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Who hasn’t fantasized about walking into the boss’s office, saying: “I quit!” and then marching straight out the door? The rational side of you knows, of course, that that’s the wrong way to resign from a job. But what is the right approach? Who should you tell first? How much notice should you give? And how honest should you be about your reasons for leaving?

What the Experts Say Chances are that you’ll get a lot of practice quitting jobs over the course of your career. The average worker today stays at a job for 4.6 years, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “People are more accustomed to the comings and goings of colleagues than in the past,” says Daniel Gulati, the coauthor of Passion & Purpose. “It’s all part and parcel of company life.” And yet, there will inevitably be some curiosity about your departure. “Colleagues may be trying to read you and understand why you’re leaving,” he says. Remember: “You set the tone.” According to Len Schlesinger, a professor at Harvard Business School and coauthor of Just Start: “The bookends – how you start and how you end – are the most important parts of any professional relationship.” The trouble is that people tend to spend a lot of time preparing for and strategizing about their first impressions, and rarely give much thought to their last ones. Continue reading How to Quit Your Job Without Burning Bridges →