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Jason Calacanis on how to resign.
Step number 6 is the most important. Don't plaster your email correspondence all over the web, even if your boss is a bit of a mini celebrity.
- credo 16y agoRather than hand out tips on how to resign, imo, he'll be better off asking for tips on how to accept a resignation gracefully or at least on how not to respond to a resignation letter
- btilly 16y agoGiven past behavior, I suspect he knows more about how someone resigning can avoid causing him to overreact than how he can avoid overreacting.
- tptacek 16y agoOr, you can ignore all of these tips, give 2 weeks notice, send a nice note to the team, and trust that no matter what happens afterwards, you're not going to look bad.
- elblanco 16y agoYup, it's about that easy. Most of the time you don't even have to finish out your 2-weeks.
- Andys 16y agoEg. when your immature boss takes it personally and tells you not to come to work tomorrow?
- elblanco 16y agoThat, or there's good reason for outgoing employees not to have unfettered access to the company IP.
- pstuart 16y agoAny employee intent on stealing company IP would likely do so before giving notice.
- Daniel_Newby 16y agoStrategic misappropriation, yes. Raging lunatic who has reached his "Falling Down" point, no.
- elblanco 16y agoYou would be very surprised at how common it is. It's a pretty big problem with new companies started by people who've never been burnt by that.
- mootothemax 16y agoIsn't Calacanis' basic script pretty much well what the guy in question emailed to him?
- btilly 16y agoNo. The guy stayed 1 year, not Jason's 3-year minimum for a place you're learning at. The guy didn't do it face to face. And the guy didn't offer unlimited transition time. He pretty much didn't do anything Jason wanted him to do.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- slantyyz 16y agoAbout the only thing Calacanis got right is that resigning by e-mail is a chump way to quit. I love how he thinks the company is owed 3 years of your service. I mean really?
- tptacek 16y agoResigning by email is not a "chump way to quit". It's a very final and low-drama way to quit (if you are friendly and upbeat in your mail, which you always should be). Every employer, myself very much included, would be very happy to get personal, private, advance notice that you're thinking of leaving. If you want to do us a favor, do that. Give us a private heads-up. But you don't owe it to us.
- thinkzig 16y agoIt's a very final and low-drama way to quit Perhaps, but it's also a cowardly and unprofessional way to quit. Every job I have ever left I have had the decency to sit down in person and explain to my boss that I was leaving and the reasons for my departure. My feeling is that if this person was respectful enough of my capabilities to give me a job that allowed me to provide for myself and my family, the very least I could do as a common courtesy and sign of respect would be to sit down with them and explain why I have decided to leave. Put another way: would you consider your boss firing you via email a "chump way to fire an employee"? It's simply a matter of giving your superior the same courtesy that you would expect if the roles were reversed.
- izak30 16y agoPresumably an exit interview is standard practice? I've had them at almost every job I've left. I love e-mails, because they set the tone and expectation for what you're going to talk about. I had a friend who thought he was getting a pay cut Friday (like everybody else, who got theirs Thursday, but he was working from home) and he was let go without notice.
- tptacek 16y ago
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- dmlorenzetti 16y agoIf things are going well at the company, and you’re learning and developing, you should stay three years–at least. There is no reason to jump ship if you’re learning and enjoying your time at a company. This arbitrary three-year mark seems a little one-sided. A lot can happen in three years. You can get married, have a kid. Your parents can get sick and ask you come home. You can stumble on a better opportunity. You can get bit by a travel bug. Your spouse may want to move for his/her career. None of these have anything to do with learning and enjoying your time at the company.
- tptacek 16y agoIt's one-sided because it's nonsense. There's a million reasons why you might leave in 2 years, 1, or even less, even if things are going well for you at the company. You don't owe them your employment.
- elblanco 16y agoI think 2 years is pretty much okay. The first 6 months is learning the organization, the second 6 is putting that into action and trying to make it work. If it's working stay another year and see. If not, move along.
- nanijoe 16y agoEven one week is ok..if the employer thinks its not working out after one week, he/she will usually not hesitate to fire you
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- Tichy 16y agoPresumably the employees delivered some work in exchange for the investment.
- isleyaardvark 16y ago
- grellas 16y agoThere are no rules for how to resign, or for how to accept a resignation, except that of treating the other person as you yourself would expect to be treated in like circumstances. Both parties here went out of their way to provoke and then needlessly made a public issue of it.
- jgg 16y agoI haven't really been following this entire storyline, because quite frankly, it seems trivial and unimportant to me. So please forgive my ignorance when I ask, how did the employee's original e-mail come off as provocative?
- grellas 16y agoNot the email itself - the posting on the web, with some gratuitous commentary, was unnecessarily provocative (I have not followed this closely either, for the same reasons you mention, and so I hope I have this fact right).
- jgg 16y agoAh, okay.
- hga 16y agoI suspect he wouldn't have published the exchanges if Calacanis hadn't blown up so severely. For that matter, if Calacanis had been nice and professional about it no one would care about the employee posting it on the web (it would, after all, show him being nice and professional...).
- moe 16y agoSo, either Calacanis seriously thinks he's in a position to give "resignation tips" now (lost touch with reality?) or this is just a calculated attempt to spin the news coverage. Strange guy.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- markbao 16y agoHow not to act as a CEO with a sour reputation of a company with a sour reputation 0. upon receiving an email from someone resigning, disrespectfully tell them to fuck off, insult their new employer, delete their account, then instead of apologizing, make up a list of 6 rules telling other people how they should resign to post to TechCrunch and try to regain reputation.
- Tichy 16y agoIf your boss is on Twitter, you could also do it on there.
- dminor 16y ago> If you would rather stay at your company, but need to make more money, be straight with your boss and let them know you would like them to match, or come closer to a competing offer. I think this is bad advice. Even if they don't want to keep you, employers are likely to match just to keep you around until your current project is complete. Your best bet in this situation is to simply ask for a raise without mentioning your other offer, and leave if the answer is no.
- hga 16y agoStunningly bad advice; I'm told that most often the ending is ugly as you note. Your alternative of simply asking for a raise sounds like the best approach ... but of course these situations are seldom about money....
- patgarner 16y agoBoth this list, particularly #1, and his email response to the guy who resigned reek of resentment to me. Jason Calacanis doesn't present himself as someone who is truly comfortable and happy, in my opinion, which seems ironic given the level of success he appears to have achieved. The great people I have worked for, one of whom I still work for, would never react that way. I admire those people, but I could never admire someone who acts like Jason Calacanis and I go out of my way never to work for people like him. At it's most cut and dried a job is an agreement between you and someone: you give them your work, they give you money. They don't own you and beyond your obligation to fullfil your side of the work/money bargain you don't owe them anything in my opinion. That being said, however, I do think it's important to do work that fullfils and inspires you and benefits you in more ways than just getting money for work you do.
- mcantelon 16y ago>6. Don’t post correspondence of any private discussions with your boss on the Web Priceless.
- slantyyz 16y agoI'm no big fan of Calacanis, but broadcasting a private discussion with your soon to be former employer isn't necessarily going to work in your favor the next time you're looking for work. When I recruit people, I do the standard Google, Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter searches. If a candidate had no problems revealing information about his/her previous employer, whether justified or not, I'd be wondering about what else that person would be willing to reveal. There's a permanence to publishing this kind of information on the Interwebs, and it's not always going to work in your favor unless you're at the rock-star level of talent.
- hga 16y agoRevealing the information that he's a jerk is not quite what is normally meant by "revealing information" and I'm sure many will say the employee did a public service. As for what you find in those searches, if you're not a jerk what do you have to fear?
- markbao 16y ago>6. Don’t post correspondence of any private discussions with your boss on the Web. That’s not good for anyone–even though it’s highly entertaining for many. s/your boss/Sam Odio Hey, that sounds familiar!
- foink 16y agoI'll echo the comment on the post. Stop giving him attention. Calacanis is the Sarah Palin of the tech industry.
- joelhaus 16y agoSome of Warren Buffett's wisdom might be relevant here: I want employees to ask themselves whether they are willing to have any contemplated act appear the next day on the front page of their local paper, to be read by their spouses, children, and friends, with the reporting done by an informed and critical reporter.