Today, a co-worker, who partially works on my team, resigned. After the news broke, my team was called to a quick pow wow with another team that we work very closely with (and the woman who resigned is part of both of these teams). The supervisors on this team wanted to let everyone know what was going on and just give everyone a heads up that they're working out how to cover for her while they find a replacement.
But then they wanted to also let us know that there's a right way and a wrong way to leave our company. Apparently, when the co-worker went to resign, she went to the head of the office to do so (which is not unheard of, especially because the head of the office works directly with my team and this other team, and therefore works with this co-worker). From what I hear, things didn't go very well. We were told by the supervisors from the other team that head of the office takes resigning very personally and gets upset when we don't go to her first with any issues we are having. They assured us that if we are thinking about leaving because you are unhappy or want to try new things, to please talk to head of office first because this they will be helpful in trying to make things better for you at the company OR get you in touch with the right people to find a new job.
After the little pow-wow, I talked to my direct supervisors on my team because this sounded like crazy talk to me. Fortunately, I wasn't alone in this feeling. When I'm ready to leave (because I will leave this company eventually...I enjoy it but there's only so much room to grow), I don't want to have to tell the head of my office that I'm interviewing. To me that screams, might as well put a giant target on my back. I just can't comprehend this. The rationale that the other teams sups tried to give is that this IS a small industry, you will cross paths again, and you don't want to have her on your bad side.
So, what are your thoughts GC? Do you play along and humor the boss and let them know when you're interviewing elsewhere? Or do you go about your business, interview in private and resign without any warning?
