What to do if your employer is making leaving difficult?
If you’ve decided to leave your current firm, there are a number of ways in which your employer can try and make it difficult to move. In this blog, I’ll discuss how they can make moving on challenging, and what you can do about it.
How can your employer make leaving difficult?
Non-compete Agreements
When you first joined the firm, it’s most likely that you’ll have signed an agreement of this type. How long they can restrict your activity and how enforceable they are will vary. I’ve even heard of employees being threatened with poor references if they do leave!
Retained Compensation and Deferred Compensation
This may mean that you’d have to leave a sizeable amount of money if you do move.
Guilt and Flattery
Telling you how important you are to the business and making you feel guilty about ‘abandoning’ your colleagues - some of whom you may have recruited - can hit you hard and cause you to question your decision.
Promises of jam tomorrow
Your employer may offer you promises of more pay, an interim bonus and promotion if you stay - they’ll dangle whatever carrot they can to keep you, if they see you leaving as a major problem for them.
Address your concerns
If you’ve voiced your frustrations and concerns in the past or in the moment of resignation, your employer will make promises to address them and make changes. It’s easily said in the moment, so take this with a pinch of salt. Apologies without change are manipulation, after all!
Work Load Overload
If you do go ahead with your plan to leave, you may well be asked to work during your notice period. This is an opportunity for your employer to keep trying to turn you around or indeed, to squeeze as much value from you by loading you up with work in those final weeks.
So, what can you do if your employer is trying to stop you from leaving?
So, what can you do about this?
Understand your legal obligations to the letter. Understand what they can legally ask you to do - and what they can’t.
Timing: You might have to leave some bonus or deferred payment behind and resign at the best time so that you retain as much as possible of the remuneration that you have earned.
Be very clear about why you’re leaving the firm and why you want to join the new firm. This will help you remain resolved in your decision as you’re being flattered, guilted and being given promises of money and promotion.
Threatening to resign is not a good idea. As I may have mentioned, I was in Executive Search for 22 years. I occasionally had candidates go through a faux resignation with the intention to extract more remuneration or promotion - almost all the time, it didn’t end well for the individual. Trust was broken.
Remaining good humoured and completely professional throughout the process and certainly expressing your gratitude for all that you’ve learned and for the relationships you’ve gained is a very good idea.
If you’re looking to leave your current firm and would benefit from an advice on how to do so most effectively, let’s talk. This is an area that I often cover in my Foundation Coaching programme as people look to find a job that better fits with their wider career goals.