Job Leaving Checklist
May 12, 2024 10:16 AM Subscribe
I'm leaving my job this week and am soliciting suggestions for things I may have forgotten to do, like spend my FSA money and pre-tax transit money. That's currently my entire list. What have I forgotten?
If you have been depending on an online system to check your pay records, and you will lose access to them after your last day, download those records and save them to your personal file storage. You may need to refer to them in the future to deal with tax records or for some other reason.
posted by brainwane at 10:23 AM on May 12 [10 favorites]
posted by brainwane at 10:23 AM on May 12 [10 favorites]
An additional point about email—if you’ve used your work email address to register for any online services, you should change it now before you no longer have access to receive a link or code.
posted by staggernation at 10:40 AM on May 12 [5 favorites]
posted by staggernation at 10:40 AM on May 12 [5 favorites]
If you received written performance reviews, copies of those dating back 3-5 years.
If your company offers any sort of tax-advantaged retirement plan, like a 401(k), its handbook. If your current contact information in that plan is from work or out of date, change it now.
Similarly, make sure that your contact information in the HR system is current.
If you have any outstanding reimbursements owed you (i.e., for work travel), make sure you've submitted the forms.
Nuke that "personal" folder on your computer, even if it is (as it should be) merely trivial stuff.
posted by praemunire at 10:48 AM on May 12 [9 favorites]
If your company offers any sort of tax-advantaged retirement plan, like a 401(k), its handbook. If your current contact information in that plan is from work or out of date, change it now.
Similarly, make sure that your contact information in the HR system is current.
If you have any outstanding reimbursements owed you (i.e., for work travel), make sure you've submitted the forms.
Nuke that "personal" folder on your computer, even if it is (as it should be) merely trivial stuff.
posted by praemunire at 10:48 AM on May 12 [9 favorites]
Reach out to coworkers you like. You can help each other in the future.
posted by mochapickle at 10:52 AM on May 12 [7 favorites]
posted by mochapickle at 10:52 AM on May 12 [7 favorites]
Copy down phone numbers and emails of anyone (hr, potential reference, finance department) that you may have looked up using the email address book.
posted by raccoon409 at 11:09 AM on May 12 [1 favorite]
posted by raccoon409 at 11:09 AM on May 12 [1 favorite]
401(k) password info, make sure you can access your account at home
posted by Vatnesine at 11:20 AM on May 12 [2 favorites]
posted by Vatnesine at 11:20 AM on May 12 [2 favorites]
Empty your desk, completely, find a home for everything or bin it. Unused stationery can go back in the supplies cupboard.
The same for electronic files, documents in your personal areas, like the desktop/email/calendar - move anything that colleagues might need to a shared area, and then delete everything else.
Recurring Calendar Meetings can be a particular pain, if the person who set them up has left, then nobody else can modify them. So delete them all and ask a colleague to set up and own the new meeting. Ctrl-A Delete is your friend.
If you are the authoriser for anything, budgets or system access, then get that passed over to someone else. This can often just be a series of emails to the relevant teams: I'm leaving on date dd so if any requests come in for X please forward them to Y.
If you have any company equipment like a laptop/phone find out what the protocol is for returning them.
posted by Lanark at 1:33 PM on May 12 [2 favorites]
The same for electronic files, documents in your personal areas, like the desktop/email/calendar - move anything that colleagues might need to a shared area, and then delete everything else.
Recurring Calendar Meetings can be a particular pain, if the person who set them up has left, then nobody else can modify them. So delete them all and ask a colleague to set up and own the new meeting. Ctrl-A Delete is your friend.
If you are the authoriser for anything, budgets or system access, then get that passed over to someone else. This can often just be a series of emails to the relevant teams: I'm leaving on date dd so if any requests come in for X please forward them to Y.
If you have any company equipment like a laptop/phone find out what the protocol is for returning them.
posted by Lanark at 1:33 PM on May 12 [2 favorites]
When I left an old job I took my rolodex with me. This would have been obnoxious if I hadn't been working there during the very specific time period where everything went online, so all my contacts were updated in a database. I mostly took it for nostalgia, but I ended up using some of the contacts, and NOT ones I ever would have expected. 5 years later I found myself in an unrelated industry and my new company became a vendor for some of my old vendors. I would never have thought they'd be useful. So take as much contact info as you can, whether you expect to need it or not.
posted by gideonfrog at 1:44 PM on May 12 [1 favorite]
posted by gideonfrog at 1:44 PM on May 12 [1 favorite]
Save your browser bookmarks.
posted by jgirl at 5:55 PM on May 12 [1 favorite]
posted by jgirl at 5:55 PM on May 12 [1 favorite]
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posted by jeszac at 10:18 AM on May 12 [6 favorites]