By Rachel Weeks,

I’ve seen many articles and posts over the years with tips on how to resign from a position gracefully and professionally, without burning bridges or leaving on a sour note. Those tips are very important because we all know the world is small (especially in the digital era) and you never know when you may need to call on a former employer for a reference or another professional or personal request; you might even want to go back to work at the same company someday. But you don’t see many articles geared toward managers who are accepting a resignation and how to accept a staff person’s resignation gracefully and professionally. Following are five things I find extremely important for managers to keep in mind when someone gives their resignation.

1. Determine the plan to communicate the resignation to the rest of the company before the person resigning leaves your office

Receiving a staff member’s resignation can be stressful for any manager. Immediately your thoughts go to: “How am I going to get all of their work done?”, “How are we going to achieve our goals if we’re not fully staffed?”, “How will I have time to interview candidates with everything else I have going on?”. But the most important thing that needs to be addressed before any of these questions are answered is how and when to communicate the resignation to the company.

The plan will depend on the size and structure of the organization, but the team that the person is a member of should always be the first to know. Before the person resigning walks out of your office, you need to agree on who is going to deliver the news, when the news is going to be delivered, and what the message will be. Hopefully, the person is resigning on good terms and is giving customary professional notice (more on that below) in which case there is no reason to keep the resignation a secret from team members, direct reports, or other key stakeholders. The sooner the team is able to prepare for the person’s departure, the less stressful on everyone the departure will be. Don’t make the person wait for you as their manager to figure out how you want to communicate the resignation; it’s not just about you. It’s about the employee resigning and the team that will be most directly impacted by their departure. There is nothing worse than hearing through the grapevine that your colleague or your manager is leaving the company, talk about mismanaged communication and cause for concern!

2. Determine an end date that works for both the person resigning and for the company

When resigning, it’s customary to give two weeks’ notice and in some cases (depending on the person’s role, seniority, and other factors) it’s appropriate to give three weeks. But once again assuming the resignation is on good terms, give the person the benefit of the doubt that they will fulfill their responsibilities and set the company up for a smooth transition. This should take no longer than two weeks, but the manager and the person should mutually agree on what makes the most sense for everyone, including the new employer. If there’s a major training event happening at the new company that the person needs to attend, you should let them. The last weeks of employment with a company are not the time to nickel and dime an employee’s time. And nobody wants to be a lame duck, sitting in the office that last week with nothing to do and wondering why you’re still there when everyone else is preparing to move on in your absence.

3. Have a transition plan for the person’s responsibilities and notify key stakeholders

When discussing how and when the resignation will be communicated, you should also discuss the transition plan for the person’s day-to-day responsibilities. The manager should ask the employee to provide a written document detailing the projects that are currently in process, contact information for key parties outside of the company that a new person may need to work with, and any imminent deadlines. If the person resigning manages a team, it might also be necessary to get these details for the entire team’s projects so whoever is managing the team in the interim knows what their priorities are. Hopefully the person resigning provides input and guidance on who on the team can pick up some of their responsibilities and even help position an employee for a potential future promotion.

4. Congratulate the person on their new opportunity and thank them for their service to the company

Not all resignations are on good terms and not all employees follow the etiquette they should when resigning, but regardless of the circumstances it’s the manager’s responsibility to take the high road. Thank the person for their service to the company and tell them you wish them well in their future endeavors (it’s always better if you really mean it, but that may not always be the case). People resign for many different reasons and ultimately it’s the manager’s responsibility to accept that the person has made this decision and move on with no hard feelings.

5. Consider the reasons for the person’s resignation and ask yourself if there are things you would do differently the next time around

Most resignations are not expected, but that does not mean they are a surprise. People resign for so many different reasons – professional advancement opportunities, more money, better commute – so if you work with someone who has openly expressed concern about these or other issues, it really shouldn’t be a surprise when they resign. If employees are resigning because of long commutes, perhaps the company should reconsider its work from home policy. If employees are resigning because they can make more money elsewhere, perhaps the company needs to review its salary structure relative to the current market. If someone has been in the same role for many years and they’ve been passed over for promotions, consider whether there was an opportunity for further professional advancement that you or the employee didn’t necessarily consider at the time.

When an employee resigns it creates uncertainty which inevitably creates stress. But how a manager handles the resignation and the days and weeks that follow can have a significant impact on the rest of the organization. As a manager, sometimes it’s traumatic when an employee resigns and sometimes it’s a relief. But either way, the manager sets the tone for what happens after the resignation is given. That tone has a ripple effect on both the immediate and long-term future of employees across the company.