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Actual Case History: Claudia was all the time near the top of her class, in high school, in college, and in business school. And so it was in her hotel manufactures career: within eight years of her joining the world’s second largest hotel business as a supervision learner she rose to its corporate headquarters, as its Senior Vice President of Sourcing. As all the time before, she was once again “near the top.”

From Claudia’s perspective, promotions were never a problem. Time and again her hard work and solid reputation for near-total devotion preceded her. She didn’t seek promotions; they seemed to seek her. When she was contacted by an executive recruiter about a position as Chief Operating Officer of a direct competitor, Claudia took it in stride. It seemed like one more validation of what her parents had all the time taught her: hard work will bonus itself. After consulting with her husband, she decided to aggressively seek the position.

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Claudia’s eight interviews over four days went extremely well. She got along especially well with the company’s new Ceo, for whom she’d be working. She was presented an offer that nearly doubled her present compensation, and the chance – for the first time in her life – for considerable financial security. She soon accepted. Human Resources was then assigned the task of establishment her employment contract, and Claudia hired legal counsel to delineate its terms.

Claudia had never been in this situation before: she’d never left a business since business school. She decided to deal with all aspects of the withdrawal process herself, relying on her considerable coarse sense and population skills. She composed a fabulous withdrawal letter, and distributed it to her direct boss and her closest colleagues. In her withdrawal letter, she explained to her colleagues how much they meant to her, but given her new title and assignment, how strongly this new chance beckoned. She offered to do anything was considerable to make the transition a plane one. Unfortunately, it was anything but smooth.

The first “dark clouds” appeared the very next morning, when Claudia arrived, with Starbucks cup in hand, and turned on her computer. It was frozen; apparently her password had been changed. Her first call, to the data Technology Dept., was referred to Human Resources. She was asked to come to Hr for a brief meeting. When Claudia arrived, she saw four population in the discussion room: the Hr Director, her boss, his boss, and the company’s general Counsel. The conversation was brief, led by the company’s Hr Director.

Claudia was advised that her departure was not viewed in a certain manner, especially her going to a direct competitor. There was concern that Claudia would use her knowledge of the company’s sourcing strategies and methods – especially its new plans to build their own factories in Asia – for her new employer’s benefit, maybe even advise they do the same. That exact scenario was recommend by some of what Claudia mentioned in her withdrawal letter. She was also asked if the days she’d taken days off as sick days during the past few weeks which were, in fact, used for interviewing; in fact, they had.

The clouds only grew “darker” when Claudia spoke to her attorneys. Their delineate of the proposed compact offered by her new manager indicated some considerable problems, some extremely problematic. The position wasn’t all she’d been led to believe. The requirement that she spend almost half of her time in Asia was a perfect surprise. The one-year term of employment and two-year non-compete requirement were both unacceptable. Finally, there was a requirement that, if she ever left, if Claudia didn’t give at least 90 days notice, she would have to pay back her last year’s bonus, ordinarily called a “clawback.”

Two weeks later, when Claudia was served with legal papers by her then-former employer, alleging she’d shared trade secrets and committed fraud regarding her sick days, she knew this was de facto not going to be the best chapter in her occupation story. In fact, it was exiguous short of a nightmare. How could it all have gone so wrong?

Lesson To Learn: Ending an employment relation in the right way is far more complicated than most population believe. Resigning from a job, and transitioning to another, is deceptively complex, as the process is just loaded with potentially serious risks. If not handled with caution and care, resigning from your job can be extremely costly. There are, though, identifiable precautions that you can take to eliminate, or at least minimize, your risks in resigning.

What You Can Do: Over the years, we’ve identified 21 precautions you should take – or at least reconsider taking – to eliminate, or at least minimize, risks in resigning form your job. Here’s our list.

A. Before You Give Notice

1. Must You Give Notice?: By “notice,” we mean “notification that your last day of employment will be in a certain, specified whole of days, weeks or months.” No law requires consideration of resignation, although sometimes it is legally required, for example if you’ve signed a compact that requires you to give notice.

The purpose of giving progress consideration of withdrawal is to give your manager the chance and time to dispose transition of your duties, and for you to cooperate in that process. It also provides you with an chance to do what you can not to “burn bridges” of any kind – with colleagues, clients or your employer. Giving progress consideration is ordinarily in your interests, and in your employer’s interests, as well, as a matter of mutual professionalism, and as a way to sustain good feelings post-employment relation. It’s determined poor form not to give notice.

On the other hand, giving consideration may not be in your interests if you are certain that you will be harmed by doing so; as an example, employers of some of our clients have reacted to receiving consideration by trying to sabotage the employee’s next job. If it’s de facto considerable to start a new job, or to attend to personal matters before starting a new job, or if you feel reprisals may take place, it’s not de facto considerable to give progress notice. Don’t forget: that these days many employers don’t give any consideration at all when terminating individuals; sometimes fulfilled, employees are even immediately marched out the door, at times accompanied by guards.

2. Are You certain You de facto Want to Leave?: possibly the most fundamental precautions to take in resigning from your job are these two questions: first, why are you leaving? And second, are you sure you de facto want to leave? At times, dissatisfaction and disillusionment can blind us to the very broad blessings and opportunities we enjoy. At other times, the grass on the other side of the street seems far greener than it de facto is.

Perhaps the worst mistake is leaving a job because you’ve fulfilled, that you will never receive rewards, promotions or other objectives when, in fact, you’ve never clearly or resolutely requested those very same rewards, promotions or other objectives. Too many population forget that “If you don’t ask, you won’t get.” You may say to yourself, “I’m sure they know I’m unhappy, and why I’m unhappy,” or “I shouldn’t even have to ask for this,” but you must not forget to reconsider your boss’s point of view for a moment: he or she is probably preoccupied with 1,000 other things that your dissatisfaction and its causes may not be nearly so certain to him or her as you think.

3. Are You Sure You’re “Free” to Leave?: There are a surprising whole of reasons you may not be “free” to leave your employment These include: (a) employment contracts you may have entered into with a defined “term” of employment; (b) holding agreements you may have signed by which you were paid a sum of money to stay for a duration of time after, commonly, a merger of companies; (c) so-called “garden-leave” agreements you may have signed by which you agreed to give a certain whole of days, weeks or months of pre-resignation notice; (d) non-compete agreements (and associated restrictive covenants) you may have signed that limit where you can work in the future; (e) immigration law requirements that permit you to work in a country only so long as you are working for a certain employer; (f) agreements you may have signed that need you to pay back to your manager monies it gave to you in the past if you don’t work for a certain duration of time, such as (i) instruction grants, (ii) relocation payments, (iii) even certain bonus awards; (g) loans that you may owe your manager that need immediate reimbursement upon resignation; (h) so-called “golden handcuffs” that entail loss of unvested options, restricted stock and other entitlements that have not yet vested; (i) even provisions that you never signed, but exist in an worker handbook, that say that employees who do not provide a minimum of, say, two months consideration will be determined fired for “cause,” with all of the negative implications that may have for your finances and reputation.

4. Secrecy About Your Intentions Is Essential: There are many reasons to keep you intentions to resign to yourself. Everybody has interests, and each person’s interests are different. In fact, you can put a friend into a very difficult spot – even a situation harmful to him or her – if you share your intentions. Some people, together with Hr rep’s, supervisors and recruiters have a legal obligation to share such “news” with your employer. Should your intentions somehow get out, it may then come to be impossible to convert your mind, even if your new job falls through. As Ben Franklin said, “Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” And as previous Intel Chairman Andy Grove entitled his book, “Only the paranoid survive.”

5. Get Your Next Employment Confirmed First: If there’s one pre-resignation precaution you need to remember and follow, it’s this one: you don’t want to resign and then later find out that your next job hasn’t materialized. Nothing could be worse.

While nothing you can do can make 100% sure your next job will come to be a reality, you can and should do everything in your power to make sure there are as few hitches as inherent in the process. That’s fulfilled, by determined inquiring about each of the material points of your new job with your hereafter boss of Hr, and obtaining from them a written confirmation. Sometimes those will be set forth in an offer letter, or even a contract; most population get neither. Even that shouldn’t stop you from establishment a written confirmation of your own, and request you hereafter boss for his or her written approval, by email or letter. Any written confirmation should comprise such things as your start date, your title, your responsibilities, your compensation, your benefits, your reporting structure, and the location of your office. Any way you do it, do everything you can to get your hiring confirmed in writing from your new manager before submitting your withdrawal to your present employer.

6. What You Can – And Can’t – Take With You: This one’s easy: keep what’s yours; leave what’s theirs. However, sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between the two. The difficulties usually arise with (a) lists of information, such as your personal rolodex; employers often view these as their confidential information, trade secrets, or customer list; (b) copies of documents, such as the best explore description you wrote two years ago that you’d like to keep as a writing sample; employers often view these as their rights property; and (c) smaller pieces of equipment, such as cell phones, Blackberry’s, pagers, laptops and the like. As a general rule, if there is a dispute over who owns equipment, surrender it after taking personal data off it. If there’s a dispute over who owns data or documents, give it to your manager but keep a copy. One extra precaution: especially if you believe you may end up being sued by your previous manager for any reason, if your home computer has any company-related files on it for any reason, you would be well-advised to replace the its hard drive, and install onto the new hard drive only personal information. This way, you can’t be accused of retaining or sharing business data in the future.

7. Strategic Timing of Your Departure: Timing is a big part of resigning. The foremost message here: don’t fail to take into catalogue foremost upcoming dates of all kinds. These comprise (a) the date on which your bonus will be paid; (b) vesting of stock options, restricted stock, and the like; (c) your hire-date anniversary, that may affect hereafter pension credits; (c) 401k contribution dates; (e) end-dates of present assurance coverages, and start-dates of hereafter assurance coverages, to ensure no gaps in between; (f) scheduled pay raises, for final wages may impact pension and other long-term payment calculations; (g) long-term withdrawal and condition plan “rules” of 65, 75 and the like, that are based on age and years of service.

8. reconsider Having an Employment Attorney “On Call”: In employment matters, it’s all the time preferable to keep attorneys – and even mention of attorneys – out of discussions. That being said, knowing your legal rights, and having an attorney ready to act in the event of unforeseeable events, may be a smart idea. You don’t want to experience delay if, as examples, you’re accused of impropriety, served with legal papers, or publicly defamed.

B. When You Give Notice

9. Who to Speak With First: As a general rule, it’s proper policy to give consideration of withdrawal directly to your immediate supervisor, provided he or she is available; if not available, then to his or her immediate superior. That being, said, if you have a “rabbi,” mentor or “godfather” in your organization, and that man has been especially helpful in the policy of your career, it may prove wise to provide that man with a respectful “heads-up thank you” before giving notice. These sorts of extra business relations need to be treated with the utmost sensitivity.

10. How Much Notice?: The first examine is “Have you agreed to give at least some minimum notice?” If so, you should honor that agreement. If not, the proper consideration duration depends on you, your title, and your level of responsibilities. On a clerical level, the most coarse consideration duration is two weeks. For those with greater responsibilities, the unbelievable level of consideration rises to some four weeks; either there are others who can step in to fulfill your considerable tasks may dictate even greater notice. It’s not unheard of for senior executives with unique talents and relations to give 60 to 90 days notice. [Bear in mind the dictates of strategic timing, laid out in Precaution 7, above.]

11. What to Say, and How to Say It: You should give your withdrawal in person, with an immediate follow-up letter. In both your in-person, oral resignation, and in your follow-up withdrawal letter, three things are essential: First, “I’ve decided to resign.” Second, “My last day with the business will be.[a certain date.] Third, “Thank you for the chance to work with you.” Any more than that can only hurt you. You should specifically avoid negativity, your reasons for leaving, and the identity of your next employer. You should avoid responding to emotional pleas. Instead, you should be clear, dispassionate and resolute. This 1 – 2 – 3 arrival is, without a doubt, the most sufficient and least risky way to submit your oral resignation.

12. Keep Your Emotions in Check: Leaving a job entails ending some close and foremost relations at once. It can be an emotional time, with both good and bad emotions rising to the surface. You should do everything you can to keep those emotions, of every kind, beneath the surface. It all the time helps to do all you can to sell out stress and anxiety at a time like this by extra measures of, among other things, exercise, prayer, yoga, meditation and other non-harmful practices. Likewise, this is a good time to stay clear of relations or situations that usually induce anxiety.

13. Be prepared for a Counter-Offer to Stay: Counter-offers, and acceptance of counter-offers, are becoming more and more common. In fact, some clients seek employment opportunities elsewhere merely to provoke a counter-offer from their present employer. We advise our clients to treat counter-offers with consummate suspicion because “If they didn’t appreciate you before you got someone else job, are you sure they’ll truly appreciate you after that prospective job is no longer available to you?”

If you’re inspecting accepting a counter-offer, there are three considerable points to insist upon: (a) that it must be settled into a written, signed agreement, (b) that it be completed and signed in just a few days, to ensure that it does not merely “spoil” your new job possibility, and (c) that it clearly state that the promised promotion, raise, bonus or other reward, be given to you “guaranteed, in all events, and to last no less than one full year.” Otherwise, you may be promoted for one day and then fired, or promised a bonus next year, but fired next week.

14. Be Prepared, As Well, to Be Shown the Door: It’s also inherent that, upon your giving consideration of resignation, you may be fired “on the spot.” What’s the likelihood? You can ordinarily tell by how your manager has acted in the past. It all the time pays to be prepared to be shown the door. Also the other precautions noted above, it’s all the time wise to quietly remove personal data from your office computer, take home copies of non-secret “portfolio” materials, and quietly make an catalogue of purely personal items – pictures and the like – in your office, for later removal.

C. After You Give Notice

15. Visiting Hr for the “Exit Interview”: Over the past few years, a new office “ritual” has come to be commonplace, in which Hr inquiries and issues are answered, completed and resolved. At least those are the espoused purposes of “exit interviews.” In most companies, participation is not mandatory; if your business claims it is mandatory for you, you might ask what the “penalty(s)” may be for refusal.

For your purposes, bring a pad, and ask all questions you may have, including: (a) Who should I experience in the hereafter if I have questions?; (b) Can I have a copy of my Hr file?; (c) How do I dispose for continuation of assorted assurance policies?; (d) When returning keys, cell phones, Id cards and the like, do I get a receipt?; (e) Will I get paid accrued but unused vacation, personal and sick days; if so, how many?; and (f) How long do I have to submit receipts for unpaid business and/or medical expenses?

Hr may have its own objectives to be fulfilled in an “exit interview,” about which you must be cautious. They include: (a) getting you to sign things you should not sign, such as releases; (b) request why you are leaving, which is not their business; (c) reminding you of your confidentiality (and possibly non-compete) obligations; (d) request you where you’ll be working, which is not their business, and (e) giving you your federal C.O.B.R.A. Insurance-continuation forms.

In your exit interview, please don’t ever reconsider doing these four things: (1) believe your Hr rep is your friend;

2) sign anything other than a receipt for forms given to you; (3) criticize previous colleagues or bosses; or (4) discuss your hereafter plans.

16. Consider Committee and Board Memberships: Your job may entail your participation on internal committees and task forces, as well as external trade groups and associations. Though it is often automatic, reconsider how best to resign from each internal group, production sure not to burn bridges in doing so. If you’ve acted as your employer’s representative on external boards and the like, your withdrawal from your present job may not need your perfect withdrawal fro the trade group or association, but merely a re-designation as an at-large member. Don’t imagine you need to resign from such trade groups upon resignation, as they may prove invaluable to you in hereafter employment.

Incidentally, all the time inquir about either your aid on boards and committees entitles you to prolonged protection of assurance coverages, together with “directors and officers” (“D&O”) policies, and “errors and omissions” (“E&O”) policies. If you believe fiduciary obligations may leave you open to hereafter lawsuits, ask written assurances of persisting assurance and indemnity coverages, as well..

17. Trade Secrets and Later contentious With Your Employer: There are two kinds of restrictions that may continue to affect you after you leave your employer: (a) those the law places on you, and (b) those only you can place on yourself by signing an agreement to do so. The first class – the kind the law places on you – is aimed mostly at not permitting you to steal things from your employer, together with considerable “trade secrets,” which are defined as “information, advanced straight through endeavor and expense, and kept secret, that gives your manager a business advantage.” Examples comprise chemical formulas, customer lists and marketing plans. These are protected by the law; you can go to jail for taking them with you.

The latter class – restrictions you’ve agreed to – comprise the coarse “non-competition” agreement and their “cousins.” If you haven’t signed one of these, either as a separate agreement or as part of an agreement to accept employment, stock options, a bonus, or some other reward, you can usually imagine you’ll be free of hereafter restrictions.

As a general rule, unless you (a) steal secrets or other considerable property, or (b) violate the terms of a written agreement to restrict your hereafter activities, you are entirely free to later compete with your employer, consistent with our free business system.

18. Remember: A withdrawal is Not a Release: It’s foremost to bear in mind that resigning from your job entails only one thing: ending the relation; resigning has no direct follow on moneys owed you, or other claims you may have against your employer. By resigning from your job you are not releasing your manager from any obligations your manager may still have to you, of any kind, either they are regarding pension calculations, raises promised but denied, illegal harassment or discrimination, or regarding retaliation against you for “whistle-blowing.”

For this reason, This means, first, that you should never sign any release form or similar document handed to you at your exit interview or sent to you afterwards. Also, be aware that you have more time to make any claims you may have against your employer. For federal “Sarbanes-Oxley retaliation claims, you have 90 days. For discrimination claims, you may have 180 or 310 days, depending on the state you live in. For claims of defamation, you may have up to one year. For claims of negligence or fraud, you may have up to three years. For claims of broken contracts or promises, you may have up to six years. These deadlines vary from state to state and, of course, should be discussed with an attorney.

19. Are You Due Severance? There’s a Good Chance: It may seem counter-intuitive, but even those who resign may be due, or be able to collect, severance. First, under certain agreements or advantage plans, and under certain circumstances, you could be entitled to resign and still get severance. For example, after a corporate merger, many clubs ask that you remain in your job, but entitle you to severance if your duties convert substantively. In this case, you can resign, and get severance, too. As someone else example, employees who resign after they have been harassed, discriminated against, or retaliated against for “whistle-blowing” may both resign and get severance, too. Never imagine you’re not entitled to get severance.

20. References, Recommendations and Departure Statements: Though nearly every business has a policy against giving out post-employment “references,” one of the best things you can do before you resign is to secretly ask superiors, colleagues and even clients if they would serve as hereafter references for you. Especially if asked respectfully, chances are they will say “yes.” One thing’s for sure: you’ll have enhanced credibility, leverage and belief in every hereafter interview if you can readily furnish written testimonials to your dedication, knowledge, abilities and value. We advise you offer to furnish a “draft” for such people, as these days everyone’s so busy, and to do so only makes it that much easier for them. Incidentally, we refer these as “departure statements” to counter any advice from Hr representatives that they violate corporate policies.

21. When Can You Tell Others of Your Move?: That’s a trick question, meant to tell if you’re still alert after reading this far. There are two parts to your “move,” departure and arrival. regarding your departure, you’re entirely free to tell population you’ll be leaving, as soon as you’ve given your consideration of withdrawal to your superior.

The “arrival” data is a very dissimilar story. While the fact you’re leaving can be shared, you should do your utmost not to tell clients and customers where you’re going, because this invites potentially severe legal troubles. Why? That’s because you could be accused of “soliciting” them to go with you, which would be both a imagine for your business to fire you before you left voluntarily, possibly suing you for theft of trade secrets or interfering with their business while you’re employed by them, as well as a imagine for your “old” manager to experience your “new” manager and insist they not hire you, or face a “poaching” lawsuit. This is essentially a lawsuit in which one business accuses someone else of “stealing” its employees and clients, illegally. It’s a messy thing, something you don’t want to be part of, and something you can avoid by holding your silence about where it is you’re headed. It’s for this imagine “where you’re headed” is something to be shared only after “you’ve arrived there.” Once you’ve left, then soliciting the business of old clients and even previous colleagues to come join you becomes “fair game.”

These are not all of the precautions that need by taken by resigning executives, but they are the 21 precautions we view as most necessary. Every person, every assignment, every business and every transition has unique problems. You should try to customize your own precautions to address your employer’s facts, history and culture.

Resigning From Your Job – The 21 necessary Precautions