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When announcing the departure of one of your direct reports, who is leaving on good terms, is it bad form to disclose where that person is going? This would be with the employee's approval, of course.

TomW's picture
Training Badge

I don't know if it's bad form or not, but it's not necessary. All that's really necessary is "This person is leaving. Their last day is _____. Please get all information about their projects before then."

I would leave it to the person leaving to announce anything more they want to, as long as I'm not paying them to do it.

mikehansen's picture

Generally I agree with Tom, however nothing is black and white :D

We had a long term developer leave to go work at Electronic Arts coding video games. Pretty much a dream job for this guy. That we had to share!

Hope that helps,
Mike

jhack's picture

The details of the departure would determine my response.

John

pmoriarty's picture
Training Badge

As a general rule, as the manager I would just say, "so and so is departing on x/yy.. please make sure you get everything you need from them before then." If they were a good employee and leaving on good terms, I would add something to the effect of , "we thank so-and-so for their valued contributions. Please join me in wishing them all the best in their future endeavors."

The departing employee can then fill people in on the specifics if they so choose.

HMac's picture

I would leave it up to the individual to disclose.

Your role as a manager is to communicate on behalf of the company - that is, the details of the person's departure and what arrangements are being made for covering the workload or replacement.

It is graceful to wish them well and to thank them for their work on behalf of the company.

But I think that's as far as it goes for you. Details about the new company, role, etc. are up to the individual to communicate, within a circle of friends and colleagues that's up to them to determine.

mjpeterson's picture

About 5 years ago when the president at my company was fired the email that was sent out said "Mr. Blank is not longer associated with Company Z." And that was it. Nothing more was ever sent. Of course a lot of time was then wasted speculating on the details of why he was let go.

asteriskrntt1's picture

Given that we have a nice set of casts on what to do when you resign, which include doing it professionally and classily, it would seem natural that if you have the chance to announce someone is leaving, you will hold to the same guidelines.

As others mentioned, have people contact the person for anything they need. However, if you announce the leaving two days before she/he is gone, this is unlikely to achieve anything positive.

If you have the opportunity to do something professional and kind, why not do it?

*RNTT

stehow's picture

don't kid yourself, if someone is leaving under their own steam and on good terms they will have told everyone that needs to know well before you get the chance to announce it.

Steve

JorrianGelink's picture

stehow: Well said.

I had a direct who moved to a competitor because he felt the manager above me (my boss) wasn't giving him a fair opportunity and support to move up in the organization compared to what I was doing for him.

Everyone that worked with him on the team knew a week in advance what his thoughts were and some team members let me know after he left that out of respect did not tell me earlier (which on one hand some may think "Well that direct was hiding critical info" but I thanked him because integrity and respect is more important than that)

He left on fantastic terms and a month later wanted to come back to work for me again (which would have been awesome but I staffed myself up and my departments were full)

Again it is case by case basis on what you would like to share depending on what that direct wanted, with the direct that left my company on his last day he went to everyone in my store to thank them for helping him, so everyone knows where he went anyway.

:)