Based on a true, one-day old event.
We both were sitting at our respective desks in the cabin. It was half past eleven, and no sign of Rigan. He usually arrives before eleven; at least that’s around when he’d normally show up since he had joined earlier this week. He was sent over from our head office to the client’s place after one of the original three of us moved to another firm.
Eleven forty. Still no sign, and that’s when V called him up. Rigan had quit the job. And we sat there baffled.
Apparently, Rigan had gone to the main office the previous day and had handed over his official effects to the HR. He didn’t mention why he was doing so to the HR nor did he call any of us up that evening. But the HR was smart enough to connect the dots. However, we only came to know about it on the next day. Rigan was sitting at home and here we were waiting for him.
The reason he gave for leaving was something about relocation, and while that is justified, the one thing that we can learn from this episode is that one should never go AWOL while working with an organization. You want to quit – all right, you have all the right to do so. Inform your team, your colleagues, and the HR, and give your employer some breathing space to analyse the way ahead.
This might not count wholly as burning bridges, but waking up one day and deciding to quit at whim by staying at home without informing your team? Well, that’s unprofessionalism.