How to catch hold of a disorganised boss to resign?
November 4, 2014 2:59 AM   Subscribe

I've gotten a job offer I'm happy with. My boss is the distracted, goalpost-is-always-moving kind of guy. As in, his schedule changes day to day, always last minute, even up to the hour before. How is the best way to catch him to advise of my resignation?

Specifics are--the new place wants to hear back from me by Thursday (it's now Tuesday night and made up my mind at work today). My current boss has been "wanting to catch up" (he's a standing meeting sort of guy) since Friday but, as per the goalpost-is-always-moving, it got pushed back to Monday, and then didn't happen, and I knew then that I wouldn't have any free time today so I told him tomorrow (Wed) and who knows if he'll stick to his word...but if he does, how would I then catch him on Thursday or Friday (after I've accepted the other place) to resign?

And even if our catch up doesn't happen tomorrow or Thursday or Friday, how do I catch him (period) to resign? The other place can't wait because the person who's leaving leaves this week I believe, and I have to give 4 weeks' notice, so I'd rather not leave it till Monday, and anyway that's again no guarantee I'll catch him.

Also in case anyone wondered how I previously caught a hold of him, it either didn't really matter when (majority of time unfortunately, which mean working time on things got blown out to weeks or months) or it was scheduled as a matter of emergency and that's only happened once when he needed to give the ok on my work because it would help us pass accreditation for our hospital which I think was impending with a month to go. Things have reverted back to laissez faire since we passed. So yeah there's no fixing meetings with this guy unless, well, it's an emergency but how can I emphasise this without sort of giving myself away before the time?

tldr; how do you catch hold of a boss who's disorganised and who always seems to have some last minute thing turn up and therefore always pushing back everything, so that you can resign?
posted by glache to Work & Money (17 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Email.
posted by empath at 3:03 AM on November 4, 2014 [25 favorites]


Or just tell HR or his boss and let them tell him. If your boss is impossible to reach, that is his problem to sort out, not yours.
posted by empath at 3:06 AM on November 4, 2014 [11 favorites]


yea, e-mail is fine. And it gives you the chance to put everything down as diplomatically as you like, and is then a record of your intentions - his disorganization can't interfere with your giving proper notice.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 3:12 AM on November 4, 2014 [7 favorites]


I would submit a letter of resignation (hard copy, not e/mail) with a cc to the HR department and, of course, a copy for yourself. If there is some sort of 4 weeks notice requirement, you'll want to be able to document the dates.
posted by HuronBob at 3:19 AM on November 4, 2014 [9 favorites]


Email:

Dear Boss, I had hoped to catch you in person but this has not been possible. This letter is to inform you I am resigning with four weeks notice. I intend XXX to be my last date with the company.

Add something about enjoying your time with the company but good opportunity etc here if desired.

local formal sign off,
glache

You can always email and put a dated hard copy on his desk if desired, but just the hard copy option would be a bit dickish if he might not see it for a week.
posted by biffa at 3:20 AM on November 4, 2014 [16 favorites]


You could also just physically walk up to him while he's sitting down and say "Hi Bossname, can we catch up for a second?" Walk him into an empty conference room and tell him. If he says no or "let's wait til tomorrow/Thursday" say OK and then email him.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:48 AM on November 4, 2014 [5 favorites]


My first step would be to email him about your scheduled meeting.

"Boss, something's come up that I'd like to talk to you about sooner rather than later. Are you sure we can't fit that meeting in today?"

If he says Wednesday for sure, then hold him to it; talk to him Wednesday. If he sends you an email Wednesday afternoon saying he needs to wait till Thursday, you send him biffa's email.

If he replies to that initial email with "what's up?", I would make an attempt to contact him in person, swing by his office (or call) and spend 60 seconds to tell him in person that you'll be resigning and when you expect you last day to be. "That actually takes care of the urgent part of the meeting. We should still talk at some point about what I need to do for the best transition for the team. Is Friday good?"
posted by aimedwander at 5:19 AM on November 4, 2014 [2 favorites]


I worked remotely in my last job, and my boss tended to miss meetings or reschedule them. I IMed him, which was our usual mode of communication and said "Hey, I know you're probably swamped right now, but I really need to talk to you for a couple of minutes today. When are you available?"

It was vague, but obviously important, and while he didn't ask, he was not surprised when the meeting came up and I tendered my resignation. So, obviously I tipped my hand, but that's fine. It doesn't matter. What matters is that you manage to tell him, and if he guesses what's up by the way you request time to tell him, that's not actually a problem. So, don't worry about tipping your hand -- the whole point is to let him know.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:19 AM on November 4, 2014 [7 favorites]


If I were your boss, I'd want to know sooner rather than later. It should only take 2 minutes - corner him when you see him, don't even schedule a meeting (what can he do to you? fire you?). If that proves to be impossible, then email him & back it up with a signed hard copy.
posted by mr vino at 5:46 AM on November 4, 2014


If the meeting happens Wednesday, tell him on Wednesday. I'm not sure why you think you need to wait until Thursday. You can also accept the new job sooner than Thursday.
posted by jaguar at 5:56 AM on November 4, 2014


Just email him, and CC his boss and the personnel department. It's not like you owe them two weeks notice, even if doing so is still the "professional" thing to do.
posted by starbreaker at 7:09 AM on November 4, 2014


" It's not like you owe them two weeks notice, even if doing so is still the "professional" thing to do."

He might owe notice, since OP's question mentions this:

OP: "The other place can't wait because the person who's leaving leaves this week I believe, and I have to give 4 weeks' notice"

So we're all assuming OP is under some kind of contract dictating this notice. Maybe OP can clarify? If there IS a contract, perhaps it describes the exact way to serve notice?

(But yeah, if there's not a contract and you're in an at-will state, 2 weeks is a courtesy and is not required. They don't give you two weeks notice when firing you, right?)
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:47 AM on November 4, 2014


It's like serving someone with papers -- catch him in person if you can and give him an actual letter, which is what I did with my similarly flaky boss.

If you like your boss despite the flakiness, make it a nice letter. If not, stick to the facts.
posted by vickyverky at 8:05 AM on November 4, 2014


Tell him it's important and you need to talk to him. He likely flaky because stuff doesn't really matter that much. If you tell him you must talk to him, I'm sure he will find the time. It doesn't even need to be a formal meeting, just walk into his office when it's open and tell him you need a couple minutes. If you just are hoping to passively "catch him" when he calls you over, then yeah, you won't ever talk to him. You can also just do it over email if you aren't seeing him in the office.

Also, if you are going to accept the job anyway, why do you even need to tell him about it first? Accept the job either way and when you can let him know, let him know. Unless you expect him to can offer something to make you stay, just accept the new job now.
posted by AppleTurnover at 10:53 AM on November 4, 2014


Response by poster: Yeah no this would be after I accept the job, but if he calls me in early thismorning for our normal "catchup" before I have time to phone the other guy back and accept, then yes I'll need to advise him of my resignation separately. No my job is permanent ongoing, but the award agreement by which we're covered, clearly states 4 weeks (I went and checked it myself). If I could get away with 2 weeks I would've, I don't want to have to deal with the stares of toxic colleagues for 4 weeks.
posted by glache at 12:26 PM on November 4, 2014


This is what resignation letters were invented for.

If you've got some requirement to give 4 weeks notice instead of two you'll need a record that you've done that anyhow.
posted by yohko at 7:43 PM on November 4, 2014


Accept the job now.

Inform HR of your resignation after you have accepted - see if you are able to negotiate a shorter notice period, because you have nothing to lose by doing so. Given them a written resignation letter - Biffo's template is good.

Email a copy of your resignation to your boss, with an offer to discuss the issue when he has time.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:26 PM on November 4, 2014


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