Submitting Notice and Advice for Managers

down77

Yesterday I had a most unique experience when submitting what I felt was a very professional and courteous 4 week notice to my place of employment. I had been the lead engineer for a fairly large organization over the last 18mos, but recently decided to go back to consulting: concentrating on network design, advanced security architectures, and virtualization. I walked into my immediate manager's office to talk with him and I was extremely surprised and bewildered by the reaction. My manager, when notified of my decision to leave the organization, told me to get out of the building immediately and started screaming obscenities that my coworkers and other team members overheard. I asked if he would prefer for me to stay in order to deliver a proper transfer of knowledge on the projects and systems in which I had been integral over the last few months and was again directed to "get my ungreatful a** out of the building." Needless to say, he did not take the resignation very well at all. HR got involved and offered me a paid transition with vacation pay out and, since I gave proper notice, a positive reference for all future employers.

So here is my advice for those who are or may be in management positions in the future:

1. When an employee submits a notice please remember that they have been a valued organizational asset no matter how long their tenure. If the resignation is a surprise, ask why they are leaving and what can be done in the future to prevent such action. Keep it short, simple, and professional.

2. Consider a transitional period to allow for transfer of knowledge and proper organizational closure for both parties. When a valued employee leaves, chances are they possess a high amount of institutional knowledge that could provide a huge benefit if documented

3. Follow the Human Resources policy on employee separation!!! No matter how upset, angry, elated, confused, etc. that you may be, most organizations have a policy which has been carefully created in order to prevent conflict of interest, ethics issues, legal issues, and most importantly to provide an opportunity to allow for a professional exit strategy.

4. Consider the organizations reputation before taking any action. As a member of management you are a direct agent for the organization and may want to consider the public opinion that could be tarnished through adverse action. Additionally, the resigning employee may be in a position in the future to purchase goods and services from their previous company and if left with a positive experience, may provide revenue and/or reference. If left with a negative experience chances are they will notify others of their displeasure which could lead to loss of future sales opportunities.

In the end the moral is to treat everyone with respect no matter how difficult the situation. While I am disappointed on the actions that the manager took I still value the organization and the colleagues that I worked with during my tenure.

earweed

WOW! You really caught him on a bad day or something.
That seemed like a pretty extreme reaction you got out of him.

excalibur1814

The question I have is... "Why did he act like that?"

Did they give you a break or something? Did your decision drop him in it? Really odd reaction

nel

Damn thats harsh!

How the heck did you hold your nerve and not punch him? haha. obviously i know why but that must have been tempting!

Good luck in your next role though buddy!

tpatt100

Wow that is pretty sad

down77

Thanks guys. The reason I said the situation was most unique is because it was totally out of place and unexpected. I found out that he had just promised the business delivery of a few major projects the day before and had not discussed any of this with the team before committing... needless to say my departure put the projects in serious jeopardy. Additionally I guess a few things going on in his personal life crossed over into the professional realm leading to the outburst that I experienced. The HR department contacted me yesterday and has asked that I meet with them later this week to document the chain of events and also to hand deliver my final paycheck with vacation payout.

On the bright side I have been enjoying my "paid vacation," having already started building the home office, ordering my new work laptop, and spent some time spoiling my wife and son. I'm also going to try and knock out at least 1-2 WGU courses (CWSP and Cyberlaw) over the next few weeks... halfway done with wireless so the 2week period gives me ample time to study/review!

earweed

So what you're saying here is that not only was his reaction really bad and wrong but that he made a bad situation (for him) much worse..haha
Imagine getting those projects done with a new guy who hasn't been broken in by the old guy. Kind of serves him right for blowing his stack.
Enjoy your vacation and good luck with your studies.

down77

Not to bring up and old post but I thought I would give an update to the thread I created over a year ago.

In a strange but rewarding twist of fate I am now finding myself as the principal architect for a data center redesign and refresh for a prior place of employment. The previous CIO/SVP resigned for another opportunity which left the organization in a state of panic. One of the IT Directors I had worked extensively with was recently promoted to the CIO/SVP position, along with another IT Director to the position of VP of Technology. They both knew the position I had left to take and ironically called my boss to request that I come onsite to spearhead this endeavor. Needless to say my previous manager became pale white when he found out I was being brought back onsite for an extended period of time, as a consultant, and reporting directly to his new superiors. This leaves me to a new piece of advice for hiring managers:

5. The world is a small place and life is short. When you are faced with a difficult situation take a step back and allow yourself to evaluate the opportunity as a positive experience rather than a painful event. The amount of effort wasted on fostering negativity is not only counterproductive, but ends up costing yourself and the organization precious resources that could have been better spent towards growth and development.

instant000

Logically speaking, if you gave him one-month notice, that was very generous, and should have been enough time to get someone junior to you up to speed.

I have the feeling, though (based on your prior posts on this issue), that you're not a dirty dog, so maybe this will work as a humbling experience for him, so that he learns his lesson about how to treat people.

There's so many quotes that describe this situation, here's just one of them:

"Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same." (JOB 4:8, KJV)

Talk about coming full circle.

Forsaken_GA

Funniest thing I ever saw was an employee telling his manager "Attitude reflects leadership" after his manager had told him he had a bad attitude (his manager loved to quote empty platitudes, from Remember the Titans in particular). I talked to him afterward, curious if he'd realized he'd just made a career limiting move. He told me he'd turned in his notice to HR about an hour prior, apparently his manager hadn't been told yet.

I just smiled, shook my head, and wished him well.

down77

Instant000: You are correct, I am planning to treat this with the same level of professionalism and respect as I would extend to any of my customers. Building a positive reputation can be one of your most powerful assets and as much as I would love to be negative my values will not allow me to do this. The best outcome I can hope for is a successful project that yields better availability, capability, performance, and value. I'll let the quality of my work speak for me.... and make sure to list it under the "key accomplishments" of my curriculum vitae.

Forsaken_GA: That is the best thing you can do, and the same thing I did when I submitted my notice. I smiled, thanked him for the years of experience, and offered to shake his hand before being escorted out.

apr911

The world is small... Upper-tier IT even smaller.

Even if we dont necessarily know it, chances are many of us on this site probably have or will work together at some point and maybe even a few times. There's also a good number of people out there that follow other people.

At my current company, we are losing a number of great network personnel. It started with 1 person he landed the new job, started working there, a new position opened and the team was asked to help fill it. He recommended another person in my department and the 2nd person landed the new job, started working there a new position opened and....well you get the idea.

Interestingly, the way we are losing our personnel today is the same way we gained many of the people we do have... although the groups have changed a bit (i.e. Person 5 & 6 followed 4 and Person 2 & 3 followed 1 to Company A, person 1 left to company B and 4 & 5 followed while 2, 3 & 6 stayed)