Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Things to do in your notice period...

  • Plan, document and share a list with things that you will to complete during your notice period.
  • Prepare a manual that captures everything that your team or manager might require in your absence.
  • Documentation would help your colleagues to deal with things in your absence or at least till they identify your successor.
  • If you have some time to spare, volunteer to help out colleagues with their work.
  • Help your manager with the process of identifying your successor. Even helping with interviews would suffice.
  • Be ready to take calls or mails (for atleast a week) from your manager/team member asking for your help while your successor/manager works through the transition period.
Take a minute and re-read the points above. To be honest, you would want your team member or peer or even your manager to do these things during their notice period! It’s always good to leave on good terms with an employer. Getting good references are one part of the deal. The other part, and the important part, will be if you cross paths with your manager/peer in the future, they’ll be more than happy to recommend you to be hired.

OR
  • Walk in late to work everyday.
  • Don’t care a damn about the remaining work in the project. Someone else will clean your mess. No?
  • Delay sending your reports and don’t get on any conference call(s).
  • Don’t agree to take on more work, after all you’ve resigned. How can they allot new/more work to you? Absolutely crazy, no?
  • Spend a ton of time on social networking sites.
  • Delete everything from your mailbox. Everything.
  • Send a farewell mail ranting about everything from the a/c, cafeteria, and size of your cubicle and color of the walls!
And before you actually exit the company; you can be rest assured that you’ve burnt enough bridges to last a lifetime. Even worse, you could be at the receiving end of such treatment at a later stage in your career. Ever thought about that? Maybe, it’s time.