Resignation of a job can be like a burden that lifted up from your shoulders, thinking “Yeah, I made the decision!”. Some of the time, you might be sad even tearful leaving your workplace especially when you enjoyed working in your company. However, if you leave because of negative reasons, please do not burn your bridges. The world is pretty small and you’ll never know when you’ll meet again…
Emily, 36, senior analytical manager
“I had a staff once who accused of me being bias and racist due to a loss of promotion to another team member. When I challenged him to justify his comments in front of HR, he blew up and flipped the table in the conference room! Not surprised that he called in the next day to quit his job. He didn’t even give one month’s notice which is required by our company’s policies. In the end, we decided not to pursue. A year later, I actually got a call from a recruiter from a Fortune 500 company who enquired about him, his working performance and the reason he left. I was surprised that he had the cheek and the stupidity to list me as one of his references. Haha!”
David, 25, Technical Support Team Lead
“I knew Frank for quite awhile back in 3 years ago. He is usually the nice guy, performances so-so, but he loves to cut corners and being lazy and all, but he is not from my team so we don’t usually hang out too much together. He did some crazy thing one day and argued with his supervisor in front of everyone. We didn’t see him after that time, I just assumed that he left the company. Fast forward beginning of this year, I joined a prestigious company as Team Lead and need to hire a team of my own. Guess who send in his application?”
Amy, 31, Retail Advisor
“Two years ago, I was working for a huge supermarket chain for a female boss. She’s alright, not the best boss in the world but definitely fair and competent in her role until the day she throw in her letter and started to brag that she is going some e-commerce big shot company as a major management role. During her last month, she left a lot of incomplete work, she is on leave or late for work most of the time. We know she doesn’t care about her current role any more than she cares about us. She screwed us up when she did not submit our time cards before the day she left, we got our salary a month late due to her mistake. Recently, she applied for a position back to our company, the word goes that she was ostracized in the other company and she wants to come back. All of us who used to be under her, signed a petition against her coming back and submitted to HR.”
Bob, 40 Customer Service Representative
“Sumei has been working in the telco industry for more than 10 years, and in our company for 5 years. She is sweet, patience and most of our customers love her. We were happy for her when she announced that she is going to be married and quitting her job. That is until she sent out a really nasty email that is 5 pages long, detailing how she hated all of us, calling some of us nasty names, how she thought the company should have to operate better. She even go as far to criticize some of our major customers and labeling them stupid in the email. She sent the email to everyone in the company and to our customers as well just before she picked up her box of things and walked out the front door. Everyone was pissed off at her! We had to clean up the mess after her. Even my boss called her up to threaten her with a lawsuit. A month ago, she came back to the office, a much quieter, subdued Sumei. Apparently, during a year long marriage, her husband cheated on her and fled the state with the other woman with all her savings. Our boss took pity on her and ask her to come back to her old job when he heard about her situation. She still trying to mend the relationships she broke and was eating the humble pie since she came back. But it’s hard to trust that sweet smile anymore.”
So never burn your bridges, you’ll never know if you are going to see, let alone work with the same person again. Even if you leave on a bad situation, keep your head high and your professionalism even higher.
Do you agree with me? Share your thoughts at the comments below. Join me at Twitter MiddleMe_net or Facebook MiddleMe.net.
Reblogged this on Still Another Photoblog.
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Oh wow! I think I could write an entire blog on my own bridge-burning! And then self-pity as I myself had to eat “humble pie.” Great article! 😉
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Seriously? You don’t sound like the type to burn bridges, my man. Lol. Or maybe you’re just too nice to me. *wink*
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Ha! Thank you, dear Kally; you always lift my spirits! 🙂
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And you’re always welcome, dear friend.
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O my Kally? But that pushes my button to my own burned bridges. Indeed! In the past? I was young, arrogant and self-righteous. Still I am all of that if I would operate from my human nature. But, NO MORE?
In the present? I loathe my human nature! I do not ‘love’ my human nature. I refuse to operate by my human nature, mind & feelings. What happened? Our Father/Creator, that’s what happened. He stepped into my life. He judged, He convicted and, HE RESTORED NOT CONDEMNED ME! The result?
Yours truly? No burn but build the broken bridges! Hahaha! HallealuYah!
Check my latest post, https://inspirationalbythia.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/i-smell-death-in-beauty-success/ 🙂 Later gator!
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Haha!! Good for you, Thia to have turn wiser and smarter!! People should read your words and gain some experience from you, my dear!!! Love what you are doing to your blog. Keep in it up!!!!
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I’m A-OKAY! now that I hear from you! Always props up my pitiful carcass! I’been sicker than sicker on top of no comments from you? O well, maybe. Actually, sick? Needed to learn & share my learned lesson with all.
All has been posted. I’m now feeling? Nay, no feelings. Only hoping for the good that is coming my way. For hope is the evidence of things not yet seen!
And plz! Keep spreading these lines through your blog–you’ll get your reward from the power of love from on high! 🙂
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absolutely agree with you Kally.. I also wished to shout out when I resigned.. but luckily maintained a balance and still continuing the same so called ‘good’relationship with the ex-colleagues and bosses.
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To shout back, you’ll just have a moment of satisfaction but perhaps achieve a lifetime of regrets.
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true.. fortunately or unfortunately I had only my diary to shout out..;)
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The wisdom is : conceal your feeling in the deepest powder blush….
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Oooo.. I like that very much. Lol!
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I also think if you go for any negative reason there is no need to get nasty. If you leave you should still leave with your head high. We had people resigning and being horrible to us who stayed. They are apparently still meeting up but me and my wonderful friend are never invited. I hope they never cross my path.
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It take a bigger person to accept a smaller company does not suit him to realize that and walked away pleasantly.
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Great blog about stupid mistakes people do to burn their bridges. I never understood why people do foolish things like that.
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I guess it’s the rush of anger and the foolishness of not thinking twice.
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The world is such a small place after all, and I absolutely agree that you should never burn any bridges, either professionally or in your personal life. Of course, you should never put up with any crap, but that doesn’t mean you have to be a douche about it and, again, burn a bridge.
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Very true!! Fate works in strange ways and before you know it, you kept bumping into each other over and over again. Talk about the embarrassment!
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In my organization, those who leave us sends a good-bye email to his/her team and sometime to whole department. It’s not mandatory though but those who had left, use this gesture I should say to show how much they enjoyed working here, friends they had made, about the memorable times and much more.
I still have many such emails in my inbox and sometimes I read them.
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I had them too. The best one I received was a one page long of tearful email on how he’ll miss us, how we are the best team ever and all, then we found out he is only leaving our department and moving to the next department. Lol! People thought it was anticlimax!
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Hahaha, now that’s funny, that guy must be lol on the first day in new dept
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Great advice. Lots of people when they leave are thinking with their emotions. Emotions do not makr carreers. Thank you for the reminder.
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Thanks a lot for leaving me a comment and letting me know I’m on the right track.
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Great advice Kally.
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Thank you!! Glad you like it.
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Happy New Year Kally!! Professionalism in any given work-related situation goes a long way in one being able to maintain civil relationships. Professionalism doesn’t necessarily dictate that you like everyone you work with but it helps to keep things in perspective because in the long run as you say, you never know who you might run into down the road.
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Happy New Year, Stephanae!! Well said! Your statement just summarized the whole article! Lol.
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It was an awesome article Kally ❤ and one everyone can benefit from!! Sometimes in the heat of the moment we say or do things that we later regret and though it may not be a major issue personally on a professional level it can destroy a career.
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Were living in a constantly changing, faster paced world, covered with burned bridges. All done in haste, as if there would be no tomorrow. We go around and come around, back down the same path until we notice the bridge is gone. Kicking yourself in the butt leaves a bad taste in you mouth. Best to just leave the bridges.
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Imagine having burnt the bridges and shamefacedly needing to mend them. That’s would be so painful.
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Oh yes!
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Reblogged this on wwwpalfitness.
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Very correct Kally..
All point were superb hun 😉
Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks for liking the article. 🙂
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You are great at what you do Kally 😉
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I have been out of the academic world but i still am in touched with everyone..i make sure i get back on them every now and then because we never know when we need them…not that i keep them only to use them in any way..its just that its great never to cut our ties to people who have been part of our lives
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That is really good example why we shouldn’t cut ties with everyone.
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I know that’s right! This article was SPOT-ON. I tried to leave my jobs in the most kind and most considerate ways possible. I waited until I left to “decompress,” and I never showed disrespect when I left a job. Remember… These people are my references, and I need to be on THEIR good side.
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And you’ll never know when you’ll bump into them again.. It’ll make for an awkward scenario if you’re nasty to them and they turns out to be your future boss or clients.
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Too true. Thank God this never happened to me.
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Wow those are some nasty experiences! I know a few people who joined at the same time as me and they are always negative about their work environment even though they work in smaller branches then I do and I wonder what would they do if they were in my shoes… Even I get angry about my position at work sometimes but I feel that being s public servant this is expected! one of my friends left with a really nasty resignation letter and now she is facing problem when she applies elsewhere listing out company as her ex-and-only-employer! Thanks for sharing these different experiences with us. I want to make sure to have a positive outlook and impression if I ever have to leave 🙂
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Yes, even you don’t like your job, always leave a good lasting impression otherwise just leave on a neutral note. It’s career suicide to vent your anger and leave. The only person you’re going to harm is yourself.
Welcome to MiddleMe!
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So true. That is the BIG NO NO.
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Fantastic post. I understand this very well.
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Thank you for liking this.
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Loved reading these stories–not burning bridges is so important, especially in the working world. It’s always easy to assume that one will never return to work for a company or people they had issues with, but even needing references, or the slight chance of running into a former supervisor or coworker in a future job is an obvious reason to just be humble and quietly walk away. Thanks for sharing 🙂
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Thank you so much for reading and liking my articles. A lot of folks don’t think too much into the future. The world is getting smaller as companies are going globalization.
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That was nasty of her, truly uncalled for. Although I had one employer who once offered me the world during the interview, to find out later on, he was hardly present. He left me at the mercy of Mini, Moe and Jack. Although they were pleasant, but the young lady, who was my immediate supervisor was a control freak; I couldn’t sneeze without asking her for permission. That was a first for me.
Even worse, she accused me of Fedex one of two documents to the wrong address, while she yelled at me from her office. When in fact, both items were sealed inside the same enveloped right in front of her. Mysteriously, by the following day, the whole file along with the scanned Fedex invoice were completely erased from my computer… I was vivid.
OMG! i sit there for nearly two weeks with nothing to do. I was so bored there, I ended up pulling off all my hair, used them as thread; and transformed my pen into a needle in order to crochet. I also discovered I was an artist since ended up drawing a whole notebook …
And the fact he didn’t propose an open door policy, contrary to my old boss who was so pleasant and welcoming… I didn’t even feel welcome in his office.
So, do you think it was wrong of me for telling him his assistant was a control freak?” When he contacted me via email? I don’t believe in burning bridges, but sometimes, I think some issues must confronted.
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Oh dear, you must have a hell of a miserable time working there. How long did you endure the torture?
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No dear, it only lasted for four weeks. LOL
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So wise for you to leave when you had to.
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Sorry for the typo error, I rushing for an appointment.
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