I have been working for more than 35 years, never a manager. I started in minimum wage jobs and thankfully had opportunities to build a great career. I share this with the intention of helping others that have less experience with various workplaces – including professional jobs, good jobs, shit jobs, and abusive managers. Please feel free to reply, discuss, and amend my advice.
Resignation letters are a formal notice document. They only need a few things:
- Identify yourself and your recipients
- A statement that you resign and the date of your last day of work
- Your signature and today's date
No benefit comes from adding anything else. Do not include why you're resigning or where you're going. This is simply a legal requirement – not a forum to discuss. This is the essence of at-will employment.
What to say if asked. This is something you must decide beforehand. The world can be a small place so it is a good idea to provide at least some verbal feedback to maintain professional relationships.
“Friends come and go, enemies accumulate.” also “Nobody is the villain in their own story.”
The Silent Treatment: Tell them nothing if you don't care about returning. Simply entertaining a one-sided discussion can subject you to manipulation, abuse, threats, interrogation, guilt trips – or a counter-offer that would likely be foolish to accept. At least feign interest in a counter offer just so you don't unnecessarily annoy them. You gain nothing by giving them a piece of your mind. You found a new job. You won. Smugly walk away into your new opportunity!
Maintaining Relationships: Only share things that can't be used to hurt you and provide benefit to somebody. “Why are you telling them and what do you expect them to do with it?” Everything you share goes on a punch list of what must be addressed if you return. If your new job sucks and you want to come back, this now becomes a list of problems they will review before they decide to take you back. Never share personal problems like commute distance or child care. These problems matter, but the employer can't do much about them and they could cause you to leave again.
I wrote up my latest resignation experience but it was a rollercoaster that made this post way to long. TLDR; A former manager screwed with my new job because I informed them of where I was going. The reasons for leaving I shared were addressed in the multiple times they offered to hire me back, including that manager no longer working there (I was only one of a handful of reasons.) I respectfully decline because I have it REALLY good where I am now and I'm not sure they will be able to keep their genuine promises.