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You are leaving your job for any number of reasons but one primary factor may be dissatisfaction with your current employer.
You're a bright, talented person and you feel that they don't fully appreciate your talents. Or it could be that your boss is an arsehole, the pay is rubbish and the building stinks of rotten fish. It might be that your have no problem with your job at all but have received an offer that you simply can't afford to miss

So you have come to that most important of communications, your letter of resignation.

Inside you are seething with rage but on the outside you must be calm, factual, polite and professional.

Do the restrictions listed above place you in a difficult situation? Are you having trouble getting all the bad stuff out of your head?

Here are a few tips for getting around the rage and getting that letter written.

1. Remember that the letter isn't a great work of literature. You have only one thing to say, so say it and shut up.

2. If you can't get the bad stuff out of your head write the venomous letter, get it out of your system, then delete it and start again. It can be very therapeutic to vent yourself.

3. Keep it short. Don't go too deeply into your reasons, if they want to know they will ask you.

4. Check it for spelling mistakes

5. Print it on clean white paper, sign it with a proper pen and fold it properly to fit the envelope. - nothing looks worse than a scruffy letter. Look on the resignation letter as the last courtesy you pay to your old boss.

I would advise you to use the following general layout:

Dear [name]

Please accept this letter as my formal letter of my resignation from my position of [job title].

I would like to thank you for the opportunities this employment has afforded me,

Yours sincerely,

Nothing more than this is needed to get the process of ending your employment under way.

It is polite, formal and offers a conciliatory word as well. What more could any boss ask for?

The best reason for not venting your spleen in a resignation letter happened to a friend of mine some years ago. We were working for a company that was in a growth phase, things were tough and a lot of stress had been placed on the managers to get things done in time. My friend felt dissatisfied that he was being asked to do more work for less money and decided, after allowing his grievances to fester, to leave.

His resignation letter was the sort that needed to be written on flame-proof paper, he ranted for four pages about the management of the company, using every insult known to man and a few he made up himself. It was a masterpiece of vitriol. He left and went to another company.

A year later our company was in the process of buying out, yes you guessed it, the company that he had gone to. It was an embarrassing situation for him and he had a lot of trouble making his peace.

Learn more about this author, Jeff Dray.
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