Don't burn your bridges

Even as you become more and more unhappy in your job, try not to take your anger and frustration out on your boss and your colleagues.

Your professional network is extremely valuable. No matter what your reason is for leaving a job, never burn the bridge when you move on.

We have all heard of people who have told the Boss to "F Off" when they dramatically throw down the gauntlet and stalk out the door.

It is a well known fact that employees usually leave the job due to bad management and not the job itself.

I know how that feels. I stuck it out in a job for almost 6 years, because the job was interesting despite the terrible management and the bullying supervisor I had to put up with.

I actually stuck it to the boss when I got married by taking 2 weeks off - 1 week before my wedding and one week after - then coming back to work for one more week before resigning altogether.

I had more than enough leave to cover all this time off, and the boss really could not say NO. I resigned because I was moving to a new country. 

That last week at work was horrible because I was given all the shitty jobs to do. But again, I stuck it out and stayed quiet.

One of the reasons why the management was so poor, was because the boss (and owner) was an older fellow (in his 70's) and he was NOT willing to change with all the new technology. He was starting to lose customers when I left. And yes this was a small PRIVATE company - with NO shareholders.

Four years after I left, I discovered that the business was taken over by one of its competitors and now no longer exists. The bosses son chose not to take over and modernise the business.

So the message is...

Even if you are mad at the boss when you leave, do not mouth off at him as you leave, because you never know when you might meet up with your colleagues in some other job, many years in the future.

You do NOT want a former colleague telling the potential new boss that you are an unstable worker because you once quit while telling the boss to "F Off!!"