Have you ever heard the old saying, “Don’t burn your bridges?” Well it rings so true when you are transitioning from one job to another.

Many people will give no consideration as to how they act on their final days of one job and instead sloth around until their new job begins. This is bad and not only shows a lack of respect, but a lack of professionalism as well.

To start with, you should always give your current employer the courtesy of at least two weeks’ notice before you high tale it to another job. Any employer who hires you will likely be sympathet ic to this request as they no doubt would expect the same thing if you were leaving their employment. If you have a complex job that requires you to train someone else then you may want to offer to stay on a little longer than two weeks.

With the remaining time at your job you should conduct business as usual. Even if the job brought you little cheer while you worked there, you still need to be the bigger person and give all you can until you leave. This will leave your old employer to only have great things to say about you which is pretty good in the end.

The point is that you should always finish what you start and a job is no different. Give all the effort you can until the last hours and minutes of your employment and always leave by thanking your now past employer with a thank you.  After all, the corporate world is sometimes a small one and you don’t ever want to burn a bridge as you may need to cross it again sometime in the future.