By Amanda Tonoli
Getting a new job is always exciting: onto bigger and better things, meeting new people and all of that good stuff. What no one tells you when you get a new job is how to quit your old one — especially if you are leaving on bad terms.
Let’s say you put in your two-weeks notice. You followed all the appropriate guidelines to quitting: respectfully approaching your boss with ample notice that this was coming, putting your resignation into proper letter format and offering to help train and even find your replacement. What happens when this is seemingly not enough?
“Some bosses will simply let you go once you put in your notice,” said Lindsay Olson in “Do You Always Have to Give Two Weeks’ Notice,” published in March 2013 on usanews.com. “Whether that’s due to a temper tantrum, or just your boss’s style, don’t worry about it.”
So in trying to save your boss from your loss by giving them the standard, courteous goodbye, you may have just screwed yourself out of a job for the next two weeks.
In order to keep your bills paid and your budget stable, Olson encourages to take other, less respectable avenues to save yourself.
“If you know your boss has always fired every employee who ever put in his resignation, you might take your chances and quit just a few days before you’re due at the new company to keep the cash flow steadier,” Olson said.
Sometimes, however, your boss will keep you throughout your two-week notice, meanwhile taking out their aggression on you because of your new opportunity.
In “How To Survive Your Two Weeks Notice And Quitting Your Job,” on thegrindstone.com published in October 2012, Megan Broussard addresses being kept on staff and the stress of finishing out your time left with that job.
“As punishment or a result of panic, your boss may try and milk your short time left for everything it’s worth,” Broussard said. “But don’t sacrifice your mental health just to keep the peace with your boss.”
Maintaining your own mental health is the most important part of your life, especially your work life. You can’t go to a new job trained to be in constant fear of retaliation and immature behavior from your superior — it’ll lead to a poor start and attitude for your new adventure. Broussard suggests taking at least a week off between your end point of your old job and the starting point of your new job.
It seems anymore that putting your notice in at work is either going to go wonderfully, with positive words of encouragement on your way up in the world, or disastrous — with disrespect and anger directed at you for moving on with your life and the hell away from your overworked and underpaid job.
My advice would be to have enough money put away to take care of yourself if you’re cut early and still take the high road — give your boss enough notice for him or her to decide whether or not to be a decent human being and to handle your resignation like an adult.