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I've applied for an internal team transfer at work. I've interviewed with the new team and hiring manager and want to accept their offer.

My manager takes things very personally and I haven't worked for him very long. In my time working for him he has lost his cool and gotten into arguments with people. I'm quite shy and I'm worried about how he will react.

The main reason for moving is because I think he is unprofessional. He is new to management and only has two reports now - my coworker is also interviewing for a transfer. I think it looks bad on him so I can only imagine how he is going to receive the news.

What is the best way to tell him?

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What is the best way to tell him?

There is not an easy way to do this. Just tell him, politely, and in private. Be prepared for them to get upset, this is to be expected if they are unaware of your desire to transfer.

Be very gracious, thank them for the time you spent working together, let them know you appreciate all you have learned from them.

Then move on to the new position.

As a side note, in order to apply for other positions within the same company there is typically the mandatory "let your current manager know" bit. I am surprised somewhat that you were able to do this without informing your current manager, but congratulations on your new position none the less!

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  • telling your manager is "recommended" but you can opt not to. I wanted an offer first incase he decided to fire me... I'm genuinely worried he will still try to but now I have another manager who is offering me a space on their team.
    – Tim A
    Dec 4, 2020 at 17:04
  • @TimA That policy I guess that policy varies company to company. Everywhere I have worked you had to get your managers blessing before applying. Best of luck to you!
    – Neo
    Dec 4, 2020 at 17:25
  • When you tell him, he may come back with questions and accusations, be prepared to stonewall him, be ready not to get drawn into arguments with him.
    – Dave Gremlin
    Dec 6, 2020 at 13:20
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The "Best" way to tell him would be to say "Yo boss, I'm outies", then walk out the office flipping everyone the bird while the air horn sound effect plays.

The "least likely to make your boss fly into a rage and cause some kind of scene" way, is to have told him you're interviewing with the other team before you started to do that. I imagine that's not the case, otherwise he'd already know that the other team manager had made you an offer.

So you're in a position where you have to break two pieces of news, one that you were interviewing outside of his team, and two that you were successful.

I'd write them both in an email and send it after he's gone home.

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    There's two problem IMO with this answer: 1. humour is hard to convey online :-). 2. The boss described by OP would have sabotaged the transfer. So in practice, telling them ahead of time would not work
    – Jeffrey
    Dec 5, 2020 at 13:00
  • "send it after he's gone home" means "send it after he's gone home the day before you're due to transfer"
    – Geoff Griswald
    Dec 16, 2020 at 16:21

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