How Not to Start Blogging

Someone posted this resignation letter on Twitter. At first I thought this was from a colleague and was fairly shocked, but as I read through it, I realized this was someone that started a blog with the letter.

Now I’ve posted a resignation letter I wrote before, and I’m not necessarily opposed to this happening, but I think that this is an example of how not to do this. I hope this person doesn’t keep their career blog going with this.

Why?

I went back and looked at my letter, which was internal, but has since been posted on the Internet. In my letter I tried to outline the problems that I saw with the company, and give reasons why I thought these were problems. I didn’t blame anyone by name, but I did thank people by name. That goes along with the idea that you blame generally and praise specifically.

In this letter, the writer is obviously upset, and with specific people that are mentioned by name. While I can understand the issues that people have with their co-workers and we often have bad experiences at work, you can complain, vent, or write about them without specifically mentioning people’s names. While I might be concerned if I had to interview (or be interviewed by) and of the people mentioned, I’d definitely be concerned with someone that called people out by name.