[lmilcin]

I worked in many places including ego-driven, political and/or irrational.

Leaving gracefully has never backfired on me. Actually, the opposite happened. Leaving gracefully has left me with some good friends and has led me to opportunities from people I worked with in the past and have became successful in the meantime.

Additionally, at almost every company I happen to work with somebody that I have known before. Answer yourself, do you really want your ungraceful exit to become a problem at your new company now or in the future? What does it cost you to leave gracefully?

[ipaddr]

I still strongly suggest you get everything in order (employment offer accepted) before sharing you are on a job search. Companies will start planning without you and you may not land the perfect job for months.

Would a company share they are posting a job to replace you and then ask you to train that person before they actually do?

Graceful is 2/3 weeks notice of handing off projects.

[lmilcin]

Well, you should have offer before you put your notice. I usually wait until I have the new contract signed. But the notice should not be a surprise to anybody.

I tell my boss that I am actively searching, don't yet have an offer or a concrete date. I also tell him not to worry and reassure I will try to give him as much notice as possible and will cooperate to close whatever projects we can close and do necessary transfers gracefully.

This lets him plan some things like grooming my replacement or put more emphasis on closing projects rather than starting new ones. Which is additional benefit for me because there aren't many things worse for me than working on a project that I know I will never be able to finish.

Also here in Poland notice period is 1 month minimum. Since it is calendar month it can even be almost two months. But I also work as tech lead which means there is way more projects I am involved in and way more technical stuff to pass.

I try as much as I can not to be a bus factor 1 employee but somehow there is always a bunch of things that people realise would like to get done before I leave because they know otherwise they will have to wait forever for them.

[tharkun__]

You mention Poland and the different notice period. I think this has a significance. If the minimum notice - if you can time it that way - is a full month and on average it's closer to 1.5-2 months, that is quite different from the United States, where there's only a 2 week notice period in your contract and (AFAIK) none by law.

Those are two very different environments. With a usual 2 week notice period and the possibility to basically say "I'm not coming in tomorrow" and nobody can do anything about it things are quite different.

I have never told anyone that I was leaving until I had the other contract signed and they suspected nothing. I still never left on bad terms and gave the required notice. I found that more than a month of notice is actually much easier in this regard but if the employer puts a 2 week notice period in the contract - such that they only have to give 2 weeks - then I am under no obligation to do differently. If they want more notice, put it in the contract and stick to it themselves as well. That's how it was at my jobs in Europe. I had more than a month both ways and of course I gave that notice gladly as I would have received the same the other way around.

[DangitBobby]

> I tell my boss that I am actively searching, don't yet have an offer or a concrete date.

And what if you fail to procure an offer and your manager doesn't want to have to worry about you jumping ship so they find a replacement for you anyway?