Employee refuses to take on new clients after handing in their notice, management accuses them of not being a team player in response: ‘I’m being turned into the villain’

Do you owe anything to your workplace after you tell them you quit?

It takes a lot of courage to decide you can no longer work somewhere that makes you unhappy. It usually also means you have reached the end of the rope; you tried everything to make it work, and you have concluded that the only thing left to do is leave. That takes a lot of guts and a lot of self-reflection; neither is easy to obtain.

Since you reached the end of the rope, the last few weeks you have left to work after handing in your notice are probably not the most productive ones. Why would you give anything other than the bare minimum to a workplace that basically drove you out the door? The last weeks at a job are meant for closing loose ends and ensuring you will not be bothered after you leave; nothing else should matter other than making these two things happen by your last day.

That is why the employee in the story below was so surprised when they learned what management expected of them in their last 6 weeks at the job. When they quit, they made it clear that the reason they handed in their resignation was that they were burned out and felt stretched beyond capacity, which was definitely the company's fault. Then, they also made it clear that they will not take on new clients so they could focus on successfully handling and transferring their (already too many) existing clients to another employee.

At first, it seemed like their manager understood, as they handled the resignation politely and professionally. That was until the employee discovered management was talking about them behind their back, saying they're selfish for not taking on new clients. They acted as if this employee betrayed the team and that their quitting was somehow unfair to the company.

The employee was especially hurt when they discovered that their coworkers were also participating in these discussions. The question is, should they be hurt? In a few days, they will be gone, their clients will be left to someone else, and they will never have to speak to their manager again. What does it matter what they say now?
Should they really care?
via Getty Images

^{Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.}
Resigned and suddenly I’m “not a team player”

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