Announcing Your Retirement

Topic for today…When to let people at work know you are retiring.

This one is fresh out of current experience. I have a close friend who just told two of his favorite people at work the secret that he was going to retire in a year or two. No problem…these are two of his closest friends at work…they would not tell anyone.

Uh oh…something changed at work. The current boss is a goner and there is a new boss coming aboard. First meeting with the new boss and he says “I hear you will not be with us much longer. When do you plan to retire.” Wait a minute…how did that word get out? How indeed.

Or…as happened to me…I had a contractual reason that I had to give one full year notice of my retirement (try not to have to do that…I promise you that the next full year will suck once that word is out). I marched down to HR in the morning and handed in my paperwork to retire a year down the road. Went to lunch with some of my peers at noon. First topic of conversation “Hey Don, I hear that you are hanging them up.” How did that happen? How indeed.

If you plan to retire, keep that to yourself until the day you must give notice. There is no upside to telling people early. If you think that no one would use that information to their advantage…think again. You may also think that every one at work will remain your close friend when you leave…some will…many will not. Things change once you are gone.

Try not to shoot yourself in the foot. Keep your private business…private.

Aloha,

Don Hurzeler