IS GETTING AN EXIT AGENCY ALREADY APPROPRIATE FOR FILIPINO EMPLOYEES?

 

Apparently, there are already companies in Japan that do the hard work for employees who want to quit their job and make it seem effortless. 

The kind of company that offers a resolution to avoid the awkwardness of employees when filing a resignation and dealing with their boss/es on direct approach terms.

Truth be told, such a company could have more place in the Philippines than anywhere else in the world. 

Employment locally has always been intrusive, starting from the screening stage where every detail is asked including medical and work history. These are necessary in order to give prospective employers a necessary heads-up on how an applicant is at work, while in the office, or even when handling remote positions.

The process can include a long wait and more pressure is hatched at the back of the applicant to please and make a good impression even before employment begins.  

When filing a resignation, however, the process can vary per employee’s temperament, style of negotiation, and workplace experience which can eventually dictate how a resignation is expressed, filed, or announced.

The standard acceptable process is to let an employer aware of an employee’s intention to resign, at least about a month before the actual date of effectivity. This is debatable however as some employees would opt for shorter advice for resignation to proceed and take effect.

But since a resignation involves not only a cessation of responsibilities for a specific work designation; company to employee relationship;  and a halt on the professional ties with the employer or boss/es, an employee may find himself or herself in a dire inconvenient position to express such intention to resign, in a very abrupt or direct approach, to avoid the toxic negotiation and discussion process.

The thing with work culture locally is that bosses have enough clout to dictate the future work of employees. Not a few employees would like to tread on a very balancing strategy on filing a resignation so as not to earn the ire and prolonged disappointment of their employers.

 

At times, employers particularly those in middle-management positions, are more deaf than responsive to employees’ needs and interests. 

Because every employee loss especially a fast turnover can hint at bad management style or workplace negativity, there are managers who exert enough pressure to keep their employees on deck. But when unable to do this, some opt for negative recommendations or feedback to the detriment of the employee who has expressed intention to leave work.

 

There are many instances when middle managers and those with the power to wield, go as far as “mud sling" an employee's record when hearing about an employee's resignation via grapevine.  They can do so without hilt or fault because the employees left behind are usually part of their own certain clique of loyalists.

Some managers also spill juicy irrelevant facts about an employee that can compromise a person's integrity in the face of other employers, in order to save face and get a decibel of approval from their colleagues when accepting a resignation.  

These are not unusual attitudes of managers locally, thus the complications of a work exit can be as tricky as getting a job from the start. Office politics allows these to permeate the work ethics of personnel thus leaving employees with a hesitancy to discuss resignation plans way before an official letter is filed.

 

To avoid pressure on employees, an “exit agency” can be more useful to have because it frees an employee from all the stresses and negativities of having to deal with bosses when quitting work. 

However, there are also companies locally with well-meaning Human Resources personnel who help the employees express their resignation thus aiding the smooth negotiations for the job turnover. 

 

Since this is a generation that has always looked out for solutions to pain points of ordinary people, human resource and manpower agencies should also best an effort to make resignation easier for employees, and make the process more like an ordinary "quit call", just like the companies that are in our neighboring country that go the extra mile to make sure employees' interests are always upheld to the very last.