by Kenneth Andrews

Created on: December 13, 2010

When you land a new job, the sense of elation and euphoria is immense. Even if you quite liked your current job, you may still feel frustrated at the process of working out your notice and all the associated admin. But it is very important that you don't burn any bridges with an employer when you leave your job, and below is some advice on how to avoid demolishing any reputation you've built up in your job in your last few days.

Adopting the correct attitude is essential. However you feel about your current job, you're getting what you want by leaving. To avoid burning bridges, it's a good idea to be as accommodating as possible to the needs of your employer during your final weeks with a company. For example, depending on the terms of your contract, you will probably have to give a month's notice before you can leave your current job. Regardless of your contractual obligations, however, if you have been offered a job that starts further in the future, always give your employer as much notice as you possibly can. Recruitment is an expensive and fraught business for employers, and if they have a bit longer than a month to find your replacement, they will certainly appreciate it.

Once embarked on your notice period, you have two main options. You can either carry on working hard, and prepare a handover document full of tips and procedures for your replacement, even helping to train them if they are appointed before you leave - or you can turn up to work late, leave early and spend all day surfing the Internet on the grounds that 'they can't sack me, I'm leaving'.

While this is probably true, a person working their notice period with this attitude can really lower morale and productivity across a whole office, and it will be resented.

In addition to just doing the job that you're being paid for, and giving as much notice as you can, you can also avoid burning bridges when leaving a job by taking a bit of time to talk to all your colleagues personally and tell them where you are going and why. Don't look at this as an opportunity to stick the knife into your current boss, but if you have been working with people for any length of time and have built up a relationship with them, they could be offended and upset if you just flounce out of the office one day with no warning, or rely on HR to send an email round telling everyone you're going.

Do not badmouth your old job at all, either before you leave, or when you start your new position. This

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