This is the Business English Podcast, episode 276, changing jobs, how to announce your resignation.
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it's full turns at MintMobile.com. Hi, Lincy, how are you? I'm doing fantastic, Aubrey. How are you?
How's it going today? Excellent. Yeah, I am great. I have a question for you. When did you last
have to announce your resignation from a job? And how did it go? A long time ago, I think when I moved
to, when I left New York, was the last time I announced my resignation because I was going to go
hike the Camino de Santiago and then moved to Boston. It went fine. It was an English school where
most people were, you know, it was sort of a temporary job for most people, I think.
So I don't think that they were surprised. God, yeah. God, yeah. This is interesting. This came up
in a business class that I taught where a student was asking for phrases to announce her resignation.
And it was a really interesting conversation and started realizing this is different depending on
the personality, the job, relationships, right? So we're going to dive into this today. Like all
of the things you need to consider when you're announcing resignation and some things you definitely
need to do. Yeah. And just to go, I think a major theme of today's tips are just a good dose of
common sense as well. The concept of not surprising people too much, right? Totally. This is general,
even if you want to say something that shows your true thoughts, holding back its like self-restraint,
common sense, these are themes that come across so we don't burn any bridges. Yes, absolutely.
So we'll share, you know, what determines how you give notice and phrases for announcing
resignation? So because we'll likely all be there sometime, right? And how you give notice might
depend on what's next. But we want to make sure that you guys hit follow right here on business English.
So you don't miss any of our amazing episodes. Yes. And also important to note that today's
content came from our corporate consultants. We have some family members who are active in the tech
corporate world. You guys know that all of us English is a small company. And so we do consult
other people to get great information when we're talking about larger companies, more traditional
norms. Okay. So absolutely. Yes. Right. Sometimes we're like, well, I don't have a ton of experience,
but I know people who do. And so we get lots of great information from them. Yes. Let's get into it.
What is the first thing? So set us up here, Aubrey. Where are we going? Yeah. So the first thing
you need to think about when you go to give notice, it might depend on what's next for you, right?
Are you moving across the country? Are you starting a new job in two weeks? You know, are you just
going to be fun employed? Yeah. We should define that to where you're working for a competitor.
Yeah. Fun employed is that's a good question. How would you define that, Lindsay?
Yeah. Do you do you hear this? It's a trendy term right now. And it's a kind of
depending on I would recommend being careful with this term when you use it because it can be tone
deaf. So the concept is your bait you've chosen to quit or you okay, so you may have lost your job
or you've chosen to quit, but it doesn't matter because financially you're sound enough that
you can spend a few months or a few weeks just doing things that are good for you, whether that's
traveling or taking online courses or hanging out with friends. So inherent in this concept means
you're financially very secure. So it's almost like taking a gap year for college students, right?
Yeah. But for the workforce. So it's interesting. Yeah. And you're right. It can feel tone deaf if
you're saying to this to this to someone who is not financially secure and is really having
this daily grind doesn't have good work life balance. Yes. Don't tell them you're fun employed.
It's going to tell me. I'm employed right. But I have heard this lately in the last few
months, at least two or three people have said, Hey, I'm fun employed these days. You know,
when are you free to hang out or something like that? So it is a trending topic.
Yeah. Yeah. So you can choose just to be happy for them, right? Like worked hard. They've earned
a little time off. It's really like a long vacation between jobs. For sure. So the point is it
depends how you go ahead and offer this resignation should be informed by exactly what you're doing
next and why you're leaving the job. Exactly. And then we have sort of three things to think about
it beyond there. Think about beyond there. The first is, you know, how and when to announce resignation.
In the US, you should give two weeks notice minimum, even like in Arizona, it's a right to work state.
You're not legally required to give that notice, but it's a courtesy to your job so that they have
time to find someone to replace you. Even more notice is nice if you can do it. Definitely.
Definitely two weeks notice. Yeah. Minimum. If you can give more, give more, maybe three weeks,
maybe four weeks, but I mean months, you could informally let people know, but part of this
episode is we wouldn't recommend informally letting people know when you're making the resignation,
it has to be official for a lot of reasons, strategic and legal reasons. It needs to be an official.
So it's not like you're going to just float it to your boss. Oh, I'm thinking about leaving. No,
you want to be official. Are you leaving or not? Right. Yeah. We recommend you schedule a one-on-one
with your manager or use a one-on-one that's already planned. Yeah. And then depending on when
you're leaving, you can or depending on why you're leaving rather, you can be very buttoned up,
which means not sharing a ton of details and speak very broadly. And use sort of typical phrases
they might expect. Like I want to officially notify you that I'm giving my resignation.
I'm planning on my last day being and then share the date. Right. Or you can also say grammatically,
my last day will be acts like my last day will be May 15th, whatever it is.
Now a strategy that most people use now is at the same time and we recommend having this prepared
before you go into the one-on-one. It's already prepared. It's an email. You know, noting everything.
Everything you've said when your last day will be the date of the email, some people like to print
that email out, sign it, scan it, reupload it and then send it. But this is really important for your
records and for your employment protection because unfortunately, sometimes what will happen is
you will mean some really bad employers that are trying to break the law might at times go ahead
and try to say that they fired you and then they wouldn't have to pay severance. Right. This
definitely happens. So we recommend you BCC yourself when you send this email dated that you're
officially resigning. And then this way, especially if there's a risk that what Lindsey said could happen,
this way they can't do this. You will have the paper trail, the proof that you resigned and weren't
fired. Yes. I love that's important. You're going to need that in the future. And the BCC is a very
formal tactic. So I'm not, you know, if you work in a very formal corporate space, you'll do it.
You don't have to do that, but just having in your records. Okay. Yeah. In the sent mail should
suffice. I would say send mail. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure. Okay. What would be number two,
Aubrey? Yeah. Number two is to think about how much detail that you are prepared to give.
You really need to have thought about this in advance because you might be asked questions. You
aren't prepared to answer and end up saying something you don't want to say. So you really need
to prepare ahead of time for this. Yeah. And again, you don't have to give more detail than you want to.
Right. And so let's go and be very broad. And sometimes it might feel impersonal, but it's better
than oversharing. Right. Exactly. So it really depends on the relationship. You need to think about
the relationship with your supervisor, the relationship with the company. Yeah. Ideally,
if you can, if you are asked, you know, why, why are you leaving? Where are you going? You could
provide an answer unless you feel extremely comfortable. Then you could say, I don't feel comfortable
saying why or I don't feel comfortable discussing why I'm leaving. But ideally, if you do, right,
if you have that relationship and you can share, then we have some good phrases for for broad
answers because we always want to have a way to sort of spin why you're leaving a job in a
positive way. Yeah. And so even if you're leaving because let's say it was a toxic environment,
instead of saying, I don't feel comfortable saying why you could say something and spin it in
a positive direction. And that could let you just kind of float into the distance in a more
positive way, instead of leaving on a good note. Yeah. So what are some of the phrases that we could
use then broad answers say, I'm looking for new growth opportunities or I'm looking to expand my
horizons. And that's a real cliche. Yeah. You do start to know what cliche is better than saying,
I do not feel comfortable saying why. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm looking to move up
vertically and you get add something. I'm looking to move up vertically and I didn't see those
options here. Something like that as long as that's set in a presentable way, right? Yeah. You make
a good point because they might there is a chance that they will counter offer, try to keep you
and you need to have decided what you're going to say in that case as well. Sure. And then what would
be a next one? Maybe I'm looking to find a better work life balance fit. Yeah. And that again,
you know, be prepared for them to offer like, what can we do to make the work life balance here?
Because you might be a really valued member of this company. And if you know, you're not going to
consider staying, you may want to be ready to answer the follow up questions, right? If they're like,
yeah, can we fix it here? Right. Right. However, if you are, you know, also your co-workers are going
to ask you why even more so, right? You should have a the same answer, hopefully. Yes. Absolutely.
I think it's where it gets around. But your co-workers won't ask you. This is what our corporate
consultant said. Your co-workers generally won't, if you say I needed a better work life balance,
they won't question that. Yeah. They'll say, oh, I get it because they don't even have you actually
want to work more. Let's say that's the balance you want. They, you know, they have their own
work life balance opinions and issues. And so they say, I get you. I understand. It's like an end
of the conversation. It's one of those things where you won't get any follow up questions.
Nice. So that's a good answer. And then you could always say, you know, I've always been excited
about the other industry if you're switching to another field. And didn't see the same opportunity
internally. And this is a good one, you know, because who can argue? Right. Let's say you're working
in travel and you actually always wanted to work in software. Now you have an opportunity to work
in travel software instead of travel tourism. And that's an incredible opportunity. Comes with
the salary increase. Who can, you don't have to say it comes with a salary increase, but who can
really argue against your dreams? When you, I think it's when you, you take the high road, you go,
you talk about your dreams and your visions for yourself, your personal plans. People can't really
argue with that. Exactly. They say good for you. You know, Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile.
With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our
prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing.
Mint Mobile, I'm living in Premier Wireless. I'm going to get 30, 30, 30, 30, 30, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20,
15, 15, 15, 15, just 15 bucks a month. So give it a try at MintMobile.com slash switch.
Okay, what's next, Aubrey? All right, our third tip here is never burn a bridge. This is an
idiom. What does this mean, Lindsay? I love it. This is a great one. It's the classic piece of advice,
right? So never burn a bridge. Make sure that you can always cross back over that bridge, whether
it's for references, you're going to need references, you're going to need connections,
you need your professional network. And that includes people from your previous job.
Exactly. So even if it was a toxic environment and you are very ready to leave, you want to still be
professional. And of course, how much you share depends on how close you are with your manager.
But no matter what, you're going to share, keep it professional. Yeah, for sure. And again,
if you want to share more and you feel very close to your manager, that's okay too. Again,
you don't have to. So for, do we have any examples or anything here, Aubrey? Yeah. So as an example,
if you are leaving consulting and might one day want to go back into that industry, right,
you can be candid, let them know your switching fields. But only if there have been prior
conversations that have sort of been hinting at this, right? You don't want to shock people. Like
you said at the top, Lindsay, it's always best if you're being a little transparent, a little
open about what's happening with you. So it doesn't come totally out of the blue. Yeah. I think
shocking people is the ultimate trustbuster. You know what I mean? Like in terms of how much people,
because if they've heard you say things like, oh, one day I'd really like to get back into industry,
not slamming on consulting, for example, but maybe you just want to be more in the action.
Then that will line up with when you do eventually go to your boss and give your resignation,
and that's the reason, right? So just try not to shock people in general.
Yeah. And to not burn that bridge, you might end up back in consulting. You might end up working
with these people again. So don't burn the bridge. Try to keep you've worked hard to build these
relationships to build these network. So why do I lose it now? Yeah, totally. Okay. So we have
a role play. And here I am announcing my resignation at presumably a larger company. Right,
Aubrey? Yes. Probably. Okay. Start us out. All right. So I want to officially notify you that I'm
giving my resignation. I'm planning on my last day being August 20th. I'm sorry to hear it. You
have been an invaluable member of our team. Is there any way we can persuade you to stay?
Okay. Unfortunately, no, but I appreciate it. I'm looking to find a better work life balance
fit or just work life balance. Yeah. We are definitely sad to see you go, but we wish you the best
in your future endeavors. Okay. Very typical. Maybe that's how quick it these conversations would be,
right? And so then what you would do is you'd go back to your desk, send that email, right? That
official email you've already prepared. Maybe copy yourself on it. If you have it in your records,
that's that's how it typically works in the corporate world. Yeah. Exactly. So just as a takeaway,
there is a lot to consider when giving notice. I love that the student that had this class with me
realized this thought about it because even once you realize, you know, what you want to say,
it's still a little tricky knowing how to phrase that. So we've given you a lot of great options
today. That's a general enough, but we'll help you not burn bridges. Yeah. And the other
piece to consider is even if you've been in a super toxic environment, you know, I've heard stories
of crazy things that have happened to people in very toxic workplaces where they physically felt
like they had to leave because they just wasn't very safe. They're still going to be something
you've learned from this place. And so you can still, you know, you can still take good things
away from it. Maybe you've learned how to navigate into toxic environment. Your skills have gotten
sharper and smarter. You've learned how to call people out and communicate better. So, you know,
you could also add those comments on, you know, if you feel as appropriate the right moment. So
there's always something we learn from every, every job. Absolutely. Oh yeah. That's a good point.
So much to consider. I'm really happy that you guys are here that you have been able to, you know,
go through this. Think about it with us. Get all of these great tips that we got from our consultants.
And so now you're ready. If you do find yourself in that position where you need to announce your
resignation, I love it. So good. I'll rate guys. Hit follow on business English to get more great
corporate and small company business advice. All right. Take care. I'll be talking soon. Thanks,
Lindsay. Bye. Bye.
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