Quitting the job - resignation letters

I also (half-jokingly) volunteered to be laid off when my boss and I were talking about when I was planning to leave. I wouldn't expect your company to actually lay you off, since you're leaving anyway and it's cheaper for them to let you quit.

Yeah, I suppose you are right. But if they have to lay somebody off to make numbers, they would probably get rid of me compared with somebody who plans to stay with the firm. By the way, I love your avatar picture!

For me it was the discussion that was far more important than a resignation letter. Then again everyone knew I was applying, everyone knew I got in, and then very quickly everyone knew I was leaving during the summer. My supervisor and senior manager wrote my recs so they weren't surprised at all. Both took it extremely well and I continue to keep in touch with both of them.

The letter is just a formality. A sit down discussion with your bosses is much more important. This is one thing I think few employers get upset about, you aren't leaving for a competitor or something. Just talk about how great of a place it was, and you feel this is the best way to take the next step in your career. Even if you hate it, go out the door smiling and dont say negative things to get back. The world is smaller than you realize and you never know who might help or hurt later in your career.

Feedback is often welcome but you want to be fairly pc with your comments, and keep it constructive...none of that, I hate this place everyone is lazy and incompetent, so nothing ever gets done. Instead try I think that improvements to accountability and additional training might increase productivity and overall quality.

Getting laid off vs resigning is again a cultural thing. I understand that in Japan and Korea, this is quite often possible because of the salaryman culture. In the salaryman culture, there is a certain degree of loyalty between the company and its employees (I understand this can be quite hard to understand for someone not familiar with the culture.) Lay offing someone who would have resigned anyway would cost more purely in financial terms, but the "savings" in the corporate culture may be judged more important.

I'm not saying this is always the case but this concept is definitely not unheard of either. In fact one of my fellow admits was lucky enough to get a nice severance package instead of resigning.

i am actually missing meetings on purpose so that i get laid off as the bottom feeder! this plan works in my company..one of my colleagues who went to INSEAD pulled this off and walked away with $80K severance package!

If i can only be this lucky...

FN, this after the nice reco + phone call from the CEO. Isn't this the ultimate back-stab?


My situation is kinda different. Some of my team has been laid off. I am trying to work harder so that the rest of the team have jobs come the next quarter or the next financial year.

I will resign at the end of July and give the company 4 weeks notice since no one knows that I am leaving...yet

That's similar to what I will be doing my last 1.5 months. I spoke with my managers today and offered to help them bring in more business before I leave.

that is very true however what about future employers? Will the fact that you have been laid off be construed negatively as opposed to someone who resigned?

I wouldn't think it'd make much of a difference in this economy. Particularly if you work in finance. Half the people I know in finance have been laid off.

I'm curious what you guys think of my possible plan:
-By the time Im ready to resign I'll have probably north of 30 days of vacation time accrued. Preferably I'd like to give a couple of weeks notice that I'm leaving as this company has been good to me and I don't want to leave on a bad note. However, with that vacation time I wouldn't mind spending the last 4 weeks at home (I travel every week for work so being home is a treat) and taking those as vacation days and then having my final day at the company actually spent on vacation. I know it seems shady, but they don't pay out accrued vacation and obviously those last few weeks are going to be hectic and probably expensive (moving always is). My girlfriend is also not moving with me and I'm sure she's going to want to spend as much time as possible with me. What are you guys/girls' thoughts on this plan?

They don't pay out accrued vacation? Is that even legal?

Anyways, you'd have to find out if your plan will work with HR. As someone posted above, sometimes you can't take any vacation for your final two weeks with the company.

Also, often you have to be at the company on your final day to sign certain forms, turn in your computer and badge, etc.

RF

NM, just checked policy and it appears they do pay up to 240 hours of vacation time. Guess I should spend sometime brushing up on my corporate policies before making any decisions. Thanks for the feedback.

Easy explanation to any future employer: "my company was planning layoffs and since I knew I'd be leaving in a few months anyway, volunteered to be laid off and possibly save someone else's job who wasn't leaving for school."

True but I work in finance and havent been laid off. besides isnt it a mark of your calibre that even though 50% of your team got fired, you were selected to stay? i could be wrong (could be a us/uk thing) because I wouldnt mind having the cash just before bschool however not sure if it hinders with future job possibilities. I agree w the guy above about voluntary redundancies, my question is more for involuntary redundancies .