Asia-Careers

Career Tips

Resignation Letter: Writing Tips

To quit your job properly, you will need to put it in writing. If you have just been offered a new job, then do this sooner rather than later so that you can set a start date. Download the relevant template and simply fill in your personal details to get the ball rolling in the next step of your career. Stick to the following advice on how to use a resignation letter template:
Keep it short. There is no need to add lengthy explanations; if you need to get something off your chest, albeit in a professional manner, you can do so in a private conversation with your manager.
Adapt it to your contract. Showing that you have considered the terms in your contract shows that your decision is thought through and it avoids any nasty surprises.
Keep a professional tone. While you might be on friendly terms with your manager, remember that a resignation is to be dealt with in an appropriate manner. Address your manager formally.

How to Handle Big Personalities at Work

American poet Max Ehrmann imparted the following wisdom on the world in 1927:

“Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.”

For those of you that work alongside someone who could be described as “loud,” “aggressive” or a “vexation to the spirit,” you might take Ehrmann’s poetry as a sign that it’s time to quit your gig and find employment elsewhere. Unfortunately, Ehrmann’s advice proves thoroughly impractical if you aren’t willing to give up a job just to lose touch with that one co-worker we’ll call “the big personality” in the office.

But I think I can help you.

To start, try to put yourself in their shoes
It’s easy to fall prey to the idea that you can show up to work and try to tune out that person that most annoys you from 9 to 5. That isn’t healthy or productive. Hard as it may be, making the effort to genuinely recognise this person’s humanity will endear you to them.

And that’s a good thing.

Please don’t take that as an endorsement of being phony or going over the top to appease that person. Rather, consider it a call to empathise.

Beyond placing you in the good graces of the loudmouth, the gossip, the bully of the office, more importantly, it will humanise him or her to you.

You’ll come to recognise this person not merely as the weekday thorn in your side but as a person not unlike yourself in many regards – a person with rent, family, fears and aspirations of their own.

Pinpoint the traits and behaviours that make you both incompatible
It’s extremely easy to develop an opinion of a person and then allow said opinion to colour every subsequent interaction you share with them. If you make a genuine go at empathising and learning about this person (rather than unsuccessfully ignoring them all day) you’ll by default come to learn and better understand what it is about that person that irks you.

What good does that provide?

Well for starters, you won’t be forced to bottle up your frustrations until they inevitably blow up during an office holiday party.

Good comes from productive dialogue
You can initiate a constructive conversation with the person and relay your feelings in an honest, inoffensive manner.

Not that this is easy. This takes insane courage and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

But it’s much healthier to discuss these things candidly rather than concealing contempt. It will make you feel better and it will give the other person an opportunity to take your thoughts into account, something they can’t do if you silently stew about it.

You’ll likely learn that this person doesn’t want to be disliked either. They may not even know what they’re doing gets under your skin in the first place. Let them know – POLITELY – that it does.

In fact, if you do this, you might even learn that from their perspective, you’re the “big personality” in the office. Then you can both work together to create a more amiable workplace.

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