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The average person will have seven to 10 jobs and around five careers in their lifetime, so knowing how to leave a job is a critical life skill.
When an employment situation breaks apart, neither side is probably particularly comfortable with the process, but Scott Constantine of Grafton Consulting says to be professional.
"I think that the way in which it is handled by both parties is really important because both are trying to protect their image in the market."
When you sit down to notify your boss of your new plans, it's best to have your written notification in hand. Most managers, particularly in larger corporates, cannot post your vacancy until they have your paperwork. There is no reason to add more stress to the situation by being slow.
The reason you're leaving can influence how the break-up transpires.
"It may be for money, but I think it's pretty well proven that more often than not it's not because of money, but really any of the factors that go into affecting employee engagement in general will add up," Constantine says.
Constantine has over 15 years of experience in human resources management and has also been a line manager. He says to think about your resignation from the manager's perspective. Your notice period might be two weeks but in the current market it's unlikely they could realistically replace someone in that length of time.
"They're likely to have difficulties backfilling that position immediately. There's a generally underestimated lead time for recruitment. Two weeks is probably about the norm and, if not, then a month. And if you're trying to recruit, a month goes by very, very quickly," Constantine says.
A month is no time at all to fill a semi- to highly skilled position. If employees can give more notice than required in their contract, it's probably going to be appreciated.
"The employer's got the practical problem of how they're going to fill the position, but they're also going to have a lot of their time taken up in that process as well. So it's a bit of a double whammy there," Constantine says.
In other cases, the employer will want you gone there and then. They can use garden leave to hold you in employment through the remainder of your notice period. You're paid but not working and most likely can't work for competitors.
"It's going to effectively extend their restraint period because they're still an employee, so the meter hasn't started ticking over with respect to whatever restraint period would apply."
This effectively prevents you from helping build any competitor business during this time. Or you might agree to split the difference with your employer and come to some sort of compromise.
"The company can pay the person out, pay them in lieu of notice or, if you resign and it's a month's notice period and I say to you, 'Well, all right, I'll get you to work till the end of the week and I'll pay you out the other three weeks. You can go on your way,' " Constantine says.
The employer might also put you on garden leave to protect their IP. "So they're still on the payroll but they're taken out of the loop of what's going on in their current company, so they're not privy to the very, very latest things that are going on. And, of course, they don't have access to files and so on."
Whatever arrangement you come up with for the remainder of your employment, Constantine says it needs to be put in writing.
"It's for two reasons; one - just absolute clarity for both parties that they know what they've just agreed to or what they've been talking about, and the other one is a fallback in case anything goes wrong later on and there's some form of grievance."
If both parties are open and honest then they can agree to a variety of arrangements. As long as it does not violate employment law, they can come to any type of mutual agreement.
Many times it's the employee who just wants to get out of the door as soon as possible. Particularly if you're unhappy in the current role, it's very tempting to just walk out when you land a new opportunity. But burning bridges in a small employment market is not a recipe for long-term success.
If your employer is OK with it and you don't mind forfeiting the pay for your notice period, then that's a different story.
This can sometimes be best in the case where the employee is starting with a competitor that wants them to start straight away.
But one of the most important things you should be thinking about when considering resigning from an organisation is how long you've been there. People are changing jobs more frequently these days, but tenure of less than two years will still draw some questions.
"If it was two years then that wouldn't really be ringing too many alarm bells for me. If it was shorter than that I wouldn't make just a sheer judgment call on that, but I'd be wanting to know more," Constantine says.
If you're leaving a fixed-term role that is shorter than two years then you should make that clear when you update your CV.
"Make sure that if you're going in for 10 months to cover somebody on maternity leave, that when you've got that job on your CV you put that it was a fixed term contract for maternity leave cover. If they see you just coming and going then they think, 'Oh, why is that?' "
The days of written references are pretty much gone because employers fear legal reprisals. But maintaining the employer as a good verbal reference is important. "I don't know of any corporates that would be giving a written reference, but, almost always, managers will give a verbal reference."
A reference might not be necessary for your next job or the one after that. But when the third job down the line requests three referees, you might need a reference from that old boss you never liked anyway.
Pleasing your employer by serving out your notice period professionally might some day prove rewarding.
Constantine says to refrain from bagging your employer, assist with the handover and don't leave a disaster.
"If it was somebody in my team leaving I would be personally quite grateful they didn't just leave almost having deliberately held things back so that there was a train smash the following week after they've gone," Constantine says.
Both the employee and the employer should recognise that they are not the only ones involved in this process. The whole office is watching.
"Others will observe that, and if they find themselves in the same or similar situation they will start to refer back to and call upon this particular instance as the practice that the company uses for dealing with this sort of thing."
Constantine says the main thing is that both parties simply treat each other with a little respect.
"You may not be jumping up and down with joy on either side of the fence about it, but be civil. Recognise that the other party is probably struggling with it and certainly will have some practical things to deal with."
