About this ebook
This is a hundred and twenty moments in leaving a job, written out in full, from the first doubt to the last day and afterwards. Not a pep talk and not a template. There is not a square bracket in the book.
Before you decide. Working out whether it is the job, the role, or you — and why leaving one job for an identical one with a different logo is the commonest expensive mistake there is. The two-week test. What you would actually be leaving, which is nearly always larger than the salary. Running from against running to. Your real number, in three figures. The months in which leaving costs more than a pay rise. And the conversation about what would make you stay, which works a year early and never after you have resigned.
Looking, while employed. The specific ways people get caught, all of them avoidable. Interviews in working hours. How recruiters are actually paid. Why are you leaving, and what are you earning. Gaps and short stints. References before you have resigned. And the single most expensive rule in the book: never resign on a verbal offer.
The offer. Reading it, and finding what is missing from it. What is actually negotiable and what is not. Negotiating pay, in one conversation. The start date, which is the most flexible thing in the document and the least negotiated. Comparing two packages properly. Conditional offers. And declining without burning it.
Resigning. Choosing the day. Who to tell first. The four-minute conversation, and the sentence that goes first. The letter, and everything that should not be in it. If they take it badly, and if they take it well and you feel guilty. The counteroffer, decided before you walk in. And resigning over something serious, which is the one place in this book where advice must come before action.
Working your notice. The handover that people describe for years. Garden leave. Being walked out. Holiday, expenses, company property. What is yours and what is not — the entry that turns an ordinary departure into a legal problem when it goes wrong. Contacts. And staying professional when the circumstances do not deserve it.
The paperwork. Final pay, checked against your own calculation. Holiday pay. Bonus and commission on leaving. Shares, and the exercise window that is frequently weeks rather than months. Pension. Benefits ending. Clawbacks. The exit interview, which is optional and rarely confidential. Your reference, agreed while people who know your work are still there.
And when it is not your choice. Redundancy, dismissal, being managed out, suspension. The first ten minutes, in which the answer to almost everything is that you need to take it away and consider it. Appeals. The first forty-eight hours. The money. Telling people. The gap. And what you can say about it for years afterwards.
Every entry says where it comes up, answers the two questions people actually ask, and ends with three things to check.
Written to work anywhere. No country’s employment law is stated, because it diverges more than almost anything else and the time limits alone differ from weeks to years. What travels is the shape of a departure and the questions that keep you in a good position.
It is not legal advice and it says so on every part opener. Where something needs an adviser, it says so, and says when — which in the difficult parts is before you act rather than afterwards.
120 situations · 240 questions answered · 360 things to check
