The Moment
It’s Monday morning, ..right after the staff meeting. One of your key or better employees calls you or comes to you and says “Can we talk for a moment?”. You quickly try to recall the past few weeks business issues and there are none that come to mind that need a personal conference with this person. You are off guard and a queasy, uneasy, nervous feeling comes over you. (Don’t feel alone, it happens to all of us and no matter how many times it has happened, there is still an emotional reaction.)

You guessed it! Your protégé, best employee, whom you were relying on to get you through the toughest times is resigning.. ..leaving you in a lurch… just when you needed him most! Even if it’s not your star, his leaving has caught you off guard and just when you were beginning to focus on business at hand…. bingo ….you get side winded.

Don’t Take It Personally
Most of the time, your first reaction is to take it personally. You feel mad, angry, cheated, stupid for not seeing it coming, disappointed, dismayed, betrayed, let down, demoralized, etc. (Take is easy, every once in a while someone does this and you are actually glad they are leaving, …saves you from firing them.) Anyone can handle the resignation of an employee who needs to leave before he is fired. It’s the unexpected one by a good employee who puts us in this emotionally devastated state.

It’s not the conditions that make us…it’s the conditions that find out what we are made of! And this is the time to be calm, cool and most of all quiet, reserved, and understanding. Never mind that your mind rushes through thoughts like; “what will my customers think… .what will my boss think… .what will everyone think about my management, …how will this person’s peers see it. …how is it going to effect all of us,” you have to, as Kipling wrote, “Keep your head when all about you are losing theirs.”

The Best Action
The best action you can take when someone unexpectedly resigns is to accept, ..yes, accept it! Be shocked, be surprised, even mesmerized if you want to… but accept the resignation. No matter how difficult things are or will be, keeping this person around for any length of time beyond the standard two weeks if necessary, will do nothing but harm. The worst thing you can do is convince him to stay. Once a person mentally leaves your employment they might as well leave physically. We have written a previous HIRING LING addressing all of the reasons why “Buybacks” don’t work. No matter how desperate one might be, no matter how tempting it is to convince someone to stay. ..don’t do it. He has mentally and emotionally left, let him leave physically.

Let’em Go
Once a person even hints at resigning, his tenure should be history. Sometimes employees will hint at resigning by having “honest, ..heart to heart, ..off the record” conversations with their boss. Most of the time this is an attempt to solicit and receive personal attention. Often the employee will see it as a way to express his concerns. Don’t buy it! Running a business on any level or size is not a democracy. We are not equal. The only redeeming value of such a heart to heart, honest, off the record conversation is that it might buy you some time to begin replacing the employee.

No matter what a manager does in a situation like this, he is doomed to lose the employee. If he patches things up by a change of duties or responsibilities for the employee or gives him a raise, etc., he has just been leveraged (i.e., blackmailed) into doing it. If he does nothing the employee will begrudge it, take it personally and within a short period of time look to leave, count on it! At such a hint, good managers often encourage the employee to leave gracefully. It beats the mental and emotional chess game of wondering when the employee will control the situation by resigning. Let’s face it, he’s going to anyway so the manager may as well get control by setting the date. It avoids the hassle of firing, unemployment, etc.

Be Grateful…Get Over It
Accepting two week notice is customary but doesn’t have to be fulfilled. Many times the employee is disgruntled enough to sow seeds of malcontent with the other employees, so it’s best to let the employee leave at the time they give notice. Even if his unhappiness is not overt or obvious, his leaving in most cases is an implied comment about how he feels. There is no reason to run a greater risk of more damage.

There are some instances when the employee is leaving for positive reasons and letting the person complete a two week notice might be reasonable. But keep in mind that protecting one’s job is no longer a motivator for this person. They are a lame duck and often going to be nonproductive since job security is no longer a concern. He can easily be a distraction to everyone nosey or negative.

Be graceful in receiving notice from employees. Get it over with and move on!

Tony Beshara is owner and president of Babich & Associates.   Beshara has been in business since 1973, and he alone averages $2.5 – $4 million per year in billings. If you have any questions about this article, please call (214) 823-9999.

© Tony Beshara, Babich & Associates