Have you ever been in a job where you’ve wanted nothing more than to walk out the door and never come back?
Most people have been (or will be) there at least once. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with leaving a role that clearly isn’t a good fit. But doing it in the wrong way can come back to haunt you in ways you can’t even foresee. Business networks are incredibly small places, and if someone gets word that you left your last place in a manner that lacked “professional grace”, well, it’s not great.
There’s a few stories on this that I’ve never forgotten:
Story #1: When I worked at Deloitte, one of the senior partners told me of a time when they had been staffed to an extremely high-pressure project. The client was notoriously difficult to work with, and the hours were long and hard. One day at lunch one of the younger consultants told the rest of the team that he was going to go grab some lunch at Taco Bell and asked if anyone wanted anything. Everyone thanked him, gave him their orders, and quickly returned to their work. He left his laptop and coat on the table and walked out the door with the car keys.
A few hours later someone finally asked if they knew when the food was coming. Turns out that instead of going to Taco Bell, the consultant had simply gone to the airport and booked a one-way flight home. He got on the airplane and never even came back for his things. When the company tried to contact him multiple times he finally replied with an email saying “I’m no longer interested in working at Deloitte, you can just give my things to anyone you want. Thanks.” That was the only response they could ever get from him.
From that day on, “going to Taco Bell” became a company-wide euphemism for quitting without notice.
I honestly didn’t believe that story when I first heard it. I couldn’t imagine just walking out the door and boarding a plane home without so much as a “Hey I’m quitting!” to my boss. But the longer I’ve been in business the more and more I’ve seen of bad quitting behavior like this.
Story #2: A few years later (at a different company) I was sending out emails to some co-workers with some project questions I had. I unexpectedly got a bounce-back email from one of them saying that their email was no longer valid. When I asked their manager what had happened, he told me that he had woken up to an email from this employee saying that “he was leaving the company effective immediately.” No explanation was provided, and despite calling, emailing, and texting the employee multiple times, his boss had never received a response. This person had just simply walked away without notice.
Story #3: Another time I had a co-worker who at least had the courtesy to submit a formal two weeks notice that he was leaving. But from the moment he turned in his resignation he essentially became a zombie at work. He didn’t finish any tasks given to him, was lazy in responding to requests, and became completely unreliable. His body was still at work, but his mind was somewhere else. It was an incredibly frustrating experience for everyone who still depended on this person for their own work.
Leaving with Professional Grace
The thing I find sad about all of these stories is that at the moment the person quitting was probably simply so fed up that they couldn’t imagine staying one more second and so they didn’t. I can relate to that. Most of us have been in situations (professionally or personally) where we’ve wanted nothing more than to throw up our hands and just walk away.
But the reality is that we simply can’t afford to do that. Most serious companies (if they’re worth their salt) will do background checks on any new potential hires. No matter how miserable you may feel, you need to avoid burning bridges on the way out the door because there is an extremely high chance that your former employer will be asked about you during reference checks. Imagine spending all of your time interviewing for the job of your dreams, having all the qualifications needed to land the role, only to be rejected because you didn’t handle a prior “professional breakup” maturely. It’s simply not worth the risk.
Leaving with professional grace is actually easy to do if you’re willing to be thoughtful (and a bit unselfish). A few things that I’ve seen (and respected) in others who left employment:
- Providing more than the minimum 2 weeks notice: They understand that hiring is hard, and they do their team the courtesy of giving them as much time as possible to find a backfill. I’ve even seen people give as far as 6 weeks’ notice.
- Stay committed to the end: They don’t take their foot off the pedal just because they know they’re leaving. They take personal pride in the quality of their work until the very last minute before they turn in their badge. They remain just as responsive and committed to projects as they were before they were leaving.
- Create a “succession plan”: They make sure that all of their current work is cleanly handed off to other team members; They train others on how to do their work, clearly organize and transfer key documents, and generally make sure that nothing falls through the cracks before they leave.
- Express gratitude: They express genuine thanks to the people they work with. They write thank you cards and let others know how much they’ve appreciated working with them.
- Communicate: They clearly explain why they’re leaving, both to their bosses and their teams. This not only helps everyone understand the decisions but also eliminates the potential for gossip and speculation as to why they’re leaving (example: far better for someone to know that you’ve been offered a truly incredible role elsewhere than to wonder if you were pushed out of the company because of failing to deliver great results).
Again, quitting may be the right thing to do. Just make sure you do it well.
Should You Quit Your Job without Anything Lined Up?
We often get asked what to do if you’re fed up and can’t bear to work another day at the company. It’s a fair question. We spend at least 8 hours per day working, and if it’s miserable then what should you do?
Our best advice: Stay in your job, but make it your second job to find a new job. Being employed makes you more hirable.
In one study, they took identical resumes and made one change – half were still employed and the other half were not. They found employed candidates have significantly higher chances of getting hired. This is for a number of reasons, but most notably with biases towards employed people being perceived as harder workers.
Of course there are exceptions here, such as if the workplace is unhealthy or causes you personal risk, and those issues should generally be able to be escalated to HR. If that’s not an option you could ask for a leave of absence or take vacation time as you find a new job.
Generally it’s best to stay in a job until you have your next one.
Conclusion
Some days at work are harder than others. Some jobs and companies are just hard. You may feel frustrated and dream of quitting in a dramatic way. That’s fine to think it, but just don’t do it!
Stay in your job until you have the next one lined up. And of course avoid any Taco Bell runs in the meantime!
