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I know how you can get your desired behavior much more often, follow this guide as the employer: Tell me as early as possible – Provide a policy that any emplo

I know how you can get your desired behavior much more often, follow this guide as the employer: Tell me as early as possible – Provide a policy that any employee who quits will be guaranteed to be paid for up to 4 weeks (or whatever time period you want notice of) after they quit. Finish what you have started & Don’t slack around – Tell your leaving employees how much you appreciate them working for you and remind them that you really count on them ending strong until the end. Complete the paperwork - Make the paperwork as easy as possible. I'm not sure I have ever had to fill out paperwork when leaving a job. No outbursts please – This should go without saying. Give honest feedback – This isn't realistic and shouldn't be asked of quiting employees. It just makes the next point that much harder. As a manager/owner of a small company it is your responsibility to keep a constant dialogue going with employees, if you fail at that you will not know what is going on. Asking for employees to fill you in on what is happening is a problem. Stay in touch – As the former employer, the street goes both ways. Send an email every once in a while.

nmcfarl 14y ago
You comments, are exactly what I came here to say particularly 1 and 5. Those have always been the problem spots for me when quiting. Leaving with long notice is doable when there's a great deal of trust - and I done it. But the most common reason I quit is that I've lost all faith in either the company or my boss's ability to play fair. (Usually because of economic conditions.) And leaving honest feedback when heading out the door is literally impossible if you'd like to keep your boss as a contact. Saying mean things, even if they are true, is damaging at what is a fragile point in the relationship.
omervk 14y ago
I came to say pretty much the same thing, with one exception. Re: Telling as early as possible. In Israel we have a global policy of a month's notice. This gives both employees and employers the time to tie up all of the loose ends. When I first heard about the US policy of same-day-termination, I was pretty shocked. It sounded both cruel to the employee and impractical for the employer, along with being extremely demoralizing. Find out how long you need from each employee before they leave and put that in the contract. Some employees can even give more / less than a month, some employees can also provide the option of coming back for a day or two when needed to help out or give over-the-phone support for a limited time (all paid, of course). As far as telling as early as possible - this is not something that you can rationally expect from an employee. If I'm not happy where I am and feel like I can't improve it, I will not come up to my employer and tell them I'm looking for another job (which is the earliest possible). I might not be able to find another position for months or I might change my mind and by that time my current employer will have changed their minds about me drastically.
ThrowAway_2Week 14y ago
> Tell me as early as possible I would advise people not to always do this. I work for a consulting company and am currently not doing any client work. I accepted a job offer 2 weeks ago, but didn't tell my company until this past Friday. When I put in my 2 week notice, my company informed me that I would only be needed for one week. They effectively stole a weeks worth of pay from me because I tried to give adequate notice. Now I understand that since I was currently not with a client that I was costing the company money, so I see their point of view from a financial stand point. But the message the company said to me was that I shouldn't have given them advance notice, and should have told them the week of that I was quitting. I would advise people to give 2 weeks notice and not a week more if they are not heavily involved in a critical project. Posting under a throw away since my account has personal information and I don't wish to bad mouth my former company.
- ryguytilidie 14y ago
  That's the frustrating thing about threads like this. Employers list their expectations for what you should do for them, and they seem fairly common sense, but they dont have the common sense and self awareness to think about the situation from the other perspective.
danielweber 14y ago
Give honest feedback – This isn't realistic and shouldn't be asked of quiting employees I found I was able to give a whole big pile of feedback on a meeting when I told my superior I wasn't really satisfied and was looking around. I gave a whole list of things to improve. Honestly it should have happened sooner, but that's on both me and the boss. EDIT: It seems I interpreted the words "honest feedback" much differently than other people in this thread.
- jonnathanson 14y ago
  I think the point is that, if things even need to come out in a big, cathartic meeting, then something's gone awry with the lines of communication. Either you've been keeping things bottled up, and have not made an adequate attempt to express your dissatisfaction (constructively), or your workplace/boss has created an atmosphere that is not conducive to such expression. Sometimes it's a bit of Column A and a bit of Column B. I'm not suggesting that people become habitual complainers. Rather, I'm suggesting that people learn the fine art of conveying frustrations and problems -- typically, along with proposed solutions -- as they occur. You're much more likely to get an adequate resolution if you speak up while the issue is still timely and addressable. And sometimes, hey, the issue can't or won't be resolved -- at which point, you can happily mention it in your exit interview, and nobody should be surprised. The point is, exit interviews shouldn't be chances to get it all off your chest. If you're walking into an exit interview with a bunch of things you haven't mentioned previously, then you've possibly missed an opportunity or two. (Exception, as previously stated: your workplace is particularly hostile to dissent, extremely political, strongly favors "cheerleader" types, etc.). Basically, one shouldn't find himself leaving a job over something that may conceivably have been correctible. He should leave when a problem is clearly intractible, and by "clearly," I mean he's attempted to address it and made zero headway.

nmcfarl 14y ago

You comments, are exactly what I came here to say particularly 1 and 5. Those have always been the problem spots for me when quiting. Leaving with long notice is doable when there's a great deal of trust - and I done it. But the most common reason I quit is that I've lost all faith in either the company or my boss's ability to play fair. (Usually because of economic conditions.) And leaving honest feedback when heading out the door is literally impossible if you'd like to keep your boss as a contact. Saying mean things, even if they are true, is damaging at what is a fragile point in the relationship.

omervk 14y ago

I came to say pretty much the same thing, with one exception. Re: Telling as early as possible. In Israel we have a global policy of a month's notice. This gives both employees and employers the time to tie up all of the loose ends. When I first heard about the US policy of same-day-termination, I was pretty shocked. It sounded both cruel to the employee and impractical for the employer, along with being extremely demoralizing. Find out how long you need from each employee before they leave and put that in the contract. Some employees can even give more / less than a month, some employees can also provide the option of coming back for a day or two when needed to help out or give over-the-phone support for a limited time (all paid, of course). As far as telling as early as possible - this is not something that you can rationally expect from an employee. If I'm not happy where I am and feel like I can't improve it, I will not come up to my employer and tell them I'm looking for another job (which is the earliest possible). I might not be able to find another position for months or I might change my mind and by that time my current employer will have changed their minds about me drastically.

ThrowAway_2Week 14y ago

> Tell me as early as possible I would advise people not to always do this. I work for a consulting company and am currently not doing any client work. I accepted a job offer 2 weeks ago, but didn't tell my company until this past Friday. When I put in my 2 week notice, my company informed me that I would only be needed for one week. They effectively stole a weeks worth of pay from me because I tried to give adequate notice. Now I understand that since I was currently not with a client that I was costing the company money, so I see their point of view from a financial stand point. But the message the company said to me was that I shouldn't have given them advance notice, and should have told them the week of that I was quitting. I would advise people to give 2 weeks notice and not a week more if they are not heavily involved in a critical project. Posting under a throw away since my account has personal information and I don't wish to bad mouth my former company.

ryguytilidie 14y ago
That's the frustrating thing about threads like this. Employers list their expectations for what you should do for them, and they seem fairly common sense, but they dont have the common sense and self awareness to think about the situation from the other perspective.

danielweber 14y ago

Give honest feedback – This isn't realistic and shouldn't be asked of quiting employees I found I was able to give a whole big pile of feedback on a meeting when I told my superior I wasn't really satisfied and was looking around. I gave a whole list of things to improve. Honestly it should have happened sooner, but that's on both me and the boss. EDIT: It seems I interpreted the words "honest feedback" much differently than other people in this thread.

jonnathanson 14y ago
I think the point is that, if things even need to come out in a big, cathartic meeting, then something's gone awry with the lines of communication. Either you've been keeping things bottled up, and have not made an adequate attempt to express your dissatisfaction (constructively), or your workplace/boss has created an atmosphere that is not conducive to such expression. Sometimes it's a bit of Column A and a bit of Column B. I'm not suggesting that people become habitual complainers. Rather, I'm suggesting that people learn the fine art of conveying frustrations and problems -- typically, along with proposed solutions -- as they occur. You're much more likely to get an adequate resolution if you speak up while the issue is still timely and addressable. And sometimes, hey, the issue can't or won't be resolved -- at which point, you can happily mention it in your exit interview, and nobody should be surprised. The point is, exit interviews shouldn't be chances to get it all off your chest. If you're walking into an exit interview with a bunch of things you haven't mentioned previously, then you've possibly missed an opportunity or two. (Exception, as previously stated: your workplace is particularly hostile to dissent, extremely political, strongly favors "cheerleader" types, etc.). Basically, one shouldn't find himself leaving a job over something that may conceivably have been correctible. He should leave when a problem is clearly intractible, and by "clearly," I mean he's attempted to address it and made zero headway.