Chester Ang is a call centre worker who decided it was time to become self employed, so he handed in his resignation letter.
You won’t believe what happened next…
His boss, who he’d worked for during the last two years, basically decided to rewrite the resignation letter so the main theme became a tribute to himself.
No doubt trying to gain favour with his superiors, but don’t you think it’s worrying that people are doing these kind of things? All the more reason to get out of being an employee, and move towards self employment…whether it’s running your own business or being a contractor.
What’s next…a boss rewrites a resignation letter so that it becomes a “I want to stay” letter? Or how about signing a contract on an employee’s behalf, giving them less pay with more hours? It’s quite amazing really how far some people will go.
Anyway back to the story…we have Chester who decided to quit so he could open his own pet shop. Nothing wrong there of course, as he gave the 1 weeks notice that was expected of him and then he was free to do whatever he wanted. It’s good to see someone willing to get out of the 9 to 5 routine and be prepared to go it alone.
He wrote a brief resignation letter basically saying “I quit and I give 1 weeks notice, Best Regards, Chester.” Again, nothing wrong there, as resignation letters don’t have to be worthy of a novel, just a simple thanks for the job and see you later is fine.
So you can imagine how shocked Chester was when he intercepted the letter before it was passed to the more senior bosses, only to find that his boss had added in praise about himself saying that he wanted to thank him for “mentorship and guidance” among other things.
Well, Chester didn’t agree with these extra comments, as well as the whole notion of his resignation letter being rewritten without his consent.
Who does this boss think he is, and why should he be allowed to get away with it? This is why Chester decided to get rid of the letter, write out a new one with his original comments, and then take it directly to the senior bosses himself.
The reason? Because if he’d wanted to give praise to the boss then he would have done so, but ultimately, he didn’t, so why should he put up with this guy changing the theme of the letter.
Much to Chester’s credit he decided not to make any complaints about the boss or mention the incident to the company, instead preferring to make a quiet departure so he can focus on his new business.
Good for him, and let’s hope that his new business is successful so he never has to go back to work for someone else.
It’s like what I keep telling people…if you want to become a contractor, freelancer, or start a new business then you should go for it.
