Office Morale Boosters NYC

My friend & trivia event collaborator Pat Kiernan was on NY1 this morning, and as he always does, he conducted his popular “In The Papers” segment. For those of you not from the Big Apple, the segment features Pat going through the major papers, literally reading to the viewers the top stories of the day, as well as articles which in his seasoned opinion qualify to be highlighted. He also puts a select number of stories which didn’t make it onto TV on his Facebook page.

One such piece was from The Wall Street Journal, entitled, “Is It Ever OK to Quit on the Spot?” The crux of the piece is that in the modern workplace, it’s become increasingly common for employees to provide zero notice to employers when leaving a job. As the article’s headline implies, people are quitting on the spot – not giving the traditional two weeks’ notice, but just leaving, right then and there.

I have to say, this article really surprised me. Before starting TrivWorks, an employee team building company in NYC specializing in boosting morale in the workplace, I was an employee like most everyone else. From the time I graduated college, I went through 5 or 6 different jobs before finally going off on my own as an entrepreneur. I’ll admit, most of those jobs I wasn’t happy in. Either it wasn’t the right fit for my personality and/or skill set, not a healthy environment, or poor compensation for the amount of work I was doing. I stayed at each of these jobs ranging from 1-6 years, and was relieved to finally leave each.

But I also took pains to leave each job on good terms.

Who among us hasn’t felt the temptation to say, “take this job and shove it!” There were definitely times when I considered – albeit briefly – just packing up my stuff and leaving. But I stopped myself, each and every time. Why? Because that’s not how you leave a job.

Especially now that I myself am an employer, I get it. People are hired to do work, and our professional reputations truly are everything. Employees leave jobs – it’s inevitable, it’s guaranteed. How long they stay and when they will depart, that’s always up in the air. But people WILL eventually move on, and we employers get that.

If things are so bad that you feel you have to leave, consider the following:

• Do I have another job lined up already?
• How important are good references from this employer?
• How important are my relationships with my clients and co-workers?

Because let me tell you, if you simply walk off the job and leave the boss and rest of your team scrambling, you’re NOT going to make any friends. Also, when your next potential employer asks why you left your last job and how you went about doing it, do you really think he or she will want to hear how you just up and quit?

Some of the above jobs I had, I truly hated. HATED. Yet, for the sake of leaving on the right terms and not being a total jerk, I made sure to do the right thing.

First of all, the traditional two weeks’ notice just doesn’t cut it. Especially if it’s a busy time for your office or industry, they’re going to need devote a lot of time and effort to finding and training your replacement. To be as courteous and thoughtful as you can, give your soon-to-be former employer as much advance notice about your impending departure as possible. When I left the 92^nd Street Y, my last employer before working for myself, I gave them something like two months’ notice – my supervisor (who has since been promoted to Executive Director of the entire organization) was incredibly appreciative.

You also have to offer your services to assist with the transition, even if that extends beyond the scope of your contractual obligations. I like in this article how one woman left her job on short notice, but made up for it by coming in after hours to assist closing out her projects. When I left 92Y, I developed a comprehensive “handover document” basically outlining all of my work duties, and provided a snapshot status update of where all of the ongoing projects were. This way, my replacement could just walk in and pick up where I’d left off with minimal effort or confusion. Even after I’d officially departed, I still came in several times the following month to answer questions and provide counsel, to ease the transition.

As the article points out, there are times when quitting on the spot is unavoidable. Fortunately I’ve never had to be in such a situation myself, but if you’re in an environment which is abusive, illegal, immoral, unsafe, or otherwise potentially detrimental, you have to leave. You can’t be expected to give tons of notice and be a helpful hand if your place of employment is doing something which, in your reasonable judgment, puts you at risk of injury, liability, culpability, or makes you an accessory to a crime.

I’m also kind of torn about the dental hygienist referenced in the WSJ article, who quit on Day 1 at her new job when she realized the new workplace was a disaster. Yes, it sounds like a horrible environment, and she needed to get out. But quitting after the first day still reflects poorly on you, regardless of the situation.

There are of course exceptions to the rule, and every case is different – yet in my opinion, quitting on the spot is really taking the easy way out. Yes, it may be cathartic, and you feel immediately liberated from what may well be a bad situation. But in the process, you’re A) screwing over your former workplace, B) blowing any chance of getting positive references from the boss or your colleagues, and C) not doing yourself any favors in the long run. Every job I’ve ever resigned from, there’s always some form of interaction with previous co-workers or clients. You will be remembered for how you left, simple as that. People who leave a job on the right note leave themselves options, which people who quit on the spot discard.

Click here for another article on how to leave a job on the greatest terms possible.

(Image courtesy of WSJ.com/iStock)