How To Leave Your Job On Good Terms

So you’ve gotten a new and better job, or maybe you’ve just decided you don’t need your job anymore—you want to know how to leave your job on good terms.  Follow the tips below to avoid burning your proverbial bridges.

1. Give two weeks notice.  If you’re leaving your job for greener pastures, make sure to let your current bosses know ahead of time.  To leave your job on good terms, it is critical that you follow this standard courtesy.  It allows them to make preparations for when you will be gone.
2. Submit a letter of resignation.  It may be easier to just walk into your boss’s office and tell him or her you’ll be quitting in a couple weeks, but a polite and complimentary letter is the more professional way to do it.  If you don’t think your job is important enough to warrant such a letter, write it anyway.  You will look that much better for doing it.
3. Do your job until you leave.  Don’t give your two weeks notice and then do nothing. Show your current employer that you can still be a professional and get your job done even though you’ll be moving on soon.  They will appreciate it, and it will be that much easier to leave on good terms.
4. Don’t tell off your bosses.  No matter how much you may loathe them, resist the temptation to tell off your bosses at your current job when you leave. You still want them to be good references for you in the future, and that won’t happen if you're not on good terms with them because you flipped them off
5. Don’t steal stuff on your way out.  This may seem like a no-brainer, but taking stuff from work that doesn’t belong to you is exactly the wrong way to leave your job on good terms.  That includes intellectual property, like documents you may have written for them while you were there.  The chances are good that they’ll find out eventually, and you could find yourself on the wrong end of a lawsuit.