How Not to Exit Gracefully

A couple of weeks ago, one of the people in the marketing department where I work resigned.

Now, they say there is a right way and a wrong way to do everything. She did it in the wrong way.

Always exit an office, a date, hell even a meal with mom – gracefully.

This person was pissed – fuming pissed – at the marketing manager and she wasn’t afraid to let the whole world know in her letter of resignation.

I understand her frustrations – anyone who has read my blog regularly knows the marketing team not exactly playing with a full deck of cards.

I’m actually surprised no one has resigned before under the current management – as the team lacks leadership, motivation and professionalism in a big way.

Still, when leaving an organization, you don’t want to burn your bridges or do it without having something else to fall back on.

The person who resigned had been with the company for over 17-years. That’s a long time, but pretty common at the company where I’m at. Many got their first gig out of high school with this company and just have never been elsewhere.

It shows longevity and job stability, but it also leads to a certain lack of awareness one can only get by moving around the job market.

Also, staying a long time looks good on a resume – shows you are dedicated and loyal. Staying too long though is bad – looks like you lack the drive to take your career into your own hands, and shows that although you maybe able to do the job, you probably aren’t up on the latest trends in the industry.

In a way, this lack of professional experience shows in the way the person resigned from the company. She did it via email, on a Friday, after five o’clock, long after all the managers – including hers – had gone for the day.

Even though I’ve never been employed by one employer 17-years – nor would I want to be – I would never resign in an email.

Emails are not personal – and this is one of those things you should do face-to-face. But there is more to it than that. If you are so frustrated with your gig that you’re resigning, writing an email is dangerous. We tend to write from the hip in front of the computer – saying whatever is on our minds.

Unlike a Word document, once you hit “Send” that email is already in the hands of the person or people you’ve sent it too. You can recall an email, but that doesn’t usually work, as email servers are faster than you can flinch your finger over the “Recall” button.

That’s probably what happened in this case. The person was having a rough day with little to no support from her team. But that’s the marketing team’s way – like I said, they lack a certain level of professionalism.

In a furry of anger, this person blamed her manager for all her troubles. She blamed human resources for not responding to her needs. And worse yet, she blamed the company president and CEO for ignoring her constant requests for help in dealing with the issue.

Now, I haven’t been at the company 17-years, but even I can see that regardless of how poorly the marketing team works, management has turned a blind eye on ‘em. Marketing has blown their budgets twice in as many years, and no one has been fired, shuffled off to a lesser post, or in any other way punished or reprimanded. Obviously, whatever marketing does, regardless of whether or not it is actually good for the company, marketing does.

The higher-ups obviously know all of this – they are the ones allowing it to happen. They probably have something to do with it. Maybe the marketing executives are related to the president and CEO? Maybe the marketing executives are all buddy buddy outside the office – who knows?

The point is blaming the highest levels in the company for your departure isn’t going to change anything – except maybe that nice reference you’d expect after 17-years of working there. After 17-years of working at one place, you’d better get a good reference, otherwise you are really in the dog house.

Think this person will get a nice letter of recommendation, or can leave her manager’s name as a reference.

I doubt it – not the way she resigned. Imagine working for one employer all your working life, and then, suddenly out of work, unable to use that very same employer as a reference.

Here’s a rope, go hang yourself – it’ll be less painful than looking for work.