How do I resign gracefully?
I would recommend not more than 4 weeks’ notice. That’s more than fair, and it also recognizes the difficulties of hiring in the holidays. You first tell your boss, and then give him/her a letter of resignation. You can also send a copy to HR, but the boss should take care of that. I suggest that you also be explicit about your desire to work there in the future, and in the conversation with your boss (though not in the written letter), you might explore the possibility of part-time work when your schoolwork permits, if that’s reasonable for the job in question—e.g., work over school vacations.
Good for you! I’ve hired 100s of people, and always hated when I lost anyone. The fact that you are sensitive to your boss’s problems – being short-staffed – is something I’m sure he/she appreciates greatly.Resign to your boss. You can follow-up formally with HR if you think it appropriate. Everything you wrote was excellent. Give them as much advance notice as possible. If you’re worried they will “kick you out” before your notice is up, you do not want to work there after you graduate. Many companies have policies that stipulate they cannot force you out before your notice is up. Best of luck with school!
I would give at least a month’s notice before your trip, with your resignation date as the day before your trip. The exact amount of notice will depend on whether, realistically, you think they’ll fire you before the end of your notice period. If the company is a good, fair, decent one, they won’t do that (and it sounds like you think they’re a good company, or else you wouldn’t want to come back). If the company is short-staffed, there’s even more reason to believe that they’ll have you serve out your notice period. If you’re on good terms with your bosses and are a valued employee, they’ll be sad to see you go, but I wouldn’t worry too much about them being vindictive unless you have specific reason (e.g., you’ve seen it happen to other employees of the company) to believe that they tend to shaft people.
I was just recently in a very similar situation. I was leaving a job in retail that I’d been in for four years, and needed to time my departure so I could go on a cruise. I also didn’t want to screw the store, since I was leaving for personal reasons (burnout, mostly) and not the people I worked with. Last but not least, I was a supervisor, so replacing me going into the holidays would be a little tougher. I ended up giving 5 weeks notice. I timed my departure for just after a big offsite event our store was involved with (and which my participation in had been planned for months) and just before the cruise. I was upfront about why I was leaving, and the fact that I was planning to be on a cruise a few days after I left. I made sure to organize all my files, leave my desk clean, and share all the information I had that people might be able to use. I fully believe that if I wanted to return, I would be accepted back, whether in a few weeks or many months from now.
I just resigned about a week and a half ago and went through a process roughly similar to the described by decathecting. I wrote up a very short resignation letter, asked for a few minutes with my boss on a Friday, gave him the letter, and explained (briefly) what was going on. I gave them three weeks notice just because there’s a lot of loose ends for me to tie up before I leave and they are so short-staffed that it would leave them in a real bind if I didn’t have time to leave everything in perfect order. Everything is going very well so far. Post-resignation, though, it’s been incredibly difficult arranging time to put things in order while still performing my normal duties. So far I’ve been doing some moderate planning and expect to really put everything in order (paperwork, files, procedures, etc.) in my last week. I’m planning on putting in over time to do this.
