How to Resign Without Burning Bridges

Managing to resign without burning bridges is not easy, but here are a few ideas to give you a chance:

Tell your boss first (ideally in person). Your boss will be the person most immediately affected by your resignation. Tell them before you tell your team (or anyone else).

Send a resignation letter via email. While it is preferable to tell your manager in person, you should always send a resignation letter (attached) in an email on the same day.

Give the right amount of notice. Have a look at your employment contract and work out the details of your notice period. Offer to work for longer if you are in a position to do so.

Expect some sort of exit interview. Many good companies will want to understand why people are choosing to leave. Be honest about your reasons, but not too extreme.

Be prepared to leave immediately. Lots of employers won’t want you to work your notice period. You may be marched out of the door. Prepare in advance. Just in case.

You can say goodbye to work friends later. Nothing can stop you from meeting former colleagues outside of a work setting. You can say farewell once the dust has settled.

This professional approach will ensure a clean break from a procedural point of view.

Burning emotional bridges

From an emotional standpoint, leaving a job is far more complicated.

The thing is, departing employees often only view their departure from their perspective. Your mind is fixed on the possibility of a fresh start and an exciting future. Why would you look back and consider the consequences of the void that your departure has created?

On one level, to resign without burning bridges means not falling out with your boss and not telling that annoying co-worker exactly what you think of them. Those are the most common things that happen when a departing employee is emotionally careless. On another level, a more thoughtful employee will consider and hopefully address the wider impacts of their departure.

The junior colleague that you mentored will miss your guidance. A friend in marketing won’t be able to send wacky ideas your way. The finance team will need a new source of constructive feedback on their latest monthly report. Department meetings won’t be the same without your supportive style. Direct reports will miss all sorts of things about you.

More people will feel the loss than you realise. Taking a moment to let people know what all these relationships meant is a worthwhile way of maintaining that faint connection. It might be a text message or (hopefully) a brief conversation. Leaving with some sort of emotional acknowledgement will help others to deal with the departure. You never know when you may come across them again.

These relationships have taken effort to build and maintain. Some of these people may even feel somewhat rejected by your departure (this is a natural reaction), but that is no reason to avoid saying goodbye and expressing your gratitude for what they have done for you. 

You are the one that is leaving – the onus is on you to ensure a positive departure.

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This blog is shared with Job Seeker Duetists. 

Written by former recruitment ghostwriter Paul Drury (not AI).