Lesson #5: Exit with dignity

Things I learned at my first job
(Last in a series)

Today was my last day at Fibre-Craft. It was quite the emotional day, as I unexpectedly was led to tears at various points throughout the day by certain coworkers, and at other points, I was led into fits of laughter.

For me, leaving Fibre-Craft was a sad thing, no matter how many crazy incidents may have happened along the way. So it was important to give just dues to that farewell, and do justice for the time I spent here, with these people.

A coworker's birthday in 2005

At some point, unless you become a "lifer," you are going to leave your job. (In fact, even if you do become a lifer, you're still going to leave it at some point.) You are going to have to learn how to quit.

In the business world today, there is a certain politeness to going about quitting your job. In my opinion, one usually quits one's job with the same amount of respect that one had for the job in the first place.

For example, there seems to be a bad habit these days of quitting your job over e-mail. You wait until your boss is out of his/her cube, and you send an e-mail resignation. Personally, I think this is a tad cowardly.

I wanted to tell my boss personally; I wanted to say goodbye to my coworkers in a dignified fashion; I wanted to be present to train a replacement for my position; and I wanted to be proud of the way I left in the same way I was proud of the way I worked when I was there.

Coworkers with a sense of humor about making copies

I did all these things, and today, I felt that I left a company that was, almost unanimously, sad to see me go. All people should be so lucky.

So, there is a good way to leave. You have to leave when you know it's time. You have to leave when there's something else you need to do. You have to leave before you're the last one left from the group that was there when you started.

And, when you leave, if you're fortunate enough to have someone miss you, I hope you miss your coworkers as much as I will miss mine, as painful as it is makes it to leave.

"Is this really goodbye?" - C.R.

Sniff...