks on the following Monday but also need to give two full weeks notice to your current employer, well you’re going to have to resign on the same Friday you got the offer or first thing on Monday morning at the latest. Properly planning ahead takes stress away and makes things go smoother.
If you’d like to read more about the resignation process and view a sample resignation letter I have put together, check out the post called A Resignation Letter Example You Can Use.
