15 Rules of Resignation by Greg Savage

“The Savage Truth 15 Rules of Resignation” will give you the road map to do just that;

1. Give fair notice. Sure, your offer letter of 5 years ago says you need only give 2 weeks notice. But you were a trainee then, and now a Team Leader. You know you will cause your employer huge issues if you leave at such short notice. Don’t do it. Provide enough time for them to get their business covered. It’s the professional thing to do.
2. Do the deed gracefully. The actual resignation, I mean. Plan how you will do it. Set a formal meeting. Be polite. Accentuate the positives. Be firm, but humble. Show appreciation. Thank your boss.
3. Don’t blab. To everyone else, I mean. Either before you resign, or after. Until your boss agrees a communication plan. In my experience, 90% of “resignees” fail right here. Just have to tell everyone about ‘my great new job’. It’s selfish. Destructive. You need to be collaborative in helping convey the message at the right time, in the right way, to the right people.
4. Offer to train a replacement. And mean it. And do it. Well.
5. Smooth handover of clients and candidates. Co-operate in a handover of your current orders, your clients and your hot talent. If you are leaving those clients for good, it’s the right thing to do by them, and by your employer who gave you the chance to build those relationships in the first place. But even if you plan to work with those clients from somewhere else, they don’t belong to you, so do the ethical thing and brief a successor. Then, when the time is right, restraints honoured, compete like hell!
6. Share the inside stuff. You know what I mean. The little nuggets. Like your computer password. Or which contact within a client really makes the decisions. Or special fee arrangements you have in place.
7. Don’t de-stabalise. Resist the temptation to vent, to criticise, to undermine and to pour negativity, like a trail of dog-poo around the office, “because you know better and you are leaving”. It’s not a good look, and it makes you look ridiculous. Really.
8. Don’t slack off. This is critical. If you ‘go walkabout’, start being lazy, come in late, avoid your admin and generally make it clear you have ‘checked out’, everyone will see that and everyone who counts will remember it. Forever. And that is going to hurt you one day. Count on it.
9. Take no cheap shots. At your boss. Your colleagues. The business. Anything. It’s weak. And petty. And very “prattish”
10. The exit interview. Cooperate. Don’t be a smart-arse by refusing to participate. Be thoughtful and constructive. Resist the temptation to preach or criticise.
11. Don’t flirt with counter-offer discussions if you have no intentions of staying.Pursuing that conversation, just so you can enjoy having your ego stroked, is a form of masturbation. And doing that in public is just not nice.
12. Wrap it up. Close as many of your working orders and other projects as you can. I had a woman once who left the business with her record-ever quarter. She left with her head held high, and we paid her bonus gladly. 12 months later when her new job turned out to be a dud, we hired her back.
13. When you are on your way out, thank everyone who helped you on your way up. It will mean a lot to them if you do, and they will remember it if you don’t. And not in a good way.
14. Say goodbye properly to everybody. Personally, not by email from your phone when you are out the door. Shake hands. Offer kisses. Swap contact details. Keep doors open.
15. Stay an ambassador after you have gone. Don’t deride your former company or colleagues. Amazing how many people do that. It’s such an unpleasant trait. Never reflects well on you. Never. Ever. So why do it?

Having run and owned businesses for 25 years, I guess I have been on the receiving end of a huge number of resignations. And it stuns me how destructive, to themselves, some people can be. Petty and vindictive. Or just lazy and sloppy. And yet, so many times, six months later, when their dream job did not turn out so well, they want to come back. Or they need a reference. Hmmm…

I have hired back literally dozens of ex-employees who behaved impeccably on the way out. In those cases the door is always open. But many more have sullied their exit, behaving appallingly and burning customers and colleagues along the way.

And to them, the door is closed, forever.

Don’t be a dick. Resign with grace.

Eastern Region Recruitment Prospects 2013 -v- The Economy

By Alison Thorne LLB LPC  Fellow of the Institute of Recruitment Practitioners  Director and Legal Recruiter at LEX Recruitment Ltd    www.lexrecruitment.co.uk

 It is brilliant to be asked to contribute to this publication, but it really is a double edged sword, especially when the subject I am asked to write about is not within my normal spectrum of consciousness.  Economics and projected overviews leave me wishing I was in the Gobi Desert after a 50 mile run.  I now find myself speed eating sesame breadsticks and making sure the wine bottle is at the other end of the house.

Anyone reading the papers will know that the Global Economic recovery has been slow due to problems within the developed countries affecting exports to the emerging and developing economies.  The IMF are projecting global growth for 2013 to be 3.6%, weakening from a previous projection of 3.9%.  The UK economy is estimated to grow by 1.1%, again weakening from a previous projection of 1.4%.  There is recent data to support a promising industrial output with exports increasing substantially.

We are fortunate in the Eastern Region in that we already have the highest national employment rate at 74.7%.  The unemployment rate for people aged 16 and over for the UK was 7.8% and the East of England had the third lowest rate at only 6.8%.  Price Waterhouse and Coopers report an improving outlook for growth and employment across the UK and consider the Eastern Region’s prospects favourably.  All in all, positive statistics for us.  However, we are still facing turbulent times and PWC advise that businesses should remain “agile” regarding their strategies in order to cope with slow growth in the UK and react to evolving global economic conditions.  Businesses trading with the Eurozone should be particularly cautious.

It is likely that the service industries will lead the recovery to 2013 and manufacturing businesses should look to exporting to the BRICs to maximise on growth opportunities.  The UK are currently behind the US, Germany and France in exporting to India and China.

The employment market has been buoyed up by an increase in part-time jobs, allowing employers more flexibility and reduced costs.  This has a negative effect on workers and the State as they are then left with a reduced income and dependent on benefits.  Pay increases have been reduced, affecting consumer spending, the knock on effect being house prices and an increase in household debt levels. 

The Business services and finance sector reported an output for 2012 at 1.5% with a projected increase to 2.7% output for 2013.  Good news for the legal sector.

Legal recruitment for the Eastern Region for 2012 has been consistently active.  Firms have been recruiting throughout the year into mainstream sectors such as residential conveyancing, private client, matrimonial, and criminal.  Niche sectors such as shipping, corporate, high end private client and agriculture have also been active. 

We have also seen several firms merge, close and start-up.  Redundancy levels appear to have reduced.  Lawyers are still cautious about moving firms these days and generally need a tangible incentive or significant reasons to consider a change.   

For the future Firms need to be able to adapt to reflect the needs of their clients.  We are fortunate to be in a region with such diversity and enterprise.  I am seeing law firms respond to this diversity by recruiting multi skilled lawyers.

Firms that have managed to squirrel away funds and remain cash rich might want to consider hanging onto it.

Looking forward to 2013, I would project that we will continue to have a positive legal recruitment environment.  Howard Whitehead, Manager at Simply Law Jobs believes we have turned a corner and candidates seem more active. He expects this trend to continue into 2013.

Stephen Drake the Managing Principal at Steeles Law reports that, “The economy alone will not be the only driver for legal recruitment over the next few years.   The ongoing changes to the legal profession should also ensure an active recruitment market.  Traditional law firms will continue to review the services they offer and to change focus where commerciality dictates, whereas the new providers of legal services will need to secure experience.”

Cambridge Law Magazine - September 2012 article

Remote working or working from home:  Motivation and procrastination

By Alison Thorne llb lpc Fellow of the Institute of Recruitment Practitioners  

Director and Legal Recruiter LEX Recruitment Ltd   www.lexrecruitment.co.uk

 I am very lucky to be able to work from the sanctuary of my own home, avoiding traffic, office politics and the continual struggle of trying to look vaguely presentable.  I established LEX Recruitment in 2007, having read law at the University of East Anglia and then the Legal Practice Course at the University of West of England.  I soon married a soldier and children came along which meant that committing to a training contract was problematical.  When the time to start work again arrived, working from home, placing lawyers seemed like a sensible option.  I had years of recruitment experience behind me and this was a way of using my legal training. 

However, there are real issues with working from home alone.  Isolation and loneliness can be a problem and occasionally I can find myself having lengthy conversations with myself, out loud.  Afraid of going too bonkers, I probably find someone in Tescos to chat to.   Also, I have a tendency to think that housework is far more important than it actually is.  By the time all the windows are clean I know that I have no other jobs to do and I should really get the desk work done.  I have developed the art of being constantly busy without actually achieving anything.   It would be great to have a boss to give me a look out of the side of their eye to encourage me to focus and stop messing about.  Otherwise, I am able to carry on avoiding desk duties indefinitely.   

By procrastinating I am preferring to deal with low priorities rather than high priorities.  This eventually starts to cause me stress and guilt.  However the pressure of the guilt can often mean that once I have turned the corner and start the work again, I am capable of herculean tasks and I work efficiently and effectively.  It is a sporadic work method, but as I am a mother with horses, home and family to manage, it seems to works somehow.  Occasionally I envy the 9-5 work method in the office.  It would be lovely to leave the other responsibilities behind sometimes.

Lawyers are now able to work remotely from home and access the firms’ case management and databases, as if they were in the office.  There are other lawyers who have chosen to work independently from home.  Mark Foley a Collaborative Family solicitor and founder of Linked Law  believes that there are great benefits to working independently and from home.  Overheads are low, you have the flexibility to work when you want.  He is able to work relatively paper free and visits clients in their own homes which has many benefits.  Mark has developed a network of independent lawyers who are able to cross refer work from each others’ clients http://www.linkedlaw.co.uk/.   When I mentioned I was writing this article he laughed out loud and declined to comment.  This has led me to assume that perhaps we all struggle with home alone working sometimes. 

But it does work; working from home is, in the main, very successful.  I have the flexibility to work all hours.  I regularly work through the night sorting emails, searching candidates and resourcing for potential clients.  I think that I do miss seeing people on a daily basis, which is now partially compensated with Linked in and Facebook.  Home alone working requires discipline and commitment.  Pressure and fear of failure keep me motivated and on track.   

Cambridge Law Magazine Article by Alison Thorne

Norfolk Law - The Eurozone Crisis and its effect on our Regions' Legal Recruitment

The Eurozone Crisis and its affect on our Regions’ Legal Recruitment

The Eurozone Crisis and its affect on our Regions’ Legal Recruitment

by Alison Thorne LLB LPC Fellow of the Institute of Recruitment Practitioners Director and Legal Recruiter

LEX Recruitment Ltd www.lexrecruitment.co.uk

Economics and politics are NOT my thing, so when I was asked to prepare an article to discuss the impact of the Eurozone crisis on legal recruitment, I found myself feeling slightly light headed and a bit giggly.  I would far rather give an update on how my horses are enjoying this mild winter.  In fact, anything EU or Euro usually puts me catatonic and when this topic was first mooted, in my mind, a naked ski down a mogul field, in full public view, seemed more preferable.

As in any year, 2011, saw highs and lows, highs notably being two Royal Weddings and lows the constant worry of a double dip recession.  The beginning of last year saw Japan subjected to an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown.   Also Afghanistan has rumbled on with our Soldiers still far from home putting their lives at risk.  We have also seen “extreme shopping” (an Ab Fab quote – I can’t claim that!) in the form of the inner city riots and looting.  However, we should be minded to keep things in perspective.   Whilst the Euro crisis and economy cause us concern and hardship, health and family should always be the most important factors in our lives.

We are almost blasé about the roller coaster of Eurozone headlines; sovereign debt crisis, bailouts, Prime Ministers stepping down and rescue plans. More recently the headlines are discussing plans to form a new Treaty to have an inter-governmental agreement to tackle the crisis.  The consensus opinion is that European leaders are bracing themselves for a turbulent 2012, with widening deficits that force borrowing but increasing austerity measures which slows growth.  The country to watch in terms of recovery for 2012 is Italy.  As well as managing its budget deficit and debt, they are advocating longer work hours and reforming laws which have so far rendered Italian businesses unproductive and uncompetitive.  These measures should stimulate economic growth, sending a clear message to the financial markets.

The matter in hand is to consider how our legal recruitment is to be affected by the Euro crisis.  It is a point in fact that employers have been “hoarding” skilled workers and that unemployment for 2011 is not as high as it should have been.  Learning from the mistakes of the last recession, companies have been slow to lay off key workers hoping that the upturn is not too far off.   Preferring to pay the cost of retaining staff, through cutting hours and pay decreases, as opposed to the high cost of recruitment and training costs once the economy has improved. 

The employment Minister Chris Grayling claimed in early January that, “the high unemployment figures are the consequences of the crisis in the Eurozone”.  However, the Institute for Employment Studies have countered this by saying that the “labour market has been in the doldrums since well before the Eurozone problems kicked off”.   However, whichever came first, whether it’s the chicken or the egg, harm will have been done in terms of eroding confidence.  Unpredictable and weak markets reduce short term visibility which affects employer and candidate confidence. 

As a recruiter placing legal fee earners to the region I can say there are the recruitment market is still fluid,   candidate flow is slow, with employees less likely to consider a move unless it’s for personal reasons.  I do not expect to see many redundancies as most of the firms have consolidated their positions on staff levels.  If there are to be any redundancies I would expect them to be amongst the less qualified staff leaving the more qualified and managerial staff unaffected.

   

And to a new year and new beginnings.   Since 2009, we have seen a few Firm merger s and buyouts and even some complete new start ups, namely BBL Family Law, a specialist family law practice and KB LAW Solicitors, criminal and litigation solicitors.  Ross Burrows, barrister and partner of KB LAW says that, “Ultimately getting the basics right is essential to our growth and development.  We are not trying to grow too quickly. However, in order to pursue our development plans we have recently had to recruit a senior solicitor - (through LEX Recruitment).”

I am looking forward at worst to a steady year and at best, a complete blinder of a great year in terms of business.  I hope you think so too!  Health, Wealth and Happiness for 2012.   Alison@lexrecruitment.co.uk.

NORFOLK LAW - Front Page Billy the Stallion and me at the Wayland Show 2011