I must be going now: Reflections on how to leave a job

Abstract

Inevitably at some point in your library career you will leave your job. Maybe you get promoted or find a job in another organization, or maybe you are retiring or leaving the profession altogether. Certainly not all good-byes are joyous ones, and some can be quite fraught. Regardless of the reason, how a practitioner leaves their job can have as much impact on the organization as what they did while in the role.

As a library administrator I have found myself on both sides of the leaving equation: both starting a job at a new organization and trying to pick up the pieces after a member of my team made a less-than-graceful exit. Like so many things, we are not taught how to leave a job in library school, nor are there often workshops or training on how best to do so.