ShareThisWhen an employee leaves the workplace, co-workers find themselves overloaded, absorbing some of the goner’s tasks until a replacement is found.
In other occasions, the person leaving is a manager or executive who has been in the company for a fairly long period of time. While they were working, things ran smoothly and everything was organized. But the moment they walk out the door, things go awry. People start talking about how good this person was and how things were easy when he was around but now that he or she has left, every day is a nightmare. You can miss the person and the steadiness associated with his presence when actually, when this happens, it means that this person got it all wrong.
Let me explain. Some people tend to hog work in order to keep control. It works while they are present, but when and if the person leaves on vacations or quits nobody knows how to do stuff because they never had a chance to do it in the past.
When some employees give their two week notice they consider themselves already out of the job and slack for those last two weeks -I’ve seen it-. This is one of those crucial moments when we have to step up our game and leave our job with our right foot… specially if you are interested in staying within the employed population in the future.
I’ve seen people -who have done a great job during their stay in a company- slack off as soon as they realize they are on their way out. And trust me, that is something that will be brought up if another company ever asks for references.
Do this exercise. I’m going to give you a list of numbers: 10, 13, 73, 89, 42, 93, 42, 37, 60, 22. Now look away and see how many you can remember. Most probably, you will remember the first and last 2 numbers. Our memory can retain 5 (+-2) chunks of information and on top of that, the first and last chunks to get processed are the ones more easily retained. This is called priming.
Taking this example to the work environment, the two most important moments during your stay at a company will be the first couple of weeks and the last ones. What people will remember the most are the impression you made when you arrived and how you did while you were leaving the job.
This is where ethics and good planning skills come into play. On the ethical side, leaving without caring for what happens after you leave will not only affect others’ perception of you and your work but you will also be a disregard to those people that have worked closely with you.
Planning your exit will ensure that after you are gone, operations continue as normal as possible. Do yourself a favor, don’t leave loose ends and delegate your tasks with enough time in advance so others have time to ask you if they have any doubts on how to do your job.
