The dolphins kept it simple when they left the planet just as it was
about to be destroyed to make way for a space super highway.
(Hitchhikers’ Guid to the Galaxy).
Keep it simple is good advice for the standard resignation email.
Just announce your giving in your notice, you’ve enjoyed working here,
even if you haven’t, you appreciate the support provided., even if it
was in short supply, and feel you have learnt a lot, some of it useful
and appropriate. However sometimes that simple note to your boss is
not enough. There are things you want to get off your chest, things
you want a wider audience to hear.
It happened to me. So this is what I did. I could have sent a
resignation email to the chief executive and copied it to everyone in
the organisation, saying how unfairly I felt I was treated, saying I
was victimised for standing up to a bullying regime, for speaking the
inconvenient truth to those in power .That I was forced out of the
organisation having done nothing wrong, no allegations, no hearing, no
appeal just an interview with the chief executive and the head of HR
at which I was informed I have no future in the organisation. But a
bitter rant from a disgruntled departing manager is easily dismissed.
In fact acting in such a manor would only reinforce the view in the
hierarchy that they were right to get rid of me. My resignation letter
took the form of an article on the obstacles to modernising Housing
Associations as the government sort to replace Local Authority housing
provision with the not for profit sector. Using my own recent
experience as a case example.
I detailed how the culture and management style was resistant to
change. That far from being efficient and customer focused they
survived by cross subsidising from private tenants, arbitrarily
closing unprofitable schemes and suppressing wages by refusing to
recognise trade unions. The board was only interested in the bottom
line, met infrequently and took little interest in how the
organisation was run. The article was published in The Guardian. I did
not mention the organisation by name but referred to it as a national
Housing Association the biggest provider of housing and care for older
people. So not only did the leadership of the organisation know it was
about them so did every one else in the business.
I mention this now as commentators refer to the Great Resignation
noting the numbers of employees who following the pandemic have
decided that they are not prepared to go back to their former job and
way of working. In response organisations need to change, to reflect
on why people are resigning and not simply dismiss this as a short
term phenomenon or disgruntled minority.
Blair Mcpherson former Director author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk