81. The Empowered Exit – Part 2: What to Do After You Decide to Leave

Hey Doc,

You’ve made the decision to leave. Now what?

In Part 2 of this powerful two-part series on how to leave your job with an empowered exit, I walk you through what happens after the decision is made:

Giving notice. Navigating conversations. Protecting your reputation. Gathering what’s yours.

We cover:

✔️ How to actually submit your resignation (without drama or delay)

✔️ What to say and what not to say to leadership and colleagues

✔️ What to collect before you lose access (case logs, reviews, profiles & more)

✔️ How to ensure patients are cared for, without taking on guilt that isn’t yours

✔️ Why the emotional aftermath of leaving matters more than you think

✔️ And how to celebrate the transition — even if it still stings a little

Because even when you know you’re doing the right thing, walking away can still be hard. And you deserve support through the entire journey.

Listen in and save this one for whenever you need it.

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Transcript

Hey Doc, I am back with part two of How to Leave Your Job with an Empowered Exit. I covered a lot in the first episode, and now we are ready to actually give the notice, so let's get into it.

Okay. So you've gathered all the information. You've decided you are, you're going to give you notice and you are like, how do I do it? By now, you should know what is the actual procedure for giving your notice, because it's going to be in your bylaws, it's gonna be in your contract. You're going to hear from the friend who left, or you're gonna talk to hr.

You're gonna find out exactly how, because you don't want to send an email and then they're like, oh, that's not official. So if an email is enough. Plan to do that. If you have to do a letter plan to do that, just find out whatever it is and actually write it.

Keep it short, keep it simple,

dear Dr. Lucas, I am writing to formally resign from my position effective this date, and that date is gonna be the last date of your notice. Please consider this letter my formal notice of resignation. That's it. if you want and it's a positive or at least a neutral departure, you can say thank you for, for everything you've done.

You don't even need to say all that, but just keep it simple to the point with no extra stuff.

and depending on the, the environment and the relationship that you have with your supervisor, you may want to meet them in person and talk to them about it, but you still wanna make sure one, that you know the official channels for offering your resignation.

You don't want any delays once you've gotten your nerve up to hand it in, and any confusion about the date because you sent it to the wrong person on the wrong day and all that stuff.

So because that person is your supervisor, that's probably one of the people that you're worried about burning the bridge with. So that conversation. Is also very important to keep things as honest and as professional as possible. So as I shared with my experience, I do not believe that you cannot say anything that is true if you're leaving for a negative reason.

But you have to gauge what is this person like? What relationship do we have? Is this person an asshole who's gonna screw me? Then maybe keep it super vague, keep it to the point professional and say I'm, reevaluating my life and looking at my options or blame it on the family or whatever else you have to do to get outta there without risking retaliation, but let history.

And evidence guide you Not fear. Because if this person has shown no signs, that they will be that vindictive and. You have a fairly respectful relationship and there are other issues. There are other reasons that are making the environment toxic, other players involved. I truly believe that you can share it in a non gossipy, very professional, but very honest way and name that that is why you are leaving and it does not have to be that. This is the spark that burned the bridge down, But you have to be the one to evaluate the situation and decide what is best for you.

So once you have gotten that conversation over and done with. Hopefully that's your last in any kind of official capacity. But like me, the system that they had set up, I had to have a meeting with this other person. I can't even remember her title, but she was like, for physician wellness or something. I dunno.

So she was very interested in the reasons, and I was very blunt with her because I was just like, well, you asked. But again, not having it be gossipy, keeping it factual and professional. But that doesn't mean twisting the truth. It doesn't mean leaving things out. If they have a system set up to actually get feedback, give it to them because they asked. And after that, you have your pre-prepared, statements or reasons for leaving to keep conversations to a minimum

you also gotta know who you can trust. So all that prep work that I talked about before. Removes the anxiety surrounding, leaving on a bad note and people talking about you and, having this decision affect your reputation moving forward. because you already know, you're not gonna go around gossiping about what happened and complaining, and you're not gonna do any of that, You're gonna keep people outta your business. You're gonna have your standard answer. You're gonna know who your friendlies are. They may know some of the whole story, but just, I don't know, really know who you can trust if you don't know them, don't trust anybody, and just keep them as a strictly professional.

Contact four letters of rec and things in the future, but if you keep it vague, don't overshare and keep it honest. There really should be no fear of burning bridges. And if you do all of that, if you tell people, you know, I need to do this for my happiness, for my mental health. I, I just need to focus on my family.

And you tell them these reasons and then they still badmouth you. They still say all sorts of things. You never had bridges to begin with. And sometimes it's just that you need to accept that and keep it moving and, and move on with your life.

Okay, so going back to, you've given your notice some other practical things that you have to do.

You want to start collecting your stuff. And depending on the environment and how toxic the situation is, or even if it's like an emergency, like a family member died and you really need to, to leave the job, whatever it is, if there's a chance that the notice period may be short.

You wanna start doing some of these things before you give the actual notice. But definitely if you have like a three months or six months, you wanna start doing these things. So that you're prepared for when you actually leave. So start getting your case logs together because when you credential it somewhere else, they're gonna ask you how many procedures, how many this?

And it's a real pain to get information from your job. Once you're no longer on the inside, if you have any documentation on your company, computers, if you've been using your phone or whatever else, you wanna make sure you remove whatever information that is important to you from servers and their systems.

Because once you lose access, that's it. It's really difficult to try and get back and you may just lose those things forever depending on what it is. You wanna make sure that you are downloading, patient thank you. Notes, satisfaction scores, any evaluations that you have, anything that is going to support.

The fact that you are an excellent doctor and that is going to combat any potential negative messaging that your employer may send. If the relationship really isn't good, you wanna make sure you have all of your stuff and even not that dramatic.

You wanna make sure you have your CME certificates. If you save all that stuff in your work computer, any awards that you may have, uh, performance evaluations, all of your stuff, you wanna make sure that you have it before you no longer have access.

And this is something that a lot of people don't think about, but you want to also claim your Google profile and all of those profiles that they have on those websites like Health Grades and, any other system where they can advertise for your practice. You wanna go and claim those because especially if you work for a larger organization, they can still own that, They can own it and advertise, like if you still work there, they can prevent you from advertising somewhere else. They can do all sorts of things. And even if none of that happens, it's yours. It's your name, it's your image that's on there. So you wanna make sure you go and claim it, before you make your exit.

Because a lot of them require some type of verification where they mail you stuff and they may only mail it to a hospital address or a clinic address. They may not want to mail it to your home. So you just wanna make sure that you claim it and, you can move around with it or just prevent them from doing anything with it.

And so you've given your notice. Everything's great because you've listened to this podcast and you are well prepared and it's getting closer. You want to make sure if you have an issue with this, that your charts are closed. You don't wanna be getting down to two weeks left and you still have a hundred charts open.

If that's an issue, please get help. Please get help with it. There are lots of things you can do. I work with my clients with efficiency in the office a lot. There are lots of charting coaches, there are lots of resources to get this under control, because guess what? It's gonna be an issue at your next job as well.

And it's worth you getting a handle on it as soon as possible. Same thing for labs. Make sure they're all taken care of. Your inbox is as empty as possible, and you know, these things, they will continue to come because you're gonna be seeing patients up until the, the last. Right. But making sure it's not a huge burden that is left there.

because to me that's more important than, than telling people why you truly left on burning bridges. Like, are you leaving with your work done?

And depending on the function or dysfunction of your office, there should already be a plan in place of who's gonna take over your inbox, who's gonna follow up on your labs. But that's just something that you may want to ask about to make sure that the patients that you care about, are well taken care of.

And it's also not blamed on you if things get dropped, right? Because you are gone. They could tell patients whatever they want, and that's another point. What are they gonna tell patients about why you left? That's something you need to ask about. Who is responsible for informing the patients? Because there are some places where they expect you to do that.

Some places where it may be by law that you have to, if you leave somewhere, so you wanna make sure, again, you may have gotten that information at the beginning when you were doing the information collection with your contract and, talking to your lawyer, but you really wanna know what are they gonna say.

Who's gonna tell them? And if you have any control over what is said, because I know when I left, they transferred my patients to an np, an NP that I did not like and whose clinical judgment I didn't trust, but they did so with a letter that was written from me saying that to the patients Here, I'm handing you over to this person, she'll take good care of you.

And I was just like, what? Of course, this is a huge corporate medicine organization. I had no control over that. But it was really irritating to find out. And you know how I found out. Because I was my own primary gynecologist. They have you assigned in, in their system. So I got reassigned to her as well.

So I got the letter. That is the only way I realized that that's what they were doing. I got own letter from me saying that here, this NP who just graduated and has no fucking clue what she's doing is gonna be your doctor. She, she's got you. So just find out. You may not have a whole lot of control depending on the system that they have, but if you do see what you wanna let your patients know and you also.

With your contract, want to know if you can't even tell patients why you're leaving. 'cause some of that may be considered, solicitation. So again, something else for, to discuss with your lawyer. 'cause it would be nice, right, to tell your patients, Hey, I'm leaving, you know, and tell them whatever. But if you are just there innocently sharing and somebody talks about it and may be considered a breach of contract and you just wanna avoid all that.

, So usually if you work in the hospital as well, you have to give up your hospital privileges. And that is separate from your resignation. They'll usually tell you. But it's just something to, to be aware of. And make sure, with getting your money right, you know, what your final paycheck is gonna be, when it's gonna come, what's gonna happen to the bonuses and all that.

So now that it's coming down to the wire, make sure you get all of your money. And that there are no surprises. And finally, you've left. You are like, hallelujah, I'm out. Hopefully you're taking some time off. Don't forget to deal with your emotions because now that you are fully prepared in this wonderful way, you may feel super confident.

You may feel empowered, but that doesn't also mean that you won't feel sad. It doesn't also mean that you won't still be angry and betrayed and whatever other feelings that may come with it. So make sure you take care of yourself. It is always better to get those emotions out. Whether you wanna talk to somebody who is trusted, you wanna journal about it, you know, write a letter, say all the things that you wish you could have told them as you exited.

Write it down, get it out of you because it's no good having it in your mind replaying over and over. It's just going to eat at you. Take a moment to release so that you can move on peacefully and not be ashamed that you need this time.

And you could also make it a celebration. You know, in my business coaching program, when somebody, even once people get fired, we celebrate because it means that they are now launched fully into physician entrepreneurship or they were getting away from toxicity or whatever else. So it can be a celebration as well.

It doesn't have to be a negative thing. And you know, the boring stuff as well. You update your DEA and your NPI and all that stuff .

So that is your guide about how to leave your job and do so in the best way for you. That is the most important thing. So you may wanna burn it down, but, you can burn gracefully, You can be honest, you can be true to yourself and exit and not have it ruin your career, not have it ruin your integrity or your reputation. It doesn't have to be all that Transitions can be difficult, but with the right plan, with the right prep, and with the right support, it can be liberating we don't deserve golden handcuffs. We deserve to be free. And that's what I want for you, right?

So share this with another physician mom, who is just like, I need to get the fuck outta this job. I or any woman physician. Oh, any physician at all. These steps are generalizable for all of us to, transition to the next part of our careers. And this is my jam.

This is what I specialize in. You know, transitioning into motherhood, transitioning back to work, and definitely transitioning away from a job in a way that makes you feel good. Like, yeah, I'm ready for something new. That is one of my favorite things to help my clients with.

So if you are like, this guide is great, what you're saying is nice, but I need more help, schedule a free coaching session and let's talk about how to get you out of that job and into something new and aligned and that makes sense for you. You can schedule using the link in the show notes or go to my website, dr toya coaching.com, D-R-T-O-Y-A coaching.com or any of my socials.

The link is in the bio and schedule, and let's talk. This is a real free coaching session, so even if we don't work together, you are going to get a lot of value and know the next steps for you to leave this job. It's gonna be great. I can't wait to speak with you and help you through this transition, if that is what you need, and I will see you on the next episode of Stethoscopes and Strollers.