S1E15
· 24:49
Hey, y'all. I'm Nikki Winston, and welcome to The WERKin' Mommas podcast. I am a mompreneur, CPA, and award winning writer with my career advice featured in your favorite magazines. I'm sharing the accounting knowledge that entrepreneurs need to know, proven methods to make the CPA exam less stressful, and the career advice that millennials need to win in these corporate streets. You'll also hear the frolic and frustrations of a mother of two growing kids.
Nikki Winston, CPA:My guests and I speak the unfiltered, unedited truth and have real conversations about what it really means to do the work. So grab your lemon and mint water, your whiskey, or your coffee, and let's go. Let your network know that you're listening to this episode by using the hashtag working mamas and tag me at Nick Winston CPA on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Hey, y'all, what's going on? Welcome to another episode.
Nikki Winston, CPA:I am broadcasting live and direct from Midtown Atlanta. It is such a vibe today. It's beautiful, sunny, 75 degree fall day. Not too many people, not too much going on. I just had lunch and finished writing a blog.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And I said, let me jump on the mic and talk about the JOB. Yes. Let's talk about work. Let's talk about when you are ready to chuck up the deuces to that job that's no longer serving you, or maybe it never served you to begin with and you were just there for the check. Whatever the reason, employees don't quit companies.
Nikki Winston, CPA:They quit people, usually bad managers or toxic environments created by toxic people. Let's just call it what it is. There's also those employees who realize that their professional aspirations are out of reach within the current company. Now growth is a beautiful thing, no love lost, but it can be emotional if it's a great company and you've come to form these deep relationships with colleagues. It's also emotional if it's not the most amicable professional breakup.
Nikki Winston, CPA:So I have had quite a few scenarios where I left a job and I walked out the door wiping my face. Like I was crying, I was sad, my team was crying, my boss was crying. And it was when I remember that happened when I relocated to Atlanta and a couple other roles that I was in. And I was just like, I love the team and I love what I'm doing. This is just not the place for me to maximize my potential.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And again, no disrespect, no love loss. It's just it was time for me to move on to a company that would allow me to flourish and do the things that I needed to do. And there's also been some, what I'll call professional breakups that I was walking out the door literally, deuces, peace, see y'all. I can't get out this door fast enough. And it was just the environment, the things that were going on, the things that were promised and promoted that never came to fruition.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Just so many different things will have you looking for a job or leaving your role and moving on to the next best thing. But either way, resign from your job with the same energy that you had on your first day. And this is how. So first and foremost, discuss your move with your immediate manager. I have said ad nauseam on multiple episodes and multiple blog posts and multiple articles on LinkedIn, you should be having ongoing conversations with your direct manager.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Discuss your workload, your career aspirations, and the other things that your manager needs to be aware of. It could be things that are going on outside of work. We spend a lot of time at work, quote unquote, at work, whether you're working from home or back at the office. And it's a good way to build a rapport by just throwing things out there and letting your boss and your colleagues know what you do and what you have going on outside of work. So when you have this resignation discussion, let your manager know that you're resigning and any other relevant information that they need to know about the job.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And this is your manager, not your coworkers, not the water cooler friends. Your manager should be the first person to know that you are leaving the company. So after you have a face to face conversation, whether it's in a conference room or whether it's virtually, follow-up that conversation with a letter, send it to your manager and maybe copy HR, some type of notice, some type of written notice that confirms your departure. Include, if nothing else in there, your last working day. All the reasons, all the explanations, the extra words are unnecessary here.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Many people feel the need to use resignation letters as these long drawn out explanations as to why they're leaving. Your letter could be one or two sentences as succinct as, dear such and such, dear manager name, I'm resigning from exposition with ABC company, period. My last day is 09/12/2021, period. That's it. You don't need to give them a story.
Nikki Winston, CPA:You don't need to explain why. You want to, by all means, do that, but it's not a requirement. So don't feel obligated like you have to resign from a company, tell the company where you're going, tell them where you're leaving or why you're leaving. All these other things are not really necessary. The next thing to do, because we wanna resign and we wanna bow out gracefully.
Nikki Winston, CPA:So the next thing to do to bow out gracefully is to clean up, literally. Schedule time with your manager and or team to discuss transition plans for your work, any open projects that you have going on, any recurring responsibilities that you have that somebody else is gonna have to pick up until your replacement is onboarded and wrap up as much as you can. Use the last few weeks to set your successor up the right way. And I really wanna emphasize that make sure that when you leave, you set your successor up the right way. A lot of times and I I've dealt with this a lot, especially as a hiring manager when people leave the company or somebody is terminated, there's usually this, oh, I'm gonna delete my files or I'm gonna delete all my emails and I'm just gonna leave the company high and dry.
Nikki Winston, CPA:When the reality is that's a reflection of you. That's not a reflection of the organization. And if you've ever started a job and you can see, like it's your first day, you walk into your desk or your cube or your office, and you can still see like the dusty remnants of your predecessor. The desk hasn't been cleaned. The ketchup and salt packets are still in the drawers.
Nikki Winston, CPA:There's still documents with their name on it laying around. Like, have you ever walked into a first day on the job like that? I know I have, and it does not feel good. So clean up the desk, leave some notes or some guidance documents, send introductory emails that you're leaving to your stakeholders and let them know who the interim point of contact is. Hey, such and such, I know that I have to send you this revenue report every month.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Well, September 12 is my last day. So Megan is gonna send it to you in the interim. And really just try to make the transition as seamless as possible for both sides. You always wanna leave amicably, regardless of any circumstances surrounding your departure. But even if you're in a situation where you're leaving on less than ideal terms, still try to keep that in mind because once you've gone, somebody else is coming into that role.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Whatever happened with you and the boss or the company is not that person's fault. So don't put them in a situation where they're already at a disadvantage and they have to inherit your issues, relationship issues, or whatever happened in the role, just do your best to try and set the next person up for success because that's what you will want somebody to do for you. The third thing you need to do to bow out gracefully from your job is just decompress. If you're going to another company, especially enjoy some downtime, take a trip, take a few days just as a staycation, just enjoy some downtime to fully remove yourself from this prior environment. And if you go on a staycation or hell, even if you go on a vacation, spend some time researching your new company and your new role.
Nikki Winston, CPA:That way you can hit the ground running. Maybe you can minimize your learning curve and start fresh. Leave any concerns from your old employer in the past, because there are people, I find that you have these coworkers who become your friends, your colleagues, your happy hour buddies, your lunch buddies or whatever. And sometimes that works while you're at the job. And then you have the seasonal colleagues where when you leave the job, you don't hear from them again.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Or you might have a situation where you leave a job and you still go to lunch once a month with your old boss or your old colleagues. And you kind of keep those relationships going, which are really important. And actually it's perfect segue into my next point, which is stay connected. Departures from jobs do not have to be adversarial. So connect with your old colleagues on LinkedIn or by any other means.
Nikki Winston, CPA:If y'all had great relationships, catch up over that occasional lunch or phone call just to kinda see what's going on. Not to bad mouth the company, not to talk shit about the people who still work there, but just continue to cultivate that relationship. Leaving a company doesn't mean that you have to abandon your valuable relationships. Now, I'll be the first to tell you the world is smaller than we think. And you might be the person to connect former colleagues to new opportunities and vice versa.
Nikki Winston, CPA:For me, I've had many situations where I have left jobs and I still maybe once or twice a month, I would hit up one of my old coworkers, Hey, what's going on? How's it, you know, how's it going? I'm gonna be on that side of town. Let's go to the old Mexican restaurant we used to go to. And then you you catch up with these people.
Nikki Winston, CPA:It's like, hey, you look good. How's it going? How are the kids? And you might talk for a minute or two about the company and the job, but then it's like, how have you been? How are things with you?
Nikki Winston, CPA:How can I help you? And I miss you and I miss our lunches and when are we gonna do it again? And it's just a great way to continue to cultivate those relationships. And usually what happens is down the road, somebody from one of my old companies will reach out, say, hey, I'm looking for new opportunities. Do you know anything?
Nikki Winston, CPA:Or I might reach out to them for something, or they might see something that I post on LinkedIn and they reshare what I've posted with their network. So it's not like you always have to talk to somebody. You always have to go to lunch. Sometimes it can be liking a post, sharing a post, leaving a comment, or just an occasional text, happy new year, happy birthday, congratulations on whatever you have going on. So don't leave a company and feel like you have to leave everything there behind because there might be that toxic manager that you don't wanna deal with, but then you have all of your colleagues, or maybe you have other, I don't wanna call them dotted line reports.
Nikki Winston, CPA:That's such a phrase that comes from a matrix organization. But if you have maybe manager or people who are on the same level as your manager, but they weren't your manager. I'll go with dotted line managers. That that sounds better. I'm definitely a an alum of matrix organizations, but if you just wanna maintain those relationships, there's nothing wrong with that.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And that can actually be a great tool for you to continue to build your career even after you leave the company. So how do we bow out gracefully? How do we make sure that when we leave that job, that we leave on a high note regardless of what happened? Make sure that if we ever want to or need to come back, because I've worked for companies where people leave and then two or three years later, that same person is rehired. So you never know what could come out of those things.
Nikki Winston, CPA:So let's recap. The first thing is discuss it with your manager, with your immediate manager. That should be the first person who knows that you are leaving the company. They should not find out through Grapevine or office gossip. The second thing, follow-up that conversation with a written resignation letter that's directed to your boss and or HR, if necessary.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Check with your company, figure out who are the people that need to know that you're leaving and then frame your letter that way. The third thing is to clean things up. Clean up your desk, straighten it up, try to position the documents, the emails, the communication, your workload, so that the next person can come in and take over this role and do what they need to do with minimal distractions. And lastly, or not lastly, second to lastly is decompress. So usually when I leave a job, I try to put a week or two in between so I can take a trip, I can just sleep in and do nothing for a couple of days and really just shed any remains of that company, the culture, the brand.
Nikki Winston, CPA:I mean, anything that I need to just mentally prepare for my next opportunity, I just take a few days or a week or two to decompress. And lastly, stay connected. Leaving a company doesn't mean you have to leave your colleagues, leave your boss, and that you still cannot be connected with the company. The other thing is that I know people who have left companies. And like I said before, they might get rehired, but I know people who leave companies and then they come back as consultants.
Nikki Winston, CPA:So you might have left your job to take on your entrepreneurial journey, Or you might've taken another job and you have a side hustle as a consultant, and the company hires you on as a consultant for a project just because they know you and your work ethic and how you move and how you can get things done. So take those things for those of you who are thinking about leaving a company or you're about to leave a company, make sure, oh, I left this out and this is so critical. Make sure you give proper notice. I was just about to sign off and I cannot sign off of this episode without saying that. If you take nothing away from this episode, even if you don't do all the other things that I mentioned, make sure that you give proper notice.
Nikki Winston, CPA:When I leave a job, I give a month's notice. And that's because I'm running a department and I know that it's gonna be difficult to backfill my role in two weeks. So I give a month's notice and because I work in accounting, we have a cycle, we have a month end close calendar and all these things that need to get done. And so I wanna make sure that I can at least get the department through the next month end close and position the accountants and the staff where they need to be so that when that next person comes on board, there's minimal distractions, there's minimal bumps in the road and they can kind of keep things going. So at minimum, give a two week notice.
Nikki Winston, CPA:I will tell you as a hiring manager, it's almost impossible to recruit, interview, screen and vet, and onboard a new employee in two weeks. Unless you go the easy route and just go find a temp to find a job, find a temp to fulfill the role just until you can backfill the job a %. But make sure you give adequate notice. A month, depending on what level you're at within the company, a month is ideal, two weeks minimum. And I say that just as a hiring manager, thinking about that whole process of off boarding one employee, onboarding another, there's gonna be a gap in between.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Now, usually the struggle is somebody's like, well, I can't give two weeks notice because my new job wants me to start right now. If that job, if your new job won't allow you to give the previous employer two weeks notice, that could be a red flag. Because think about what's gonna happen when you leave that company. Do they expect you to leave without giving proper notice? Not, not any companies or any hiring managers that I know are okay with that.
Nikki Winston, CPA:So, but that's always a negotiable thing. When you start a new company, you can negotiate start dates. A lot of them realize and respect that you're leaving another company to come and work for them. So give yourself that time that you need. Don't try to rush into another company if you're not ready just because they say, We need you to start on the fifteenth.
Nikki Winston, CPA:So make sure that you give proper notice. There are times, again, let me say this before I sign off again, there are times when people leave companies without notice. They'll just say, hey, as of today, this is my last day. That's it. I'm done.
Nikki Winston, CPA:How do I feel about that? It depends on the situation, to be honest. And I know people who have left companies that way. Several years ago, I actually did that. And it was because it was the most toxic environment ever.
Nikki Winston, CPA:Now, if it is causing me mental, emotional distress to be in this job, you might not get a two week notice from me. You're gonna get a letter. You're gonna get a notification, but I don't know that it's gonna be a two week notice because the longer I stay here, the more the more detrimental this is to my well-being. In situations like that, or if you're being harassed, or if you find that management is doing some some flu gazey type of stuff, then, yeah, I would leave right away. But, again, it depends on the situation.
Nikki Winston, CPA:If you wanna talk about it further, definitely hit me up. Let's talk about it. But keep those things in mind. In light of this environment, people are leaving jobs or they're being let go from jobs. And it's just really important to position yourself so that you always land on your feet.
Nikki Winston, CPA:And I tell people this all the time. It's great to have a job. It's great to know that that check is coming every two weeks or once a month, that you have these benefits and all these other things, but you should never be so ingrained in a company that if they were to let you go tomorrow, that you wouldn't know what to do. You should always have yourself in a position to land on your feet, no matter what. Even if you love your job, there's nothing wrong with that.
Nikki Winston, CPA:You should always be in a position where you can land on your feet. A lot of people who get laid off probably don't know that they're being laid off. And so it is really to your benefit just to make certain that you're not gonna look like a fish out of water if you get a pink slip. So that's it for today. Thank y'all for listening.
Nikki Winston, CPA:I hope y'all have taken some valuable tips and advice from this. Feel free to share this episode. If you're listening on Apple or on iHeartRadio, definitely leave a review and subscribe so that you know when the next episode is coming out. And sharing is caring. So if you are listening to this episode, don't forget to use the hashtag working mamas.
Nikki Winston, CPA:That's hashtag W E R K I N m o m m a s, and tag me at Nick Winston CPA. I'm also gonna put some links in the show notes for you to try to jot down, keep them in your back pocket as a reference, and make sure that you bow out gracefully. The same energy and excitement you had on the first day of the job, you should have that same energy on the last day. That goes for the employee and that goes for the manager, the person who hired you. If they are so excited to have you on board the first day, that's the same energy they should have when you walk out the door on the last day.
Nikki Winston, CPA:All right. Thank y'all for tuning in. I appreciate the love. Anytime y'all are rocking with me, I so appreciate it. And until then, y'all be good.
Nikki Winston, CPA:I'll talk to y'all soon.
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