ABSTRACT
Human resources (HR) files around the country are strewn with stories of terrible employee exits that damage those employees' reputations for a lifetime. The exit interview is a formality at large companies, something that HR has to do. Valuable former employees are people who find ways to advance the company's mission. Nothing negates positive feelings for a former colleague faster than being left holding a bag of unfinished work or unfulfilled promises. Sometimes people realize that if they had conducted themselves better, then their old employer or colleagues could be business partners. Other times, they realize they were wrong and that their idealistic vision of the work world is even further from reality in their new position than it was in their former position. Or the bad manager or toxic colleague leaves the company, and they can imagine working there again. But a poor exit bars employees from acting on these revelations.
