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I've only ever left jobs while working in office. In those cases it's usually sufficient to talk to my manager and news spread pretty organically amongst the people present in the office.

Now I work remotely and I'm about to hand in my notice and I'm wondering communicating departures works in the context of less organic news spread / chatting needing to be initiated explicitly via slack messages etc.

The company is pretty small (<30 ppl). I've personally only worked with a couple of them though and interacted at all with maybe 7 other people. More recently I've been work on a project alone.

Do I post a message on the general company-wide slack channel? Do I reach out directly to people I've worked with? To the ones I've interacted with? Or similarly to working in an office, do I just inform my manager and let them spread the news?

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  • Regarding the close vote: I have never heard of a company that had an actual policy about who announces an employee’s departure. I don’t think asking OP to consult the handbook would actually work here.
    – BSMP
    Jun 23, 2022 at 20:24
  • @BSMP I've seen a few questions where someone asked about how to keep in touch or say goodby when their employer had a say nothing policy, or anyone resigning was immediately sent home. Jun 23, 2022 at 23:08

2 Answers 2

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tl;dr - let the manager break the news of your departure; after that, connect 1:1 with anyone you like

Do I post a message on the general company-wide slack channel?

My 2 cents: skip the general public announcement, unless it's very brief. I've seen people do it, sometimes writing a lot of text. It always feels weird.

Do I reach out directly to people I've worked with?

Absolutely, yes. It's totally appropriate to ping anyone you've worked with, say your goodbye, maybe offer to hop on a video call (if you feel that's a good idea). And say whatever things you'd like to say (it's been great working with you, thanks for your help with xyz, etc., best of luck, stay in touch, etc). It doesn't need to be everyone, if there's anyone you aren't comfortable reaching out, maybe you only know them a little bit, it's not the end of the world to skip them, but also easy enough to send a message (email, Slack, etc.) and just say goodbye.

Or similarly to working in an office, do I just inform my manager and let them spread the news?

It is a very good idea to give the manager the chance to break the news, as opposed to you breaking the news (even if 1:1 with someone you know). Letting the manager break the news, timing, etc. is good, but once that happens, then yes it's totally good to connect with people individually. The only reason to skip this part (that is, to break the news yourself) is if the manager doesn't break the news until after you're gone (and it doesn't sound like that's going to happen here).

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I would reach out to the people that you have had day to day contact with. It is polite and also they may be future colleagues.

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