What’s the Best Way to Quit Your Job?

It’s probably not the way the 2 people quit over the last week which you probably heard about. There’s was rather public and dramatic (in fact one was a hoax). You might be sick of the stories, but if you haven’t heard:

1. The hoax – you can read about how a young female employee used a dry erase board to tell her whole office she was leaving. This was viral marketing by website www.thechive.com which clearly worked, and here I am adding to their success. Great marketing side lesson there. Clearly these days, marketing can be powerful and inexpensive.

2. Wasn’t a hoax – and was about the American Airlines employee who got angry with a passenger, ‘lost it’, grabbed 2 cans of beer off the trolley and escaped down the emergency exit inflatable slide. Luckily for him the plane was on the ground!

What’s interesting is the amount of support these stories have got. Everyone seems to love the idea of the unhappy employee escaping and getting the better of their employer. Do that many people out there identify with these people? It seems that way. Kind of makes you wonder about levels of engagement, retention, productivity and performance when so many people don’t feel too loyal and happy with their employer.

What’s worse is employers are spending a fortune still trying to tweak details within the system (like better learning practices, perhaps). They’re pressing the wrong buttons. That’s not going to make the slightest bit of difference to the employees who just don’t want to be there any more. They’re not going to learn and apply what they learn effectively. You’ve disengaged them. They’re unlikely to get better at their work. They’re potentially bottlenecks. If they’re more passionate and excited about people escaping their career, as an employer, you’ve got to start worrying.

Unfortunately, much of the time, I don’t think the employers are helping themselves. Maybe the big companies are too arrogant? Maybe employees today are realising that they have other, better, options. And what happens when your senior people realise there are other, better options for earning a living? What happens when your recruitment people don’t want to stay any more? What happens when those helping you promote your brand aren’t really bothered with your organisation any more? What happens when they realise opportunities are better elsewhere? What happens when your L&D people no longer want to help your organisation learn and develop because you’ve tied their hands by forcing out of date mindsets and systems upon them?

I think it’s time to start teaching your employees how to steer themselves and get what they want by continuously increasing their win:win with you. They’re beginning to steer themselves anyway. Away from you. And towards whoever can help them get what they want. Maybe organisations are finally beginning to understand that their people have legs. Legs for re-positioning themselves, legs for learning effectively their way and legs for creating more opportunities and value in areas they are compelled to because they get personal relevant rewards back.

So you might as well start showing them how to define what they really want, and how you can help them get it, so long as they use and develop their strengths to add more value to you in the way they do best. There are lots of personal rewards from this, but often people need reminding of them and a help to understand how to get them.

In the meantime, if people aren’t helped to steer things to a mutual win:win with you, then they’ll be looking at opportunities elsewhere. If that’s you, then to answer the question I started with, the best way to quit is to quit knowing your ideal career and how you’re going to get into it. –> click here.

Next Post: The Career Excuses You’re Making (and How to Overcome Them) – stay tuned!

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