I’ve never truly left a company before by my own initiation. My previous job ended when the company was downsized, while the job before that had an expected end date as part of an internship program. I don’t believe I will remain with my current company for the rest of my life, so I anticipate a situation where I will initiate a leave of my own accord.
Playing thoughts through my head, I’m worried that saying “I quit” will have the wrong (negative) connotation to my employer. I may be leaving for a number of reasons – personal, financial, etc. – which I may not want to discuss in depth with my employer. However, I do not want them to get the idea that I am leaving out of spite, or that I otherwise did not value and appreciate my time with the company.
Essentially, I am trying to figure out the proper way to phrase my termination of employment in the following two scenarios:
- Termination with a typical two weeks heads-up
- Sudden termination where I leave that very day
The second scenario is possible where I live due to at-will employment, where I am legally allowed to quit essentially for any reason or even no reason at all. If another company gives me a job offer with an immediate nonnegotiable start date, then I may be forced to leave my current job with no heads-up. Alternatively, I may simply win the lottery and want to retire immediately; I have charitable projects to perform in the world, of moral importance to myself, to which I would rather devote my time than my current job.
In all of these scenarios I’ve described, I am not unhappy with my current job. There just seems to be something about the phrase “I quit” that does not convey the neutrality of my decision to leave. How can I phrase my employment termination more aptly?