Resignation

I resigned!

It took a week, but on Monday I finally had a chance to catch up with my boss, David, and share the news of my adventure - and let him know of my resignation. We exchanged a few emails that morning before work, and I asked him for some time to talk. He was curious, and called me when I got in the office to know if there was something troublesome I needed to consult with him on (since I'm working on separate project from him). I said, No, just would like to catch up, since we hadn't seen each other in a week. Which, on the whole, is not a big deal, generally, since I'm not doing much that requires that we connect regularly.

I thought quite a bit about how I wanted to share the news with him, since we have shared a fairly good relationship since he hired me in January two years ago, and I felt bad at some level to be leaving him. (Yes, I know, not my problem!) But in the end, I just told him I wanted time off, and that meant I was going to leave the company. He took it very calmly, frankly, admitting that he had thought something was up, as I had recently passed on some opportunities that he had put in front of me, and he wasn't sure why. There were several possible reasons, of course (perhaps including the one that I was working full time on another project?). And then he shifted into his "management" mode, and started quizzing me on whether I was happy in my work, whether or not I was looking for more compensation or more opportunity, or if there was something that I was not able to do that forced me to take this road.

Well, I wasn't completely happy, and I told him that, but more money was not going to change my mind. And things were generally going very well for me at the company. He started to do some career counseling with me, which was fine, because in the course of discussing other opportunities in the company, I was able to express my desire to manage the communication of this news with others, including my day-to-day boss, Don and his SVP. If I ever want to come back to Fannie, maintaining a good relationship with those with whom I have worked over the past two and a half years matters to me.

We finally got to the part (I think, but this conversation was pretty wide-ranging, so my memory is not that great) with him asking me what I was going to do, and I told him, go live in France - and he asked, why not Italy? since he's Italian (Sicilian, really, but who's asking?). I think I left him thinking that I just needed time off and would be back in a few months looking for another job. Which may happen, or may not!

I told David I would try and speak to Don that day as well, as David told me he would be available then to answer Don's call if Don didn't take the news so well. I thought Don would be fine with the whole thing - except for the part where he would be concerned about how to manage without me - and I was right.

I caught Don a little by surprise with my news. I had asked for a few minutes to speak with him before another meeting - but he didn't have any clues to decipher ahead of time, so the news hit him full frontal. But Don is a very matter of fact guy, and took my explanation that way. I told him that I had wanted to take some time off, to live overseas, and had planned to do it at the end of his project. But then the project implementation date changed (not once, but twice!), but that I had already bought my ticket, rented my condo, and it was time to go. He got that, it's been a crazy time in the past three months, but he couldn't let the moment go by without the request that I stay on for a few more months to help him through the post-conversion time period. But he knew as he said that, that he couldn't promise me that everything would go as planned - things rarely do!

He then started thinking about how to do things without me. And for this I was prepared, thanks to David's prompting. I painted a scenario of staffing so that the team could go forward and manage without me. And that reassured him a little bit, I think. And then we talked about what I was planning to do; and he told me that if I wanted a job when I came back in a year, I should definitely come back and talk to him. That was nice. I've enjoyed working for Don, and would happily do so again. So few people are really sane. He's one of them.

And that was that. The much-thought about conversations had occurred, with a four week cushion for my bosses to manage through the transition. And I had gotten the OK from both of them that I would share the news personally with their bosses, Mike and Linda. For which I was also grateful, since I have worked directly with both of them, and it was my desire for them to hear the news from me.

Tomorrow morning I have two minutes with Mike.

So, no fireworks, nothing left hanging in the air unsaid, just straight-forward questions and answers, Don's congratulations and David's positive strokes and finally, "I'm sad that you are leaving."

But, I felt great afterwards. Free, free at last. I was so empowered by the experience, that I left David's office, went downstairs and bought a dark chocolate Dove bar at the sundry shop on the ground floor of the building and sat in the midday sun in the courtyard and ate the whole thing.

David asked, were you nervous when you bought your ticket? I said, No. It was the easiest thing I'd ever done.

So far, everything is falling into place. But more on that later.