How to quit your job spectacularly well

By Dave Evans and Bill Burnett

What kind of quitter are you? We’re all going to have lots of jobs over a lifetime, so we all have to go through quitting. Whether your next quit is years away or you wish it were tomorrow—there is no avoiding it. You are going to be a quitter. What kind of quitter, though, is all up to you.

The two most common types of quitter are the Bridge Burner and the 2-Week Lame Duck. But we have a radical third option—the Generative Quitter.

Bridge Burners are a classic archetype—appearing in movies regularly, tossing a Molotov cocktail over a shoulder while heading out the door. You can hear their theme song as they roar out of the parking lot—Johnny Paycheck’s big 1977 hit “Take This Job and Shove It.” It may be a fun song or make a good movie scene, but it’s a terrible strategy. Never do this! It might feel good in the moment, but it’s a really bad idea in the long term. Never quit in anger, or without giving the company time to figure out what it’s going to do once you’re gone. It may be tempting to let the bridges you burn light your way out, but you’ll be better off in the long run if you learn to quit like a pro.

The 2-Week Lame Duck is the most popular archetype. We don’t have hard statistics, but we’re betting the overwhelming majority of resignations follow this familiar pattern: 

1. Worker finally decides to quit. 
2. Worker sets the date. 
3. Two weeks before the date, worker delivers this resignation letter:

TO: My Boss

FROM: Larry

RE: Resignation

I am resigning my position as Senior Duck Plucker to pursue other interests. My resignation is effective two weeks from today, making Friday, March 28th my last day here at Lucky Duck Enterprises.

I have appreciated working at Lucky Duck and wish you and the company all the best.

Sincerely, Larry 

4. Worker punches the clock, barely, for the next two weeks, and then slips away quietly into oblivion.

Larry resigns this way knowing that “it’s customary to give two weeks’ notice” and that the best resignation letters obey the “less is more” rule. Keep it short. Get away clean. Larry knows nobody gets much (if anything) done after announcing they’re quitting, and nobody really expects them to. Or… so goes the conventional wisdom. A 2-Week Lame Duck quit won’t hurt you like the Bridge Burner approach, but it won’t do you much good, either, and we think that’s a shame.

The Generative Quitter is a radical third option. Most people think of quitting as a negative, destructive thing. It means leaving, ending, bailing out. But quitting is also the critical turning point between finishing well and starting anew. Let’s reframe quitting into a chance to refresh and renew things for the company and a chance for you to author a great final chapter of your old job en route to a great next job.

Generative Quitting Steps

1. Leave the Campsite Better Than You Found It
2. Rev Up Your Network
3. Set Up Your Replacement to Win
4. Exit Well

Before you start Step 1, we do recommend that you complete Step 0 – Be Sure You Need to Quit. Yes, quitting eventually is inevitable… and it’s a big hassle and lots of work. Before signing up for quitting, give yourself the chance to succeed where you are by creatively looking for ways to enhance your current job or find other interesting positions in the company. As a last resort, try enlisting your manager’s support. If you’re going to quit anyway, you have little to lose and much to gain—and this works more often than you think. The Boss may have no idea you’re frustrated and may want to work with you to find something that works where you are. And please don’t ignore the conventional wisdom recommending you find that new job before quitting the current one. It’s 60% easier to find a job while you’ve got one. So it’s best to tough it out, unless you’re in a truly toxic situation—then by all means get out now. 

Assuming you’ve completed Step 0 and quitting is the only option, here’s how to quit generatively:

1. Leave the Campsite Better Than You Found It

When out backpacking in the woods, all good campers know the rule “Leave the campsite better than you found it.” It’s a good rule for life and work as well as backpacking. Deciding to make things better at work during the final weeks of your employment does a lot of good. It helps your colleagues who will be there long after you to succeed. It strengthens your confidence and improves your references for your next job. For all those reasons and more, this step is a no-brainer, but sadly it’s infrequently practiced so if you do it, you’ll stand out from the crowd. 

2. Rev Up Your Network

You should do everything you can to preserve and expand your network of friends and colleagues—both inside and outside the job—before you leave. Your network of teammates and colleagues at your current job are a goldmine of future referrals and job possibilities. Now is the time to reach out and make connections, connections you didn’t have time for when doing your job was your only job. 

Get to know that interesting person who works the front of the house in your restaurant, that field salesperson who is always the top monthly performer, that assistant head cashier who was kind enough to let you schedule around your son’s soccer championship. Make the connections tangible and touch base; a handwritten note thanking someone for being helpful is always appreciated (handwritten notes are a lost art). Remember, people love to tell their stories and you need to practice being an empathetic listener. The more people you reach out to, and connect with, the better.

Quitting well made a huge contribution to Bill’s career. After six years at Apple, he’d worked on product design for 11 different laptops and one day suddenly realized that he didn’t want to do #12. The time had finally come. So as he started his seventh year, he began designing a great quit.

One thing he wanted to insure before leaving was that his team would be in good shape. Bill began to work behind the scenes. He got two key people promotions that were deserved and overdue. He orchestrated giving the next big laptop program to a project leader he trusted and respected. It took months, but it was worth it (and Bill used that time to pursue outside opportunities discreetly). He really cared about the people he worked with and Bill knew that if he could be helpful to their careers at Apple, it would work out best for everyone. 

Bill’s informal networks started to surface job opportunities. One was with one of the first eBook startups, and one was with a brand-new product design consultancy. 

When the last Apple transfer Bill had been a candidate for internally was offered to someone else and he was faced with managing laptop #12, he knew he was headed for that design consultancy. And so ended a great run at Apple and began a new chapter of his career.

He wrote a polite resignation letter, thanking everyone for a great ride, sent it to his boss, and went home. It was one of the best days of his life. When he walked out on his last day, two weeks later, he felt great about what he was leaving behind as well as where he was headed.

3. Set Up Your Replacement to Win

Step 1 – Leave the campsite . . . - is focused on not leaving any messes behind (especially with your name on them) and making life better after you go for the people you’ve been working with during your tenure at the company. But there’s one more person—someone who’s often overlooked—that you can help in a very big and unexpected way. 

Your replacement.

The person taking the job you’re about to vacate.

Make it your goal to set up your replacement for success by documenting the key insights, procedures, and contacts necessary to do your job well. Do this by writing the Quick Reference Guide to your job.

This sounds harder than it is. You’re not writing a 128-page manual to the new corporate payroll system. You’re just documenting in one convenient place the secrets and insider knowledge you’ve collected to be successful at your job. This includes things like:

• Regular meetings, activities, and reports the job demands
• Reliable, helpful people with special knowledge to solve certain problems
• Key pressing issues that the job is dealing with right now
• Old problems that were solved, but might reawaken if not checked on now and then
• Problem people who the new person may encounter (Warning: such lists can be sensitive, so skip this if you’re at all unsure about it)
• Procedures to use in executing the requirements of the job
• If you had people working for you, a personnel summary of each of your employees – especially highlighting their strengths (in order to set them up with their new boss well)

Dave once wrote a “manual” for his job before he quit. It came out to about 20 pages and took about six hours to write. He turned the manual in to his boss at the same time he submitted his resignation letter. His boss was absolutely flabbergasted: “Wow! I’ve never seen anything like this before. That was the best quit I’ve ever seen. You should write a book about quitting!”

The next time you quit—write a Quick Reference Manual to being you and you’ll blow your boss away (and expect the person who takes the job to call and thank you for it). 

4. Exit Well

Movie producers will tell you that the two most important moments in a film are the climax and the conclusion. When you quit, you are writing the final scene of the movie of your job. It is going to be one of the strongest memories that your company and the people in it have of you. Be sure it’s a great scene, one you want people to remember.

Leave them laughing or crying or wanting you back.

Never leave them angry, insulted, or resentful (and certainly not litigious).

You are in control of your narrative—your quitting story. And remember, you’ll need two versions of that story—the written one in your resignation letter, and the informal one you tell in person. Be clear and concise and emphasize the positives about your future challenges.

Bad Bridge Burner example: “I’m leaving because Dan, my boss, is a micro-manager and the company has no long-term strategy. I’m tired of working on projects that keep getting canceled because the top brass can’t get their act together. And Dan’s a jerk—did I mention that?”

Good Generative Quitter example: “I’m leaving because I have an opportunity to take my career to the next level, and learn new and exciting things. I love this company, and I’m sad to be leaving my great colleagues here, but it’s time for me to move on to my next challenge.”

It’s not that hard to do this right. Just give yourself a good script, and most importantly, stick to it. You’ll be glad you did.

Good Quitters Unite!

So, to recap…

Don’t quit unless you really have to.

If you are going to quit—quit generatively.

There is nothing wrong with quitting. We’re all quitters at some point in our lives, so let’s learn to embrace the quit and do it well.

Dave Evans and Bill Burnett are the authors of Designing Your Work Life: How to Thrive and Change and Find Happiness at Work, from which this article is adapted.