Olark Handbook
Departures - Mutual Exit
What’s our Approach?
Leaving your job seems to be a taboo topic for many organizations internally. More often than not, it’s not in your best interest to disclose that you are ready to move on to another adventure. Some organizations would make your work more difficult. We don’t believe in that kind of process.
We #assume good faith and #practice empathy instead. If you’ve decided to leave Olark, you can choose to do so with our “mutual exit” process.
The Why:
As humans, we know that sometimes it’s time to just move on. This happens for a myriad of reasons. We should talk about it more. It helps you, and it helps us manage resources as a small company.
So we created an approach called the “mutual exit.” A mutual exit is when you and Olark mutually agree that it’s time to part ways, and create a smooth transition plan for the departure.
This means: We’ll talk it over together and treat you like a human! Then, we’ll work with you to create a transition plan, including things like handoff of your responsibilities, severance package, and references if you need them.
In a Nutshell:
Know that Olark will respect your decision to exit, and with a minimum of 4 weeks advance warning, we’ll be able to pursue the mutual exit path together. We will do everything we can to make the process as smooth as possible. You’ll be able to work with your manager and People Ops to create a transition plan for exiting Olark. Most participants in the past have given 6-10+ weeks of notice. We’ll provide a severance package, time to interview elsewhere, and references.
In general, we want to make sure this option is presented to you so you know it’s an offering we provide that can help ease the transition out of Olark. We find it works well for everyone.
The Details:
If you’re having chats with your manager and it’s clear that it’s time to start looking elsewhere, we want to help you with this process, not make it more difficult:
- No, we aren’t going to fire you for telling us - that would be very un-Olarky
- Yes, we’ll work with you!
A typical mutual exit consists of:
- You and your manager have a conversation
- Your manager works out the timeline that best helps the team. This will typically be no more than two months
- A severance package
- Potential COBRA coverage, if applicable
- Olarker + manager + People Ops collaborates on comms to the team, a timeline on resourcing, handing off responsibilities, etc.
- References, if requested
Yeah, this isn’t typical. But it’s a win/win. Why? Being a small company, notice is super helpful for resourcing and planning. If you’re giving us ample notice, we can carefully plan next steps with the team while supporting you in your next steps. And it’s just the human thing to do.