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Subject:Re: FWD: When to leave? From:"Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:22:46 -0800
I'll second this, especially the last point. Do not work for free, and do not
load
yourself down with OT hours (especially the unpaid kind) that will distract you
from what has to start becoming your first priority: firing up your search for a
new job.
Cut your hours to a standard eith hour day. Complete whatever you can that
was already scheduled to be completed before your end date within those
hours. Spend any remaining time on the job summarizing what you were
doing and briefing those who will have to worry about it after you're gone.
If there's anyone with whom you feel a special working bond, provide contact
info and offer to answer any questions they may have that you can answer
from memory, but make any such offer a strictly personal one, and be clear
that once you have terminated you will no longer have access to company
data and that what you can recall from memory is going to fade quickly as
your attention becomes more concentrated on what you have to do next.
As I said before, it's admirable that you would like to help people and/or
groups who had nothing to do with your termination, but someone who
outranks all of them has decided that the company can get along without
you, and getting them used to life without you while they still have time to
scream bloody murder to whoever might have some power to do
something about their new situation will in the long run be of more "help"
to them than trying to advance projects you have no hope of completing
before your termination date.
> As far as when to leave - cap it at January 2nd, the last day you actually get
> paid for. I realize things may be left undone, but that's the company's
> problem. If they're greatly concerned about having documentation left undone,
> they shouldn't have gotten rid of you, right? For the next time the company
> has to think about laying off another writer, do not set the dangerous
> precedent of working for nothing.
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