Giving two weeks notice when you are not happy with the place you are leaving

[Seven Ate Nine]

This is actually two questions:

I got another job (yay!!).  I am not exactly leaving on good terms with my bosses at the old place.  Also, the new job wants me to start 2 weeks from today, which means that my notice will be two days less than two weeks (turn it in tomorrow - Thursday - and have my last day be two Tuesdays from now).  How would you write the notice for that?  I have looked online and seen that many notices say that they have had good experiences and the like.  I just want out, and while I have been compliant for the last two weeks while I looked for new work, no one will be fooled by my saying nice things in my notice.  I don't want to lie, but I want to be professional.  Help?

[Shoo]

This notice is to inform you of my intent to terminate my employment at _________________ effective ___________. 

Very truly yours,

Seven Ate Nine

[jmarvellous]

I would not use "Very truly yours," which reads too intimate/friendly to me.

Sub in "Sincerely," and I think Shoo's message about covers it. You don't need to offer excuses or thanks.

[Seven Ate Nine]

Why could I not come up with something that simple?  I blame it on the fact that I spent all of last night working on my resume, so my brain is in "corporate speak" mode.  Thanks Shoo!!

[Seven Ate Nine]

I would not use "Very truly yours," which reads too intimate/friendly to me.

Sub in "Sincerely," and I think Shoo's message about covers it. You don't need to offer excuses or thanks.

Would it be innapropraite to write "Thank you" as my closing?  It's how I sign my emails, and it is habit (I wrote it on my notice before I realized I had done it).

[jmarvellous]

I would not use "Very truly yours," which reads too intimate/friendly to me.

Sub in "Sincerely," and I think Shoo's message about covers it. You don't need to offer excuses or thanks.

Would it be innapropraite to write "Thank you" as my closing?  It's how I sign my emails, and it is habit (I wrote it on my notice before I realized I had done it).

I think it's totally appropriate.

[siamesecat2965]

Short and sweet.  While 2 weeks notice is standard, its not always possible.  I left my last job with slightly under 2 weeks notice, due to the people I needed to tell being out.  I finally told one of their underlings, who then contacted the powers that be, who called me. If I recall, I gave notice on a Tuesday or Wed, and the following friday was to be my last day. Had they been in, I would have given my notice the prior friday, for a full two weeks.

I think the above example is fine, and slightly less is ok as well - people understand that most jobs start on a Monday, so sometimes 2 weeks isn't always possible.

[JenJay]

Hey, I stuck a post-it to my boss' desk on a day I knew he was off, and then split for my two week vacation so I'd never have to see him again. The note said "I'm not coming back after vacation, consider this my notice. -Jen". That was still better than the jerk deserved, but I knew I needed to make it official. (And it didn't hurt my coworkers, my direct manager was struggling to get me 10 hours a week so not having me on the schedule actually helped everyone else out.)
So yeah, I think the PP's suggestions are great! 

[TootsNYC]

re: JenJay's tactic:

I've worked at a couple of places that required me to be in the office, and not on vacation, on the last day of my employment.

[JenJay]

re: JenJay's tactic:

I've worked at a couple of places that required me to be in the office, and not on vacation, on the last day of my employment.

Oh I wasn't suggesting anyone do what I did! I was just saying that going with the PP's suggestions was a great idea, especially as compared to what I did.

My place of employment was a big corporation with a very high turnover and the only rule regarding giving notice was that if you didn't give any at all you weren't eligible to be re-hired. A complete non-issue for me (I won't even shop there due to how horribly employees are treated). Still, I did know I was quitting and wanted to do the right thing and make it official.

[Seven Ate Nine]

re: JenJay's tactic:

I've worked at a couple of places that required me to be in the office, and not on vacation, on the last day of my employment.

Oh I wasn't suggesting anyone do what I did! I was just saying that going with the PP's suggestions was a great idea, especially as compared to what I did.

My place of employment was a big corporation with a very high turnover and the only rule regarding giving notice was that if you didn't give any at all you weren't eligible to be re-hired. A complete non-issue for me (I won't even shop there due to how horribly employees are treated). Still, I did know I was quitting and wanted to do the right thing and make it official.

That's what I want to avoid.  I would not go work for the same supervisor again, but I don't want to burn bridges with the whole place.  Turnover there isn't so high (especially in my department) that it would go unnoticed.

[s]

I have left quite a few jobs without giving proper notice.  There was one place where I had to take personal leave and the managers kept badgering me as to what it was that was personal.  IMO personal is personal and I don't think knowing the exact reason should matter.  They gave me the leave but they could've denied it if that had such an issue with it.  I felt that if I told them they would then make a subjective decision about it.  Who are they to say what a personal crisis is for me.  And it wasn't something ridiculous or petty.  I won't go into here cause that's neither here nor there now.  But I cracked after the pressure and told them and of course according to them it didn't count.  I left my notice on one of the managers' desk after they had left for the day and never went back.

Another job I had wanted to meet with the manager about some concerns I had.  They were pretty big concerns and I was at my wits end.  She hardly listened to me and blew me off, then pretty much kicked me out for a meeting.  She was just always too busy to talk to me.  So I left a note with a supervisor for her which pretty much stated that that was my notice effective immediately.

Whether it makes a difference or not, those 2 jobs were retail jobs and I was quite young but I still wouldn't change a thing about what I did.  I also quit my last job without notice.  There were many issues and I was at a breaking point where being at work just made me want to cry.  It was severely depressing.  I had a great supervisor and he understood and tried his best to do what he could.  A lot of things were out of his hands though.  I took all my vacation and found another job, the one I have now and have had for quite a while.  Upon the end of my vacation on the date I was scheduled to return I did show up at the start of my shift and asked to privately meet with my supervisor where I promptly served him my notice effective immediately.  He completely understood and I am still able to use him as a reference.


In all of these situations my resignation letter was prompt and to the point.  I didn't say anything about the company itself and I left my emotions out of it.  I just said that I was resigning effective immediately.  Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

[LazyDaisy]

For your written notice I'd go with Shoo's letter, but if you have the opportunity for an exit interview with anyone other than your direct supervisor, that would be the place to give feedback, as nicely as possible of course. Try and keep it to topics the company can take action on rather than feelings -- like a lack of training/equipment or too overloaded with tasks and lack of clear or consistent instructions on their priority. If it's just a personality conflict with your supervisor, you can say that too, but I wouldn't elaborate too much on that.

[CLE_Girl]

I left my last job because I was unhappy and hated my supervisor. 

My letter included the date for my last day (which like you was a little less then two weeks) and something about learning from the experiance and taking it with me to my next position.  Even the worst jobs teach us something.  And I closed with my personal e-mail and home address incase they needed to contact me. 

[AngelicGamer]

I left my retail job with three days notice and for them to find someone else to open on a Saturday with being a register monkey.  If they had been nicer to me and not just cut my hours down to one to two shifts a week (Saturday and Sunday 9 am to 5 pm) due to the part timers needing it more because they're parents, that would have never happened in the first place.  I just wouldn't have been looking for other opportunities, including the job I took - an out of state volunteer job that had me working nearly 80 hours a week. 

Let's just say that I was not surprised when I heard a lot of people (customers) complaining about how the customer service took a nose dive in the months following.  It turned out that the general manager was treating a lot of other full timers the same way and they had enough and left for better opportunities too.