Hello 🙂
I’ve been working at this part-time job for about under a year now. It is my first job ever as a teen. It’s not really a retail or fast-food kind of job, but it is public service oriented. The thing is, I am beginning post-secondary this fall and I am planning to quit in order to focus on my studies. I do have decent amount of money from work saved up for school too! I enjoy working there a lot and I hope to maybe come back one day in the future, which is why I’ve also been thinking of taking a leave of absence, but I’m in a dilemma because I don’t know for sure if I will return after taking a leave (if I take one, I’d resume working after approx. a year, after I settle in at university and enter second year…that is if it’s possible to take a leave for that long). I don’t know much about how taking a leave of absence works, so I’m sorry if I sound ignorant. It seems people usually take a leave of absence for more special or serious circumstances, like a medical leave, so idk if I can request one. If my workplace doesn’t allow or approves it, then my other option would be to quit.
Overall, I guess my questions are: How do I request for a leave of absence? How long can a leave of absence be? As mentioned, I’m not sure if I will return after taking a leave of absence, does quitting at the end of my leave or informing my workplace midway through my leave that I will quit, look bad?
If taking a leave of absence is not recommended in my situation/not possible, how would I approach quitting the job? What is the etiquette around quitting? How do I start the conversation and what should I say? I’m planning to let my supervisor know soon, and I think my last day would be some time at the beginning of next month, so I will let them know about 4 weeks in advance, is that too early or late of a notice? Should I schedule a formal meeting or can I just casually let them know and is providing a letter necessary too? Can I ask for a reference in the future if I quit?
Things may work differently in other countries, but for reference, I’m from Canada and my job is unionized if that matters.
Thanks for any advice that you all may have and sorry for the long post and the abundance of questions, I don’t know how this all works ðŸ˜.
4 comments
I am not sure how a leave of absence works, but in America if you give your boss at least 2 weeks notice and let them know of your intentions to come back and you’re a good, hard worker when the time comes to return to work they will be happy to hire you back on.
Is this a job that you can/would want to pick up random shifts here and there if you have time?
Ask your boss to have a talk or a meeting either at the end of the day, the end of the week, or some day in the future, so it’s marked in the calendar, about “some things I’ve wanted to discuss”. Or something.
Then in that meeting, confess that you’re wanting to quit. Ask if you can resign and how that’s gonna work.
Bosses have seen it before, and once they know you’re resigning, they’ll know the right steps to go through to have a legally acceptable exit for you.
No, I think the more notice the better! I think 2 weeks is just kind of a minimum.