Receive the resignation well

Career · Little Light original

A colleague asks for a private conversation and tells you they are leaving. Before they finish, you may already be calculating the gap: the knowledge walking out, the deadline now at risk, the work required to replace them. Those concerns are real, but they do not need to become the first thing the person receives. Thank them for telling you directly. Listen for what they are ready to share without turning the meeting into a defence of their decision. There will be time to plan the handover, understand what the organisation can learn, and decide which responsibilities should not simply be passed unchanged to someone else. Leadership includes the way people are allowed to leave. A respectful ending does not deny the inconvenience or pretend every departure is good news. It recognises that work was a relationship, not a debt that can only be repaid by staying. The remaining team will notice whether care disappears when someone's future takes them elsewhere.

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