When your trusted employee quits

To declare oneself ‘surplus’ should be the aim of all managers who do not see their assistants as threats but as opportunities for their own advancement.

After grooming an assistant, it is but natural that he is expected to step into your shoes. Thus, he gets all the help, guidance and encouragement needed to groom him/her.

That person is your blue-eyed boy waiting in the wings to take over from you. Ideally, career development of each employee should be planned properly and not ad hoc.

The day the assistant comes to you with his resignation letter could well be bad and unlucky for the manager who had pinned so much of hope on the boy. It is but natural that he stares at the paper and the person in front repeatedly just make sure it is not a bad dream but a reality he has to come to grips to.

Short of breast-beating the manager is downcast and won’t say anything but to mutter that ‘he would look into it.’ After the assistant leaves the office, he has a look again at the resignation letter just to make sure he has read it properly. He doesn’t disclose this to anyone, not even his own boss at least that day. He wants to think deeply and also wants his assistant to sleep over it.

Next day, the manager is on tenterhooks waiting for his assistant to drop in and, hopefully, asking the resignation letter back. As the day wears on, he is disappointed that his assistant hasn’t changed his mind overnight.

Slowly, the enormity of the situation sinks in. He is left with no choice but to call his assistant to his office for a heart-to-heart chat. He doesn’t find fault with the assistant on whom he showers his praises and tells him, unabashedly, what an asset he has been to the team.

“Why don’t you give a second thought to your resignation? Why don’t you change your mind?” He holds, vaguely, the carrot of awards / rewards he can hope to receive if he withdraws his resignation. “I can put in a word to my boss and, hopefully, something good will come out,” he promises. The assistant, sometimes, falls for this, and might agree to withdraw the resignation.

If the assistant insists that his resignation be accepted, the manager too might act tough. If, by mistake, the boss has come to know to which organisation the assistant is heading, then he might even blackmail him.

“You know, there is a policy (may be true or not!) that the company you are joining may not take you if we request that management. So you will be having no job in the end,” which could be a mere bluff. The manager in an attempt to confuse his assistant could paint a dark picture of the new company he is joining. Then he might launch into a praise of the present organisation he is working.

“Ours is a progressive company. Those who work hard and are loyal would be rewarded. So the choice is yours.” By subtle hints the boss tries to brainwash the assistant to stay back. The manager hopes his tough talk (bluff) might work in his favour.

The assistant who is firm in his determination to seek greener pasture is not cowed down or taken by glib talk. He might politely tell his boss, “Sir, thank you for your good advice and suggestions. I appreciate these but I have made up my mind to resign. So please let us part as friends,” might clinch the matter, as far the immediate boss is concerned. But that’s only half the battle won. The boss has a boss too and that could prove to be the real hurdle. The moment the boss approaches his boss regarding the assistant’s letter of resignation there could be some heart searching and mutual bickering.

“How come you didn’t  tell me earlier,” the senior manager could react, as if that mattered. He might suggest, “Let us offer him a promotion / additional responsibility / overseas training.”

If such a carrot doesn’t appeal to the person who wants to quit, the only course is for the management to accept the resignation with regret but with no hard feelings.  That’s the time for the departmental head to inform his people that one of the employees is quitting for better prospects and the management has wished him good luck.

That would leave a better impression on the people than trying to keep the resignation of any assistant under the wraps for long giving a chance for the rumour mills to work overtime while putting the management in poor light.

Resignation of an employee, however valuable he / she might be, is part of the attrition process in an organisation. Some degree of turnover is inevitable and, according to experts, necessary. That would give an opportunity for that employee and for the organisation to find their true market-worth.

A bright employee can leave a void for sometime, until a new employee is recruited and trained. However, if the turnover is excessive, it’s time for the management to sit up and take note. It might have to change its recruitment / compensation policies to attract and retain good people.

A note of warning: Don’t take any hasty decision favouring an employee when he threatens to quit, which might set a bad precedence.     

(The writer is a Consultant Q & M)