Resigning? Here are 3 musts for your farewell

Leaving on the best terms possible can require a bit of diplomacy. From your formal letter to your heartfelt goodbyes, don’t forget these niceties.

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People ask me to help them write a resignation letter, which is funny. It really doesn’t matter what you write, because one of two things will happen:

For your ego’s sake, you want No. 1, not No. 2.

What to say when you resign

Response No. 1 means your boss perceives that you’re valuable and more than likely doing more work than most. Your supervisors and colleagues don’t want to see you go, because they don’t want to take on your work.

Response No. 2 means they were probably looking at cutting you anyway in the next layoff and you just made their job very easy. Plus, they just took on a free summer intern who’ll probably do your job better than you did, or they’ll create a process that eliminates your job altogether.

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