I have been working as a contractor for the better part of my career. Due to the nature of consultancy and the IT-business in general I’ve seen a lot of colleagues come and go. Brilliant people in many cases, people that you miss so bad when they have quit. So when the ubiquitous “Thank you for the time here”-mail comes I always try to write them a short sentence saying that I’ve really appreciated their company, competence and just being around them. And it hits me every time; why didn’t I say anything of this while we were colleagues? It’s so stupid. It’s so simple. And it takes about 5 minutes to write. I always find the time when they send the notice that they will quite. So I will try this out – send people a “If you quit today … I would love to have said this first”-note before they go. Yeah, yeah I know it sounds like a New years resolution but I actually decided to do this in November. I found a great spot for doing it also. On the LinkedIn recommendation page. Then it will be available for others to see as well. It might have a twofold effect for the person in question. Speaking of twofold this reminds me about a chours we sang in the Salvation Army when I was small (my translation):
Make someone happy Try to do it today There’s so many way you can try out And if you do it you will see That you’ll get happiness in giving So try today to make someone happy
I’ll give this a try. Follow my tweets with the tag
“#IfYouQuitToday”.
After a great suggestion
from Christer
Unestrand I have now changed the twitter tag to
“#HaveIToldYouLately” since that’s a more positive
take on it. Thanks Chibbe!