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Comment by andreyf | Hacker News Reader

I think the most polite thing to do, as an employee, is to say "I'd like to leave my position within [some time period], let's figure out an exit strategy".

PS - maybe add "I have a friend who I'm certain is capable of doing this job, I highly recommend her as a replacement if you need one."

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I agree. I think the guy has a good character, but still, his situation was very special, here where I work I can't bring non-employee and show him what I do, that would violate a lot of internal rules.

I used to be employee #3 at a small startup. When I left, I gave 30 days notice so that I could help hire and train my replacement. In response, they told me to go home and refused to pay the 2 weeks pay they owed me.

Good thing you left.

Here you could bring them to court over it. The most they can do is send you home for the 30 days (but they must still pay you for them).

I agree, and this is what happened when I last resigned from a job. I wanted to move abroad, so sat down with my boss and had a nice conversation about it. We set a rough timeline for five months, and then went about hiring my replacement and getting him trained up. I walked away with everything nicely in place, and I think it's been the best way I've left a job ever, no worries, bitterness, just things being the way they should be.

As someone who's about to do the same thing, and is kinda nervous about it, thanks for the boost of confidence :)

I just quit my job, and the first part is what I did, pretty much. Though, I came in with a reasonable offer (and in line with the employment laws here in Belgium). We then negotiated a bit and now I'm just redrafting my official letter to take that all into account. In my area (academia research) there can be a lot of training required (it took me about 6 months to get everything under my belt, but I think for the new person it should be at least half that since I've refined a lot of the material). I just hope that they can find someone sooner rather than later!! :)

At my last job, I was certain they'd tell me to go home for the two weeks (that was their usual practice). But I didn't want my projects to suffer. So I had my closest work friend and his family over for dinner and gave him a quick brain dump of the projects. Over the next few days, we'd find a few spare moments to make sure he knew all the ins and outs.

Now, finally, I could give notice. As it turns out, they "let" me stay pretty much the whole two weeks.

I think you're right - especially when you're in programming. So much knowledge is lost every time someone moves on it's so much better when there is a handover period.

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