Looking to Leave your Workplace Gracefully? Here's How

Looking to Leave your Workplace Gracefully? Here's How There are as many reasons to leave a job as there are jobs to leave. You might not like the working environment, the management puts too much pressure on you, the co-workers are hard to handle or you simply decided to move to another hospital. Ok, you have your reasons and you’ve made a decision to quit your job. But, is there a way of doing it gracefully? A bad exit can have long-term consequences and should always be avoided if possible. If you’ve found yourself in a situation like this, you can probably agree that it is a very inconvenient and complex situation. However, if you are about to leave your job and don’t know how to do that gracefully, here are a couple of tips that you could follow.

1. Be True to Yourself After you’ve decided to leave the job after so many years, it is important to be clear with yourself about the reasons why you’re leaving. Are you bored with your job? Have you attained the highest level of success available at that position? Is there a better offer on the table? Whatever the reason might be, that’s completely fine. No one knows your reasons better than you. As you can imagine, a lot of people will ask you that inevitable question again and again. Why are you leaving the job? So, it’s always a good idea to have a brief and concise answer prepared in order to avoid long and exhausting explanations with your soon-to-be ex colleagues.

Related: What to Expect as an Emergency Nurse 2. Provide Appropriate Notice Probably the worst thing you can do when you decide to quit the job is to leave it too quickly! If you don’t want your boss to be furious with you and remember you by your last action, you should definitely give him or her some time to find a replacement for your position and tie any loose ends. Two weeks of notice is the norm, and if your position is difficult to fill, make sure to notify your boss well in advance that you are leaving the position. If you don’t want your name to come up negatively at the next board meeting, be reasonable and follow this two-week’s notice rule!

3. Offer to Train Your Replacement In case there is enough time and you still don’t have obligations with your new job, why don’t you offer to train the nurse that will replace you? Its kind, it’s generous, and definitely the best way to leave. Your boss and fellow nurses will think highly of you after this thoughtful gesture. Not only will it help your medical center to get back quickly on its feet after your departure, but will definitely earn you some positive recommendations.

Winning situation, right?

4. Secure Solid Recommendations Moving forward usually implies revising the past. In order to impress your future employer, you might want to consider kindly asking for reference from two or three people you worked with. Including your boss! Ask them to put their testimonials as well as your skills and virtues in writing. Not only will it be very useful for your future employer, but will also remind you’re soon-to-be ex colleagues why they enjoyed working with you so much!

Related: The Evolution of the Nursing Uniform 5. Remain Positive With Leadership Team You are leaving the job, not the people. Although you are starting a new job with entirely new co-workers, remember that your soon-to-be ex colleagues were your work family for a long time. They cooperated with you on many nursing tasks and were your support system when you needed one. You never know on what seminars or nursing events you may cross paths with your fellow colleagues again. That’s why it is advisable to remain positive with all (or at least almost all) your colleagues after quitting a job.

Leaving a job isn’t easy. Leaving it gracefully is even harder. Over the period of few years, you’ve acquainted with many of them and never exchanged words with a few of them. With either of your colleagues and fellow nurses, leaving a good impression and quitting your job gracefully doesn’t have to be a huge problem. Anything from providing appropriate notice, offering to train the replacement nurse up to securing good recommendations, could be good strategies for leaving your job gracefully. Be true to

yourself, remember these few tips and your ex colleagues will soon be shattered that they lost you as a colleague!

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