Opening My Eyes and Quitting My Job (The Jungle, Chapter 1)

A few months ago, I quit my job and began a journey into the dark heart of the job market.

Detaching and Committing

Complaining about my job was easy. Actually deciding to leave and putting a plan together had a much higher barrier to entry.

This is a challenging phase. An infamous ex-colleague frequently described the difficulty of leaving the “big comfy chair of defense contracting”.

Naturally, some concerns ran through my head:

• The work sucks now, but maybe it will improve soon.
• What if my next job is worse than this one?
• Maybe I just have an attitude problem.
• Does leaving make me disloyal?
• Am I screwing my co-workers?

In the end, I realized that I had done some interesting work, but that those projects had come and gone. I wasn’t interested in what I was doing, I wasn’t motivated, I wasn’t learning, and I wasn’t happy.

Writing my Resignation Letter

The first draft of my resignation letter was polite, warm, witty, and a total fucking disaster.

After doing some research, I learned the importance of restraint. This is an official document that may be seen by many eyes, and will be put in my “official file” (the corporate equivalent of high school’s “permanent record”). The purpose is to communicate that I am leaving, let them know when my last day is, and thank them for the opportunity.

Any other details should be provided in personal conversations, if at all.

I turned in a hard copy of the letter, but was asked to send it in email so it could be easily forwarded up the management chain. The preferred format seems to vary by company.

It was difficult, but I managed to resist the temptation of a Nixonesque approach.

Who to Tell, and When

The general advice is to tell your boss first, and everyone else later. However, I worked for a defense contractor with heavily decentralized leadership, so I wasn’t exactly sure who my boss was.

Once I had set a tentative departure date, I told a few of my teammates who would be most affected by the change. I gave official notice to my company one month before I left, and informed my client/customer immediately afterward.

The Immediate Aftermath of Resigning

Gradually my co-workers approached me and wished me well. I was relocating, which added a nice cushion to the situation — it created the perception that I was leaving due to “personal reasons” as opposed to dissatisfaction with the job.

I tried my best to be gracious and positive — and for the most part, I think I was successful. Once I had one foot out the door, a lot of my frustration was replaced with warmth and serenity.

This euphoria came in handy during a few awkward moments. The details aren’t important — a broken situation reacts to change in broken ways, and it’s important to remain calm and polite in order to ease the tension.

I found a silent exit to be the most tasteful, and grew to prefer terminology such as “this just isn’t a good fit for me.”

Next time, I’ll talk about how I got my resume in order.