The following is a post by MPFJ staff writer, Kevin Mercadante, who is a professional personal finance blogger, and the owner of his own personal finance blog, OutOfYourRut.com. He has backgrounds in both accounting and the mortgage industry.
What do you do if you are working for an employer that you absolutely detest? Here’s some advice as to what you shouldn’t do: don’t burn your bridges when you leave your job.
That can be a tall order with some employers. You may be on a job where the employer is completely mistreating you, and even degrading your capabilities as a professional. That never means leaving on bad terms – like telling a few people off and trashing the company in your last few days on the job – otherwise it may come back to haunt you later.
Keeping a professional profile right up until the last day
How you leave a job says more about you than it does about the company you’re leaving or the people who work there. In the business world, your reputation is your most important quality. How you handle leaving a job – particularly an unsatisfactory one – will speak volumes about you.
You want to make sure that at any job that you’re on that you always maintain a high level of professionalism right up until the very last day that you’re employed there. That will include continuing to perform at a high level, even after you’ve given notice.
You never know if you might have to come back some day
As the saying goes, never say never, and that especially applies to returning to old jobs. Though you may be absolutely certain that you are so unhappy on a job that you will never return, you don’t know what the future holds. If the next couple of jobs you’re on are worse than the one you’re on now, your old job could start looking better all the time.
In addition, if your industry goes through a major squeeze, every employer in the field – including the bad ones – will be back in consideration for a new job. That might include the employer you’re working right now, that you’re desperate to leave.
Still another scenario could have an influential friend changing jobs into your soon-to-be former employer, but in a position of rank. If that friend wants to bring you along, it may not happen if you burned your bridges when you left the first time around.
You’ll very probably work with the same people in the future
Most career fields – even those that are common across the country – are fairly small at the local level. That means that there’s a better than even chance that you’ll work with one or more people from your current job at some point in the future. Should you leave your current job in a negative way, you could be building future enemies at a new employer when that time comes around.
People don’t always remember how good or bad a past employer might have been, but it always seems that they can quickly recall how a given coworker from that experience behaved. Even if you absolutely cannot stand the company you’re working for, you should be extra careful to make sure that you always leave a positive impression with as many coworkers as possible. Sooner or later you’ll be working with at least some of them in the future. One of them might even end up being your boss.
You need positive references
No matter how bad a job is, you’ll need to take at least a few good references away when you leave. In fact, it will be even more important the worse that the experience was. If the company will not speak well of you, you have to be sure that you have a few references who will. This can be coworkers, or even supervisors and managers in cooperating departments who are aware of your performance.
And as bad as your current job may be, if the next job that you’re on turns out to be even worse, the references that you will have from this job will be even more important.
The only time that you should ignore the reference factor is if the overall employment situation was so negative that you fully intend to leave it off your resume. But don’t even be sure that will work either. With all of the databases and snooping agencies available today, an employer can find out where you’ve worked in the past even if you don’t disclose it.
Leaving angry won’t fix anything
It’s absolutely true that there are lousy employers out there. They mistreat their employees, show favoritism, foster hostile competition, and seldom reward people for doing a good job. While you might feel particularly drawn toward letting your feelings be known once you give your notice, it probably won’t do any good if you do. Companies are often hell holes precisely because they seem to be completely immune to good advice.
Employers are also quick to declare that certain employees have a bad attitude – especially former employees. If you leave on bad terms you’ll simply justify the claim once your gone. And that won’t fix anything in the company that you’re leaving.
In fact, if you leave on bad terms the employer is more likely to assume that you’re part of the problem, and they’ll be happy to be rid of you. Any criticism you level against the company – no matter how legitimate – is likely to be completely ignored.
It’s much better to leave an employer on good terms, that way the company may solicit constructive criticism from you that might actually improve circumstances for your soon-to-be former coworkers. If they don’t, it’s no longer your problem.
How about you all? Have you ever had a job in the past that was so bad that you felt that you couldn’t leave on cordial terms? How did you handle it? Was there any negative fallout after the fact?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
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