you’re leaving a company, in part due to this person’s poor management. in the past you’ve called them out on being a sucky manager (bc it affected you), so it became personal for them.
you have professional reasons: they’re lazy and incompetent. you have personal reasons: they’re biased/unfair and passive aggressive
co-workers you actually like who are equally unhappy are also encouraging you to write the letter.
so do you write a letter to HR or cut your losses and hit the road?
keep in mind you already have a reference for this company that’s in no way affiliated with the sucky manager.
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Do You Write A Letter To Hr When Leaving A Job With A Bad Manager?
Posted on March 7, 2012.
If I was leaving anyway, yes I’d write a letter. I’d keep it formal, impersonal and cite specific instances where the incompetence of the manager affected morale and productivity.
I’d consider offering the co-workers of signing the letter too. A sole voice of dissent could easily be dismissed as a disgruntled employee/personal bias, but if a number of employees voice the same criticism, HR will be more likely to take it serious and ensure anonymity. A manager can’t make work intolerable for all employees if they stand together.
Yes, and at my job that’s one of the prerequisites of getting out. Normally they will grill me on a thousands questions why I am considering quitting and if there was something in my workplace that influenced my decision to leave. It’s a tough process since I work for the govt. Everything with them is more complicated.
I would make any written material to HR ambiguous but positive, such as “I’ve had a great experience here at [sandwich shop or strip club name], but I have outgrown my current position such that it is no longer a good fit.” In your exit interview, you should suggest that your supervisor has played a role in your decision to leave, but without sounding overly negative.
If you doubt whether they will offer an exit interview, be assertive and request one, with someone other than your boss.
Not unless it served some purpose and got put in the manager’s file as a record. I’ve had several poor manager’s over the years, the last one was the worst. He was like the manager in Office Space, totally useless.
I would just send in my two weeks written on paper.. or a weeks notice and call it a day. No need to be extra mean to a moron they won’t get it!
I think in most cases, complaints from employees who are leaving are not given much heed.
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Many large companies have exit interviews, which are fine places where you can record your observations. If they don’t, it’s a choice one makes, depending on how visible the under-performing individual is, within the company. Care must be also taken to ensure that one doesn’t burn his/her boats once and forever – the world is a small place, and word travels fast, thanks to the The Grapevine Mail.
In the situation you describe, I’d definitely document my observations to the HR, and take a copy of it with me as proof that I’m not totally to blame for said incident.
It’s also OK to just let it go and hit the road, if you’re convinced that the incident won’t ever come back to bite you in the wrong place. It’s a highly situation-dependent problem. My personal choice – write to HR and document it.
Oops, I misread your Q the first time around – I got the idea that you were the manager.
‘co-workers you actually like who are equally unhappy are also encouraging you to write the letter.’ – Yeah – don’t do that if you* don’t feel like it. Don’t do it because your co-workers want you to do it. I know this happens every time someone leaves a job – his/her co-workers who have had a grievance or two with their management usually goad him/her into writing to HR. Only do it if you wanted to. You don’t have to partake in the proxy-war your co-workers are waging against their management.
I used to work in HR for a couple of years, and in my experience, such feedback used to be taken seriously. Not sure how it works in your company. If all you’re looking for is peace of mind, just leave. Don’t worry about sending in feedback or anything like that, and forget the whole incident.
*Not sure if this pertains to you personally, so don’t take my comments personally, Scabs, if it doesn’t. Good luck.