How to Give Your 2 Weeks Notice

Giving your two weeks notice might be the most stressful task you’ll undertake at any corporate job. It can be extremely uncomfortable to tell your manager that you’re leaving your job. What if they try to convince you to stay? What if they try and disprove your reasons for leaving? What happens if you leaving upsets them? Having gone through a handful of these conversations thus far in my career, I’ve learned several key aspects are crucial to ensure that giving your two weeks notice to your employer goes as smoothly as possible. In this article, I’ll walk you through the steps I take each time I decide to leave a company.

1. Ensuring You’re Sure

The first aspect of giving your two weeks’ notice to any employer is ensuring you’re sure. The last thing you want is to leave your job just to regret your decision a few days later. Because of this, the first step in my leaving any job often involves deep introspection to understand what is causing me to leave my job. Am I running away from something at work? Or am I running towards a new, more exciting opportunity?

Personally, whenever I start getting the itch to leave a job, I normally sit on my hands for a bit. This allows me time to scrutinize what I’m feeling and why. I’ve also noticed that doing this tends to yield even more clarity. As time goes on, I’ve tended to become more and more confident in my decision to leave which helps me minimize my chances of regretting my decision.

Giving myself time to process my thoughts and not make an impulsive, emotional decision to leave a company also allows me to evaluate the items that are pushing me to leave. Once I’ve identified the items or feelings that are contributing to my wanting to leave my job I then think about if I have the power to change or improve any of them. If I do, I can work to change them and then reevaluate after some time to determine if leaving is still the right decision.

2. Make a Plan

If you’ve gone through the above steps and still believe leaving your company is the right decision, the next thing you need to do is create a plan of how and when to leave. When you leave can make a world of difference financially, while leaving is the most important goal to accomplish, you should strategically consider specific items like (if you don’t, you could be leaving money on the table):