How to Quit Your Job: 14 Tips

Quitting a job can be stressful, but leaving professionally can help protect your reputation and maintain professional relationships with colleagues. Whether you are moving to a new role or leaving a toxic workplace, there are steps you can take to resign respectfully.

Below are several tips from HR experts and tech leaders on how to leave a job without burning bridges on your way out the door.

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14 Tips for Quitting Your Job Professionally

Quitting a job requires awareness about your personal circumstances and the  company culture in order to resign on the best terms possible.  

 To do so, keep these tips in mind:

1. Understand Why You Want to Quit Your Job

Before leaving a job, make sure you really know why you’re leaving, said Cassie Whitlock, director of human resources at BambooHR. Can your current company offer what you’re looking for? Are you going to a new opportunity that will help advance your career? Have you prepared to launch your own venture? Evaluating the reason behind your anticipated departure will help you realize if you’re just hopping to a new shiny opportunity or falling for a “grass is greener” scenario.

“The people that I see who are the happiest are individuals who are going to something rather than leaving something,” Whitlock said. 

Be sure you’re not just quitting because you had a rough day — think about if you really do work at a bad company or have a toxic boss, said Dave Rietsema, CEO of Matchr. 

“I’ve had days where, when I was an employee, I was like, I just can’t take this anymore, and then days that were wonderful, so you have to be really clear that you’re 100 percent certain that you’re going to leave,” he said.  

2. Prepare Before You Quit 

Think about how you should prepare your exit before you actually announce you are quitting.

Doing this will help you determine the type and amount of preparation you should be doing and help you think of ways to address organizational issues before leaving. 

Create Documentation to Help With an Employee Transition Plan

In general, document as much as possible about the work your role entails.

The last time Whitlock left an organization, she prepared for a year and a half. She knew she was going to want other other opportunities and wanted the organization to be prepared for that. That included creating lots of documentation and organizing, plus teaching and sharing knowledge with partners across the organization.

“I think it’s useful to have a transition file, which would include your key projects, key issues you’re wrestling with, relationships, key stakeholders your successor might want to know about and having that document literally ready to go so that you can hand it over to your manager when you give the resignation,” said Joseph Liu, career consultant and host of the Career Relaunch podcast. 

Review Your Employment Contract

Be sure to review your employment contract if you have one and the terms around any financial benefits like stock options.

“I would review your work contract so you understand exactly what the notice period is, any implications related to the financial components of your job — so things like bonus, vesting periods,” Liu said. “You might want to check some legal requirements related to non-compete clauses.”

Plan Your Finances 

On a personal level, make sure your finances are in order, especially if you are taking a break from working or leaving a company for an entrepreneurial or part-time venture. 

“I would get your personal affairs in order, and that means double check your finances. Think about the runway that you’ve got after you’ve resigned if you don’t have another job lined up,” Liu said. “Is your family on board with your decision? What is the impact gonna be on your life? If you’re about to buy a house, you might not want to resign before you apply for your mortgage.” 

3. Talk to a Mentor Beforehand

Tim Rowley, CTO at PeopleCaddie, suggests talking to a trusted mentor at your company before you give your notice so you can “game plan” your resignation. 

“You have somebody who’s intimately familiar with that company’s culture advising you on the best way to go about things,” Rowley said. “Then you get in a specific plan and not a generic plan that tries to be a one-size-fits-all for every company, every situation.”

For instance, do most people who resign give just two weeks’ notice, or is the standard more like a few months? A workplace mentor can help you figure out the company norms around resignations and the ways to best prepare the company for your departure. In general, any of your mentors can help advise you about making the decision to leave and the right next moves for your career.  

4. Have Your New Job’s Offer Letter Before Quitting

If you’re moving on to a new job, Liu supports waiting to give notice to your manager until you have received and accepted your new company’s official offer letter. 

You want to make sure you have in writing everything you discussed during the interview process like salary and benefits and that you have secured your new opportunity before leaving your job. Issues can arise before you end up with an official offer letter like a budget cut at your new company, and you want to make sure you clear any reference and background checks to avoid having an offer rescinded after you’ve already resigned from your current role. 

5. Tell Your Manager You’re Quitting in Person

Once you’ve worked on your preparations and are ready to give your notice, you should arrange a meeting with your manager. If there’s any way to meet with your supervisor in person, do so.

“If possible, this is something you want to do face-to-face with your manager. Now, I understand some people work remotely, so in that case, at the very least the next best thing would be a video call,” Liu said. “From there, it drops down quite significantly, so it could be a phone call. I would not send it in written form.” 

6. Provide a Written Resignation Letter After You Verbally Quit

After you’ve spoken with your boss directly, you can send a formal written resignation letter to your manager and HR. 

“Giving both a verbal in-person heads up and a written resignation would always be the best policy, and you want to have the written one as well, just so that there’s a good paper trail, especially if you’re in a situation where you expect to be gaslit or coerced into staying,” according to Julie Titterington, chief culture officer at Merchant Maverick.

Rietsema and Titterington also emphasize why to provide a resignation letter after verbally telling your boss:

“I do think it is a good idea to write a letter, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to write a letter before talking because there’s so much nonverbal communication that goes on between an employee and a manager or an employee and HR,” Rietsema said. 

“You don’t want to blindside people by sending in a written resignation before you talk to [your manager],” echoed Titterington. 

Don’t Share Next Career Steps in Your Resignation Letter

You don’t have to share details about your next steps in your resignation letter, said Sukhi Jutla, co-founder and COO at MarketOrders and author of Escape The Cubicle: Quit The Job You Hate, Create A Life You Love. You can stay vague and say you’re looking to explore new avenues or taking time to figure out what your next chapter is going to be, she said.

“What I did was I just wrote my resignation letter just saying that I was really grateful for the opportunity that my current boss has afforded me over the last one or two year … then I just said really graciously that the time had come for me to explore other areas of personal growth and development,” Jutla said. “So, I kept it really broad. I just said that I was moving on to new opportunities.”

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7. Give At Least Two Weeks’ Notice

When you’re telling your manager you’re resigning, two weeks’ notice is the generally expected bare minimum. 

If you’re in a highly specialized job, it’s likely that at least a month’s notice would be appropriate. In Europe, Amy Kim, president and CEO of Jugo, said giving more like three months’ notice is standard. 

“I would say that two weeks’ notice is not mandatory, but it’s so expected that it would be really a breach of etiquette to not offer it in a nonabusive or unusual quitting scenario,” Titterington said. “I sometimes would even recommend people to give more like a month, if they can, and that’s mostly because burning bridges is never good policy. You never know when you might need to go back to a job or or need connections at the job you’re leaving.” 

8. Be Honest About Why You’re Quitting, But Don’t Burn Bridges

If you think there’s even the slightest chance you might want to return to the company one day, or you just want to maintain a positive relationship with your manager, be careful about how you present your reasons for leaving to your manager in your meeting about your resignation.

Titterington said people are generally understanding when an employee leaves to gain new skills or needs different working hours for their work-life balance, for example. Make it clear you’re leaving to find a better situation for yourself, not to leave your coworkers or because you didn’t like the company, if that’s truly the case for you, she said.

“If you want to maintain a relationship — because you never know, you might come back — you don’t have to lie about it, but the reasons for leaving should be for your growth versus what you didn’t like about the company,” Kim said. “Highlight all the good things, so that if for any reason you did possibly have any considerations of returning that that door is open for you. Focus on the positive and say, ‘Hey, I’m pursuing this new company for XYZ reason for my personal growth. But at any time, I’d love to come back if that’s an opportunity,’ and just leave that door open.” 

9. Be Prepared to Receive a Counter Offer From Your Employer When You Quit

While there are exceptions to the rule, Liu said he almost always recommends being prepared to reject any counter offer you receive. If you accept a counter offer, then the only thing keeping you at the company is money, he said.

“As an employer that’s not what I want to see as being the only motivator behind why someone wants to continue to work for me,” Liu said. “The second issue is that it erodes some goodwill that you have with the organization because some people will perceive this as you potentially getting an offer as a bargaining chip to get a counter offer. Not to say that you did that, but there’s a risk of it being perceived as that, especially if you accept it.”

While unfair, some people might remember that you were going to resign but have stuck around, which could taint how they perceive you. Plus, your future salary adjustments could be recalibrated based on the increase from the counter offer, Liu said. And presuming you’ve accepted the offer with a new company, then you have to go back on your agreement with them if you stay with your current job.

“Now you’ve got to go back to your future employer, and you’ve got to renege on your job offer acceptance. There’s a bridge that you’ve just burned at that point,” Liu said.

10. Offer to Train the Replacement for the Job You’re Leaving

Between your resignation and last day, offer to help the company with training and provide any needed documentation to your replacement until your role is backfilled. It demonstrates that you still care about the success of the company and that you’re willing to share your knowledge and experience with others. “It shows initiative. It shows that you care and not just peace out,” Rietsema said.

“It’s just the right thing to do to alleviate as much of that as they can by either writing down all of their protocols or training the new person that’s coming in, documenting everything so that people aren’t just left out to dry when someone leaves,” Titterington said. “That’s always the good recommendation, just if you want to be a good person and maintain good professional relationships.” 

11. Put in Full Effort at Your Job Until Your Last Day

Your former manager and coworkers will likely remember you by how you helped them in your final days at the company. For your own reputation, be sure to keep up the same high quality of work production that you performed throughout your time at the company.

“I would see it as an opportunity to really signal how valuable you were to the organization. Think of it as a long-term investment in the relationships you had with these eventual former employees,” Liu said.

12. Give Constructive Feedback in Your Exit Interview 

Being honest — but also positive and constructive — in your exit interview is the right way to leave a company.

“I think it’s almost a societal obligation for mutual parties to engage in a dialogue to better the organization and the growth of the business,” Kim said. 

But keep in mind that whatever you share about your reasons for leaving a company will be documented during your exit interview. If you want to keep a relationship with the company, be thoughtful about how you present feedback. 

“I think giving them a dose of positivity as well as real criticism, if it’s necessary, or real feedback, is good,” Rietsema said. “I would say even if you feel like you and your boss don’t get along that well, there’s probably a way that you could be honest about it without just saying like, ‘You’re terrible to work with,’ – kind of saying, ‘We have different working styles or something like that.’”

If you’re leaving a company because you didn’t like your experience, your feedback during an exit interview can help point out areas of improvement to prevent the company from losing more employees, Titterington said. 

“It hurts when a direct report leaves. It can feel like a rejection, so understanding why they left better can sometimes be useful even in the future hiring processes, making sure they get the right fit the next time,” Titterington said. “There’s basically nothing to be lost by being pretty direct about why you’re leaving a company. It’s a win-win scenario for everyone.” 

13. Don’t Talk Negatively About Your Company When Quitting

It can be tempting to quit in a dramatic fashion if you have a boss that is unsupportive or if you really hate your soon-to-be former employer. However, “the reality is you do really need to make sure that you haven’t burned any bridges because you don’t really know what’s going to happen in the future,” Jutla said.

It’s best to give feedback while you’re still in the midst of your employment with the company, rather than unloading a bunch of negative comments in an exit interview. If you storm out of your job in a dramatic fashion, then “now you’ve got this negative feedback about the organization floating around your name,” Liu said. “And maybe it [will just] rub people the wrong way.”

14. Maintain Relationships and Check-In With Your Former Co-Workers After Quitting

Resigning from a job doesn’t necessarily mark the end of your relationship with your former coworkers, Kim said. 

Focus on solidifying relationships with your manager and immediate team before leaving, Liu suggests. While you’re at it, ask for a LinkedIn recommendation since that’ll never go away, Rietsema said. 

“After you’ve left, as tempting as it might be to throw these people into the wind and never talk to them again, I would make a point to check in with them on a periodic basis, maybe once every six months, once a year,” Liu said. “Periodically check in with your manager. I actually think that one of the most important relationships for you to maintain in your professional network are those with your current and former managers.”

Make it clear that if circumstances change, you’d love to have connections with that company again, said Titterington. 

“Keeping in touch on LinkedIn is good policy — just basically trying not to burn any bridges if you can help it because you really never know when you might need to go back, use that connection, leverage that acquaintance or join the company again,” Titterington said.     

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When to Quit Your Job Without Notice

If you’re in a job where you feel unsafe or that is harmful, it’s okay to break the rules around best practices when quitting. 

Here are scenarios where it can be considered okay to quit your job without notice:

Toxic Workplaces

Toxic workplaces are environments with high-stress work culture, gossip and lack of effective leadership. They can cause significant damage to employee health and well-being. In these cases, it is perfectly acceptable to leave without notice, according to experts.

“When a workplace is really toxic, my recommendation would be to keep human one-on-one interaction to a minimum,” Titterington said. “If you really need to get out of something that is harmful to your mental health or a situation that’s maybe even illegal, the best thing to do is to leave a paper trail, so a resignation in writing to avoid having a lot of contact with anyone who’s been abusive to you. Often people feel they can get talked into staying longer, talked into doing two weeks or a month, bullied or made to feel guilty about leaving.”

Abuse or Harassment

If you are experiencing discrimination, harassment or threats of violence at work, your primary obligation is to remove yourself from the situation. When a workplace becomes a source of physical or mental harm, staying for a notice period can lead to further victimization or retaliation. Titterington advises to just quit and send a written resignation rather than stick around.

Jutla suggests seeing a doctor or counselor to get time away from the situation that’s causing you distress. With that time away, you can think about what you want to do next and prepare your finances if you get to the point where you can’t bring yourself to continue working at the company. 

Contract Violations and Legal Breaches

If your employer has breached the terms of your contract — such as withholding earned wages, failing to provide agreed-upon benefits or asking you to engage in illegal activity — the professional bond is already broken, and you should not feel obligated to provide a courtesy period if the employer is failing its legal or contractual duties to you. 

Document the breach of contract or regulations clearly in writing, as this often serves as your justification should any future disputes arise.

Unsafe Working Conditions

Under occupational safety and health standards, you have the right to work in an environment that does not put your life or health at risk. 

If your employer ignores serious safety hazards, lacks proper protective equipment or forces you to work in dangerous conditions, leaving without notice can be a matter of survival, as waiting two weeks to exit may only increase the window of potential injury on the job.

Retaliation or Quiet Firing

If you have reported an issue at work and are met with extreme reprisal or signs of quiet firing — such as a sudden, impossible workload or silent treatments — the environment is likely no longer productive for you as an employee. 

Management might use retaliation methods to force you out of the workplace without officially severing the corporate relationship, meaning leaving without notice may be a necessary step to protect your professional integrity and well-being.

Frequently Asked Questions