Dr. Marty Makary resigned as FDA commissioner on Tuesday, with President Donald Trump sharing a post on Truth Social showing a purported resignation text from Makary.
A White House official confirmed to CNBC that Makary’s resignation came via text. The announcement came after days of reports that the White House planned to fire him.
The FDA shake-up raises the question: Should you ever resign by text?
While every exit is different, workers should generally take a different approach, experts say.
Bonnie Dilber, senior manager of talent acquisition at software company Zapier, recommends having a conversation with your manager in person if possible to deliver the news, before emailing a formal resignation letter to have a written record of it.
“How you leave a job matters,” she tells CNBC Make It. “If you resign poorly, then chances are that is going to impact potential opportunities in the future.”
A resignation letter should express gratitude, specify your date of departure and seek direction on how to ease the transition. While most resignation letters aren’t made public, you should assume that “anything you put in writing, your name is attached to forever,” Dilber says.
Delivering a resignation via text is more common among “high-turnover jobs,” including some retail jobs or other frontline positions, says T. Tara Turk-Haynes, a fractional people leader and owner of HR consultancy Equity Activations. It’s rare to see text resignations from people in higher-level and white-collar positions, where there’s often a protocol for such communications, she adds.
For many workers, a two-week notice period is standard to help smooth the transition, Dilber and Turk-Haynes say. Among senior leaders, Dilber has seen workers give several months of notice or stay on until their replacement is hired.
“If you leave people in a lurch, they’re going to remember that,” Dilber says, noting that could impact how people speak about you in reference checks or back-channel conversations that could affect your future employment.
But you should also be prepared for the possibility that your employer may ask you to leave before your notice period is up, Turk-Haynes says.
After you resign, you may also be asked to do an exit interview. In those conversations, you may want to offer constructive feedback while maintaining a good relationship. Dilber suggests being “objective and fact-based” and focusing on critiquing processes rather than people.
“When we’re emotional, we say things that could again come back and bite us,” Turk-Haynes adds.
Generally, it’s best not to burn bridges on your way out the door: “These circles are small,” Dilber says. “Your reputation and how you leave is going to follow you.”
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