How to Cleanly Quit a Nasty Organization

Working in a Nasty organization is really a test--- a lesson. Nasty organization sucks all the energy from you, transforming you as a “living dead”. My previous article, Nasty Work Environment: Three Ways to Survive and Excel, helped you identify those hostile, toxic, and nasty organizations, their working, and the ways to successfully survive if you're in such an organization. 

In short, nasty organizations are those where the work environment is in its worst form. Leaving a nasty organization is a challenging job, more difficult than working there. You are a very good and real performer and believe in hard work, integrity, and dedication towards your organization. But your organization treats you like a slave. A slave has to work hard but cannot demand any right. Your managers are your masters. It is for sure that some inevitable compulsions are causing you to be there. The most crucial of them is your financial needs. Continuing with your job looks your only option; but to what limits? You have self-respect. You work sincerely, so, you cannot bear regular unjust, and sometimes, insulting behaviors and disgrace. You have tried every effort (as discussed in my previous article) to get recognition and to move forward, but you are not successful to adjust. The things are getting harder for your nerves. You have to decide when to quit before you have something bad with you or your health.

The Organization will not let you go easily: 

Working in a nasty organization is miserable for a real performer. But quitting the job, in my opinion, is more difficult and risky there. The management would not relieve you because you are among a few who are doing great while getting less; and are the main reason for the management to have their seats. Your departure would severely disturb the working and would endanger their positions. They have to search for a substitute of you, if you leave; and this is a very hard and laborious task, considering the remuneration and the environment. So, the management would go to any extent to stop you, including adoption of some unethical ways.

The management would oppose and highly resist your plan or intention to leave and would try to convince you through false promises of increments and promotions. But if you are firm to leave, they will try to stop you by using any or all of the below mentioned means:

• They will more over-burden you with work and would assign you some long-term tasks to entangle you.
• They will threat to involve you in an internal case or a monetary fix, or any dire consequences, and you may face a terrible situation.
• They will threat you (or will do it practically when you leave) not to clear you. So, you would not be able to get an experience certificate and another employment somewhere else.
• They can adopt any other mean to hold you.

How Can You Leave?

You are so tired and weary of your work environment that it’s almost impossible for you to stay more. You have tried your level best to prove to the management your worth but the filth the organization’s environment is filled with is so malodorous and stinky that you cannot afford to take even a single breath now. You have finally decided to leave the job. You can leave your job in either of the two ways:

• Simply, quiting the job without having another employment opportunity.
• Resigning by finding a better opportunity.

If you find a better opportunity somewhere else, then it will be your luck and you would switch to it immediately. But if you have nothing in front of you, and you quit, you would become unemployed; and you and your family would suffer the worst. In this case, the picture is gloomy as you don’t have another or next income source; while at the other side, your self-respect and your sincerity are being ruined rudely. You have to quit and you decided it. This would be the right decision. It is better to remain hungry, or even die, than to earn bread through indignity, disgrace, and injustice. So, in any case, do resign but adopt some preventive measures or ways so that not only your resignation is accepted, but it is accepted without causing any troubles to you.

1.  Never mention it to your colleagues or any body that you are searching another job, going to attend an interview, or just decided to resign. If you disclose it, the life would become more miserable for you.

2.  If you find another better opportunity and has to give your joining, clearly tell your next employer about your availability date (the notice period). While submitting your resignation, never mention that you have got another job. If you do so, chances are fair that your management will never release you or will do something tricky with your next job.

3.  Include a very valid reason, a personal one, to justify your quitting. Never ever mention about the new job or work problems compelling you to resign. For example, you may mention some very urgent domestic problems needing your full attention, making it impossible for you to continue. The reason or pretext must be such that nobody could reject it or object on it.

4.  Well before submitting your formal resignation, your face impressions and body language should be such that as if you are extremely disturbed due to a personal or domestic problem. Mention your “problem” here and there, time to time. It will passively convince your seniors that you are facing a real and serious problem. So when you put up your resignation, the chances of negative resistance are minimized.

5.  Ensure your seniors that you would be available if any problem arises relevant to your previous work.

6.  Fulfill all the procedural requirements before leaving the job. These include, but not limited to, notice period, completion of the already assigned tasks, smooth transfer of your authority and responsibilities to your replacement or your immediate sub-ordinate, formal clearance, and any other obligations.

7.  Be extra kind and nice to your seniors, peers, and juniors during this transitional period (though it will be a fake and sham behavior and you know it). Your behavior during this period is actually your safeguard against the turpitude and depravity that your management has in its nature.

8.  When your resignation is accepted, go and thank your seniors, and tell them that you would never “forget” them and this organization (Say it positively though you actually mean it otherwise).

9.  After leaving this filth, never try to contact any employee of the organization for at least 3 to 4 months. This period might be dangerous for you as your (former) organization, desperate in finding your replacement, may design a dirty plot to call you back. If any employee contact you, start the conversation by telling him/her how disturbed you are because of the “problem” you are facing. This will automatically justify your unavailability and your inability to work. Never mention, if you are working somewhere else, about your current employment status.

10.  Disclose everything after a span of 3 to 4 months, and disclose it with pride. Show your previous management how valuable you are for your current employer and how highly you are being treated.

I repeatedly insisted not to mention your possible resignation or anything about your possible career move. One of my friend was working in such a nasty and dirty organization. He found an opportunity with a reputable MNC and told his manager that he was resigning and joining that company. He did it. After a couple of weeks, his previous employer wrote a letter to that company stating that the person they hired had a bad work reputation and that he had some official funds with him still to be cleared. My friend was immediately sacked after this letter. The charges framed by his previous, dirty, employer were false, but my friend lost a good career. Another friend of mine, stuck for almost 16 years in a nasty organization, found an opportunity with a good organization. He went for the interview and was selected there. But the wrong he did was that he informed his management before going to the interview. Someone from his management did a sort of magic and his selection was canceled. These both cases show how careful and wise you must be when quitting a nasty organization.

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Related Article: 

Nasty Work Environment: Three Ways to Survive and Excel