Avoiding The Long Goodbye
How dragging out your departure hurts you, your team, and your company
Goodbyes can be difficult, but long goodbyes? They’re the worst.
I had a job require a month’s notice once. That seems reasonable, right? Wrong.
In another, even more senior-level role, I gave over 2 months’ notice. It seemed practical at the time to tie things up at work with a pretty little bow, sell the house, and orchestrate a cross-country move. It was a terrible idea, in hindsight.
On the other side of the equation, sometimes you know you’re going to leave but—for a variety of reasons—have to wait to give notice:
You’ve accepted a new role but are waiting for a bonus or stocks to vest before telling anyone.
You’re starting your own business and want to have a plan in place and a couple initial clients, first.
You’ve set a future retirement date and are biding your time until it’s appropriate to submit your resignation.
Bad For You …
Here’s the thing about leaving a job—you’re leaving for a reason. When you’re ready to go, you Are. Soooooo. Ready. To. Go.
Having a drawn out goodbye is pure agony. Even if it’s for a good reason.
If you liked your job, you’ll have less and less work to do as time ticks on. You’ll start to feel irrelevant. You’ll see people begin to move on without you.
You’ll realize exactly how replaceable you are … how replaceable we all are.
If you’re leaving for other reasons—role misalignment, bad boss, terrible culture—you’ll begin to feel like you’re living in Groundhog Day, the nightmare edition.
Those things you somehow were able to tolerate before will become unbearable.
Bad for Everyone
A long, drawn-out goodbye isn’t great for your team or your company, either.
Especially if you’re in a leadership role, a long transition will put your team into limbo for an extended period of time, during which time you’re either:
Still doing the work and making decisions, in which case your team is not learning to operate without you, or
You’re not doing the work or making decisions, but neither is your team in deference to you.
Either way, it’s a lose-lose situation.
If you’re moving on, your team and company needs to as well. And a long goodbye makes that impossible for everyone.
Rip the Bandaid Off
Once you’ve decided to leave, do everything you can to exit quickly but professionally.
If you do have to wait for a bonus to hit or stocks to vest before giving notice, make good use of your time by preparing for your departure:
Outline key opportunities and challenges
Identify potential successors or ways to distribute your work
Create clear documentation to facilitate knowledge transfer
If you’re a leader, work on delegation and ensuring your team members are empowered to make decisions
That way you’ll have a plan (and empowered team) already in place when you’re ready to give notice.
Here’s the thing about leaving a job—you’re leaving for a reason. When you’re ready to go, you Are. Soooooo. Ready. To. Go.
Providing two weeks’ notice is “the norm” but anywhere from one to three weeks may be reasonable, depending on your length in role, portfolio of work (and its current status), and level in the organization.
If your boss asks you for more than three weeks’ notice, push back—hard. Instead of picking an arbitrary period of time, focus on the specific activities and outcomes they want completed to facilitate a smooth transition.
With a clear understanding of the work to be done, you can align with your leadership on an exit date that will allow you to complete it. And as an added benefit, it’ll provide you with a clear to-do list for your last few weeks, helping you stay focused and avoid some of the emotional challenges of a long transition.
And then, when it’s time to go, don’t prolong your suffering or anyone else’s—just rip the bandaid off, and go.
Bonus reads: Sometimes your work becomes so untenable that you have no other choice but to quit. Other times the choice is less clear. These posts can help you decide what’s right for you.
