📤 Leaving a job: checklist

Everything gets harder the day your access is switched off. The list runs from the things only you can do now to the things you can finish afterwards.

35 items

1. Before you tell them
2. Read your contract for the notice period
3. Check the garden leave and non-compete clauses
4. Get the new offer in writing firstIn writing, signed, with a start date. Verbal offers fall through and notice cannot be taken back.
5. Count your unused holiday
6. Check whether any bonus or shares vest before you go
7. Resigning
8. Tell your manager first, in person or on a call
9. Short written resignation with your last working day
10. Agree the leaving date in writing
11. Agree what to say to the team, and when
12. Book the remaining holiday, or agree it is paid
13. Handover
14. List what you own and who takes each piece
15. Write down what is only in your head
16. Introduce your contacts to whoever picks them up
17. Transfer file and calendar ownership
18. Cancel or reassign recurring meetings
19. Leave notes on the things that break
20. Things that need your work login
21. Download your payslips and P60 or equivalent
22. Submit the last expenses
23. Save your pension provider and member number
24. Download benefits and insurance documents
25. Export your contacts — the ones you personally have
26. Take your personal files off the laptop
27. Note your employee number
28. Last week
29. Return laptop, phone, badge, keys and any card
30. Clear your desk and the locker you forgot about
31. Set the out-of-office with who to contact instead
32. Get a reference or a written recommendation while people remember you
33. Confirm your final pay date and what it includes
34. Update your address for the P45 and any post
35. Say goodbye properly — the industry is smaller than it looks