Gen Y’s Resignation Letter: The Time Has Come

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Ryan Eggenberger

QuitDear Boss,

The time has come.

I have decided to pack up my bags and call it a career here at the company. It was a good run, but we both know it’s time for me to move on.

As I depart I want to share with you the reasons I am leaving… because they probably aren’t what you think. I also want to share with you a little bit more about my new endeavors as a solopreneur.

Before that, I want to thank you for the opportunity of working in your traditional corporate office.

You see, my coworkers here at the company are great.  Every morning after clocking in, John, Suzie, and I drank coffee together at John’s desk, checked the latest Facebook gossip, and caught up about last night’s episode of the Bachelorette before we actually did any ‘real’ work. It was a great way to waste two hours before you finally arrived in the office around 10.

I’m also thankful that you never asked for personal feedback or input into department operations. God knows a lowly employee on the front lines like me never had valuable insights into how the company could help me work better.

My favorite thing about your traditional office was when I was done with my work at 2pm, but you made me sit there until 5pm. Or if you were having a good day and I wasn’t afraid to ask, you generously let me leave at 4:45pm. Your flexibility in wasting my time fit the old-school office template to a T.

And lastly, there were blue-jean Fridays. Whoever thought of that should get an award. Wearing jeans on Fridays was a great way to show your appreciation to us for our hard work, and it showed us what a cool company we were!

But as great as it was here in the office, I’ve decided to transition out and fly solo into entrepreneurship.

My transition from corporate life to solopreneur hasn’t been overnight.  In fact, I’ve been working on my transition for the past three to six months, working diligently on my business before and after work, and weekends. I have already duplicated my income on the side, ensuring me that I can pay rent next month. Officially quitting my corporate gig is the final piece to the transition.

As an entrepreneur, I’m able to be the boss: I work when I want and under my conditions. Unlike in your office, I am able to focus 90% of my energy on what I’m good at doing, and hire out the other  10% to somebody else. While this may sound like I work less, the reality is that I actually work way more than the “factory 40”, often from 6am until I go to bed. It doesn’t bother me though because I’m building my dream doing work that I love.

Working for myself has also proven to be more profitable than working for you. Because of my expertise, I can swiftly and professionally do work for my clients and not have to share the profits with you. This is more fun and it gives me more confidence in my retirement than banking on not-so-secure corporate retirement packages or crappy buyouts.

I can also work from anywhere so long as I have an Internet connection. Unfortunately, boss, you did not allow me this freedom, even though working from home would have eliminated overhead costs for you and would have provided me a quiet, distraction-free space from coworkers to focus on my work. Oh well!

All in all, I’m thankful for having worked for you. You made me realize that as a young person, I had to get out fast or else I would settle for mediocrity like a majority of the working American public.

Working for myself is fun, fulfilling, and profitable. Quitting is winning, and at this point it’s a no-brainer. Thank you for showing me why.

Sincerely,

Generation Y

 

For this post, YouTern thanks our friends at Switch & Shift!

RyanAbout the Author: Ryan Eggenberger teaches others how to make their career, business, or entrepreneurial dreams into realities. He is also a marketing professional, entrepreneur, blogger, and social media consultant for political, religious, and business organizations. He blogs regularly at RyanEggenberger.com. Follow Ryan on Twitter!

 

 

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  • http://ryanstephensmarketing.com/blog/ ryanstephens

    Ryan – I really like the general sentiment and rationale behind this post. In fact, my first instinct was to start re-tweeting right away; however, I do think most members of Gen Y should be careful jumping into entrepreneurship. Candidly, most aren’t cut out for it.

    A few things:
    > The realities of the modern day work place that you highlight in your letter are pretty spot on, as are your advantages to solopreneurship, and for that target audience (your target audience) this post a great illustration of what a handful of Gen Y should do.
    > The truth is that the vast majority of them (not the ones writing, blogging, etc.) are completely content toiling away and working about 3.5 hours every day at a 9-5.
    > Finally, we need another letter, one for the members of our generation who aren’t cut out for entrepreneurship, but are sick of the endless meetings, barrage of e-mails, leadership that often delegates and rarely works. We need a letter that teaches them how to manage up, how to become a top performer and how to not play the games being played around them.

    This is a great primer that starts the conversation. Let’s keep having them!

    • http://blog.RyanEggenberger.com/ Ryan Eggenberger

      Ryan, I totally agree. I think the post originally came from my sentiment that a lot of people don’t think outside of the box when it comes to work. It’s a great primer to get the wheels turning.

  • http://www.faketillmake.com/ Sara Leanne – (Fake Till Make)

    Gen Y here – and I feel like you tapped into my brain to write this letter. I don’t understand why traditional workplaces won’t “negotiate” on the terms that those in Gen Y are concerned about. For the most part, they are extremely cheap or free concessions and the resulting work quality should be the real no-brainer. Great, honest article.

    • http://blog.RyanEggenberger.com/ Ryan Eggenberger

      Thanks for your feedback, Sara!

  • Tobias Strohe

    Gen X here: this is every generation’s entrepreneurial resignation letter (minus some substitutions on the popular culture main stream references of the day) and I don’t mean this in a negative sense. It’s what has motivated generation after generation of new entrepreneurs.

    • http://blog.RyanEggenberger.com/ Ryan Eggenberger

      Thanks, Tobias! Yes, it seems to have hit home with a lot of people who have tasted ‘freedom’

  • AmyMccTobin

    With all due respect, this would be a stupid letter to write, and it’s full of arrogance. Why on earth would you piss off your former boss? If this ‘traditional’ company has been around for a while, chances are there is a lot they are doing RIGHT. My advice would have been for the Gen-Y-er to a) learn as much as they could from the smartest, hardest working people in the company instead of gossiping and wasting time, and b) to leave with dignity, both yours and your former bosses.

    Since a huge percentage of new businesses fail, it would be wise to have a decent reference if you ever need it.

    As Tobias points out below – many generations before Y left work to start their own businesses – why should this one have to tell their old company to stuff it on the way out the door?

    • Laura

      I agree with Amy on the tone of the letter!

      As an aside, my friends who have decided to be entrepreneurs are really struggling.

      If you focus 90% of your time on what you are good at, you will fail. Unless what you are good at is accounting and sales, or unless you work at a corporation where they have good accountants and good sales people.

      • http://blog.RyanEggenberger.com/ Ryan Eggenberger

        Laura,

        You are right. Entrepreneurship isn’t easy, but really nothing worth anything in life is. Marriage? Difficult, but worth the risk a lot of times. Getting in shape? Could get hurt and often very difficult for many, but worth it. Working for yourself? Lots of risk but the benefits outweigh them.

        Thanks for your feedback!

    • http://blog.RyanEggenberger.com/ Ryan Eggenberger

      Amy, thanks for your input. The letter came out of a really horrible experience I had in the past with an employer. They wouldn’t listen to me, disregarded me as being too young to have meaningful input, and at the end of the day I had to tell them how I felt.

      By telling them how poorly I felt I had been treated as an employee, I was hoping to help improve working conditions for my friends who decided to stay. I took a chance- I’m fine today without them.

      Thanks for your feedback! :)

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  • http://twitter.com/majosebueno Maria J. Bueno

    Good a bit too long. My recent resignation letter did not have more than 300 words. But my boss was pure evil.

    • http://blog.RyanEggenberger.com/ Ryan Eggenberger

      Maria, thanks for the feedback! The letter in general served to point out a few different reasons why people bail the traditional corporate work environment.

      • http://twitter.com/majosebueno Maria J. Bueno

        I understand. And I enjoyed it very much.
        This is my favorite part:
        ¨ All in all, I’m thankful for having worked
        for you. You made me realize that as a young person, I had to get out fast or
        else I would settle for mediocrity like a majority of the working American
        public.¨
        In my case my boss was younger than me ( but I am not that old) but she is the root of mediocrity.

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