Here’s a story about one of my finest professional moments. And by "finest," I mean one of the most spectacular own goals I've ever scored.

It was during my early years in corporate, before I'd accumulated enough wisdom to fill a Post-it note. I'd landed what I thought was a better opportunity, handed in my notice with barely concealed excitement (the kind that makes your manager feel truly special), and proceeded to spend my notice period doing what many people do: the absolute minimum.

I half-finished the handover documents. I skipped a few key meetings. I may, and I say may, have spent an inordinate amount of time updating my LinkedIn profile from the office computer. By the time I walked out the door, I'd left behind a trail of unfinished work, confused colleagues, and one manager who wore the expression of a man who'd been handed a particularly problematic inheritance.

I didn't burn that bridge. I detonated it.

Three years later - as tends to happen - I needed a reference from that same manager for a role I genuinely wanted. I rang. It went to voicemail. I rang again. Voicemail. I sent an email. Silence of the most profound and eloquent kind.

The universe, it turns out, has a very long memory. And so do managers.

Here's something nobody tells you when you're buzzing about a new job offer: the way you leave your current role is being watched, logged, and filed away. Not in a sinister corporate surveillance kind of way — more in the human, interpersonal, "we remember how people behaved when they thought it didn't matter anymore" kind of way.

Your new employer will ask how you left your last one. And the person sitting across the desk from you in that reference call? That's often the manager you either impressed or inconvenienced on the way out.

The exits that people think they're getting away with are rarely forgotten. The colleague you ghosted during handover? She's now a VP at a competitor. The team you left in the lurch with an undocumented process nobody understood? Three of them are in your industry network. The bridges you burn today are doors you close tomorrow - and sometimes, it takes years before you realise they were ever doors at all.

Leaving well is not about being sycophantic or pretending a job was wonderful when it wasn't. It's a professional skill. And like most professional skills, it's one that the majority of people simply haven't developed.

Let's fix that.

1. See out your notice period. Properly.

Committing to your full notice period and actually being present for it are two very different things. Show up. Do the work. Resist the temptation to mentally clock out from the moment you hand in your letter. The people watching you - and they are watching - will remember who remained professional under pressure.

2. Finish what you started.

Outstanding tasks don't magically evaporate because you're leaving. If anything, they become your legacy. Don't leave a trail of half-finished projects and shrugged shoulders. Tie those loose ends cleanly. Your replacement - and your conscience - will thank you.

3. Document everything you own.

This is the one most people skip, and it's the one that genuinely distinguishes the professionals from the rest. Write up every process you own. Label your files like a person who actually cares. Make your knowledge transferable. Nobody should have to spend three weeks reverse-engineering your system to understand why you organised the shared drive in that particular and baffling way.

4. Train your replacement as if you're setting them up to beat you.

Schedule proper handover sessions. Walk them through the key contacts, the unwritten politics, the quirks of the quarterly review process. Set them up to succeed. It says more about your character than anything on your CV.

5. Tell your manager before you tell the team.

This sounds obvious. It isn't. Give your boss the dignity of hearing it from you first, privately, and with enough time to plan. Do not - under any circumstances - let them hear it secondhand via the office grapevine. Nothing sours an exit faster than a manager feeling blindsided in front of their own team.

6. Keep your reason for leaving simple and positive.

Focus on the opportunity ahead, not the frustrations behind. Even if the role drove you quietly to the edge, your exit conversation is not the venue for a full debrief. Save that for your therapist, your best mate, or the bottom of a decent bottle of Merlot. Leave them with a good impression. It costs you nothing.

7. Return everything.

Laptops. Passes. Equipment. Login credentials. All of it. Promptly and without drama. Holding onto company property - even accidentally - creates friction that follows you around like a bad smell. Don't be that person.

8. Ask for a reference before your last day.

Once you've left, the urgency fades for everyone except you. Ask for a reference while the goodwill is still warm, your work is still fresh in their minds, and they genuinely want to help you. Brief them on what to highlight. Make it easy for them to say yes. A good reference letter written with context is infinitely more useful than a generic "Harvey was a reliable employee" composed six months later from fading memory.

9. Stay connected.

Send a brief note to your close contacts before you go. Keep the relationship alive beyond the role. The professional world is smaller than it appears, and your next opportunity - whether that's a referral, a collaboration, or your next job - may well come from someone you once worked alongside. LinkedIn exists for a reason. Use it.

Most people put enormous energy into getting a job. They research the company, rehearse their answers, press their best shirt, and bring their A-game to the interview.

And then, when they leave a role, they treat the exit as an afterthought.

The irony is that the way you leave reveals your character far more clearly than the way you arrive. Arriving well is easy - you're motivated, energised, and making a good first impression. Leaving well when you're already mentally gone and emotionally checked out takes genuine professionalism.

The people who do it consistently are the ones who build careers that compound over time. Their reputation travels ahead of them. References come warmly and without hesitation. Opportunities find them, because they left doors open rather than kicking them shut on the way out.

Here's what you can do, depending on where you are right now:

If you're currently in your notice period:

If you're thinking about leaving in the next three months:

If you've recently left a role and the exit wasn't your finest hour:

Keep on rockin'!

Harvey

P.S. Which of the nine habits do most people skip? Hit reply - I genuinely want to know.