How to Resign from a Job You Just Started

• Schedule a meeting with your boss and let them know face-to-face that you’re quitting.
• Tell them that you just don’t feel like this was a good fit, or even that you’re moving on to a new opportunity.
• Give your 2 weeks notice, but don’t be surprised if your boss asks you to leave the same day or after just a few days.

Leaving Your Job

Talk to your boss in person. If you’re in a remote role, call your boss on the phone or video chat with them. While it may be uncomfortable, your boss will appreciate getting to talk to you face to face and learn more about why you’re quitting so soon. First, ask your boss for a meeting. You might say something like: “Hey, do you have time today for a quick chat? It won’t take more than 10 minutes.” Plan to talk to your boss for 10 - 15 minutes, or longer if they have questions. If your boss asks what you want to talk about, don't stress. You can always just say something like: “I just wanted to talk about my future here at the company.”

Thank your boss and explain why you’re leaving. Keep your tone positive, and don’t harp on the negative aspects of the role or why it wasn’t a good fit. Instead, explain to your boss that you will be leaving, and thank them for hiring you in the first place. “Unfortunately, I’ve come to turn in my resignation today. I know I haven’t been here long, but I don’t feel like I’m a good fit.” “I want to thank you for hiring me on and introducing me to the team. I wanted to let you know that unfortunately, I’ve decided to move on to a new opportunity.” Your boss may ask you to elaborate on why you’re leaving. In that case, say something like, “I’m not sure that I’m a great fit for the team,” or, “I’ve accepted a new opportunity that I just couldn’t pass up.”

Submit a formal letter of resignation. Before heading into the meeting with your boss, type out a resignation letter to hand them during the meeting. In the letter, detail when your end date will be and how much you’ve appreciated the experience you’ve gotten at their company. A formal letter provides proof of your resignation, and it also lets your boss know exactly when you’ll be leaving. Just like your in-person meeting, keep your tone positive. Even if you dislike the job, the culture, or your coworkers, there’s no need to include that information here. Plus, the more positive of an impression you leave, the better; it's never a bad idea to have your past employer think well of you! If you’re quitting a remote role, email your letter to your boss after your meeting.

Give your job 2 weeks notice. It’s always polite to offer to stay for about 2 weeks after you quit. Let your employer know that you’re willing to stay in the position for 2 weeks if they’d like you to. Since you’re new, it’s likely that your boss will tell you they don’t need you to stay for the full 2 weeks (they may even ask you to pack up your things that same day). However, it’s professional and polite to offer.

Keep working hard until your official end date. After you submit a resignation letter, it can be tempting to phone it in and not do any hard work for the remainder of your time. To stay professional and leave on a positive note, try your best and do your job to the best of your abilities up until the day you leave.

When It Makes Sense to Quit Your Job

You got a better offer from a different job. In today’s job market, it’s not uncommon to receive an offer for another position after you’ve started somewhere else. If you interview with a great company and they make you an offer you can’t refuse, you’re well within your rights to quit your current job and move onto something new. Compare your new offer with your current job very carefully before quitting. If you quit early-on, it’s highly likely you won’t get hired at your current company ever again. Make sure you’re ready to cut ties to pursue new opportunities.

The job is different from what you thought. Poorly-run companies will sometimes pull a bait-and-switch on you. Maybe you got hired as a graphic designer, but you now find out you’re also updating their website and running their social media accounts. If your job is different than the job description, it’s okay to quit and look somewhere else. If this is the main reason you’re quitting, consider talking to management first. There’s a chance they could adjust your job duties or off-load some work onto other people to make you happy. However, if you’re 100% sure that you’re not a good fit for the role, it’s better to quit now than continue and waste your own time and company time.

Your boss or coworkers are toxic. Dealing with a bad boss or bad coworkers is never fun. If you’ve realized that the company culture isn’t a good fit for you and is unlikely to change, this may be your sign to quit while you’re ahead (literally). A company culture like this can start to make you dread work, and even make you feel physically sick. In that case, it’s definitely time to quit. Your mental health is much more important than any job. If your workplace is causing you undue stress, you have every right to move on to something better.

Potential Consequences of Quitting

Damage to your reputation In the working world, it’s not considered very professional to quit a job before you’ve worked there for at least 1 year. If your boss, coworkers, or hiring manager may talk to other people in your industry, there’s a chance your reputation could suffer because of this. However, most hiring managers will understand if you tell them it wasn’t a good fit or you were thrown into a toxic work environment.

Getting blacklisted Like we mentioned earlier, quitting a job you just started will likely result in never getting hired by that company again. If you think you may want to work at the company later on in life, think very carefully before quitting so soon. But if you’re sure that you’re not a good fit for the company anyway, then you won’t be missing out on anything!

Irritating your coworkers There’s a chance that whatever you were working on (or planning to work on) may fall onto your coworker’s shoulders. Similar to your reputation suffering because of your higher-ups, your coworkers may have bad things to say about you to peers within your industry. However, if your coworkers were toxic or already treating you poorly, you leaving likely won’t make a huge difference.

Financial instability Quitting a job without having anything lined up is always risky, no matter what the economy is like. It’s possible that without a job offer in-hand, you could spend weeks or months unemployed while searching for your next opportunity. Having a gap on your resume can also be tough to explain to your next hiring manager. If you have teh flexibility, the best case scenario will be to wait to quit until you have something else lined up.