Gather Your Belongings Before You Resign
If you are going to quit, get ready. Clear your office of embarrassing computer files, personal papers and anything else you want to keep. As the ABA Bar Journal advises lawyers, once you resign, your employer may very likely escort you out of the office immediately with nothing more than a promise to send your belongings later. See Bar Journal report. The advise is for lawyers, but it applies to any white collar employee. Many employers now escort departing employees out the front door.
Do not solicit clients, says the Journal, before departure. Just as it would be wise for everyone else to not solicit customers before departure. Beware of any non-compete agreements.
If the employer has an exit interview, do not nitpick. Try to address systemic issues. Try to treat your departure as a business decision, despite the many events that may have lead up to it.
Accept offers to meet for lunch or coffee from co-workers. Do not turn these social sessions into gripe sessions. Whatever the circumstances of your departure, turn it into a positive event.
Remember former colleagues' birthdays. Send them thank you notes for their help with your career.
The Bar Journal does not mention this, but also, see a lawyer of you think you may have grounds for a lawsuit. Even a lawsuit, in the end, is a business decision, too.
You work for a company. Things are going well. But, the company still has not paid you everything you are entitled to under your compensation agreement. You become unhappy. A start-up lures you away. The start-up competes directly with your old company. You had signed a non-compete agreement with the old company. But, you think why should you honor the non-compete when the company did not honor your compensation agreement. In caselaw, we call that the "doctrine of unclean hands." One cannot seek equity without first being equitable itself. One cannot come to court seeking equitable relief if that person does not himself have clean hands. So, you think, the employer cannot come to court seeking equity when the employer itself has not been equitable. .png){kind=small}
You are asked to sign a non-compete agreement by your employer. But, you are not sure you want to sign. What do you do? One IBM management employee deliberately signed in the wrong place. He wanted more time to think about signing it. He signed in the space where the employer would sign. Then, he went to work for Dell. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals finds for the employee in this recent decision, IBM v. Johnson. See 