Ask a Manager

Here’s an update from the reader whose entire team was planning to resign at once:

On Friday afternoon, December 16, each of us wrote our own resignation letters. The four of us turned them into our supervisor, and in turn he added his own, scanned them in and called HR. He then sent the email to HR, and then to his supervisor. The HR rep was great, he congratulated us and said he would get all the paperwork in order. This also included vacation, COBRA, and all other exit papers.

The next, my supervisor then called his supervisor and asked that he please read the email he just sent. While this went smoothly, as expected it took another two days for it to sink in with him. And I am guessing after couple of drinks he felt the need to call my supervisor. I can understand why he would be angry, but he was again reminded that these issues have been brought up before.

Back to Friday night, the District Manager was informed of the resignations of 5 of the 7 staff members in the satellite office. (Yes, it went from 3 to 5 people.) His call to my supervisor started off with a heartfelt apology, stating he now realizes that he has neglected our office. He went on to ask if it is about money, and tried to point out that each one of us was slated for a raise. (It is pointed out that with the lack of management involvement, they can not possibly know who should be getting a raise).

All in all, things went very well. The District Manager has stated that if things don’t work out like we expect that the door is open and we are welcome back. He has also asked to sit down with us and find out exactly what went wrong. We have decided that this is not a point-the-finger session, and that we’ll only raise things we feel could be improved for other future people in this office.

Our last day is December 30. We are trying like mad to bring the project to a point that can be handed over and not leave anyone hanging out to dry. It took a week for it to sink in with the Project Manager. Even after he told us the client wanted the product in four days on the Friday that we turned in resignations, he was amazed that we stayed the weekend so that he could have what he needed on Monday morning. While the bar has been raised yet again, I don’t think they will find anyone to possibly meet it at this point.

I would also like to include that for the first time last week we had a manager visit our office. I don’t think anyone has been there since possibly last February. While it was a short visit, that particular manager is retiring also, as well as only escorting another officer of the company to that office on a different matter.

Well, that is where it stands. We are still looking forward to the new opportunities that await us, and it makes things a little easier when you are not escorted out the door.

We all know that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, but it is also what you make it. We can water the grass on the other side of the fence just as easily as we can water the grass on this side, but sometimes we need a little help fertilizing it.

Thank you for your advice, it was utilized.