Use Your Exit Interview to Improve Your (Almost) Former Workplace
You’ve given your notice, and you may be tempted to coast through the exit interview. After all, you’re on your way out. But this is your chance to provide helpful feedback and perhaps make some positive change for your soon-to-be former colleagues, as well as the company’s future employees. So don’t make it a venting session. Be calm, constructive, and stick to the facts. Explain your reason for leaving, whether it’s to pursue a new opportunity, escape a toxic leader, seek better work-life balance, make a career change, or all of the above. Rather than thinking of this as “telling on” anyone, consider it as shining a light on a problem to be solved. Make clear what was positive about your experience — what you liked and appreciated most about the job, your team, and the organization. And identify one or two areas for improvement. These may be the factors that would’ve kept you from leaving (if there are any) and may include things like more flexible work options, more competitive compensation, or a culture that is more welcoming of dissenting views. A good company wants to continuously improve, and the exit interview is a small way to help.