Over the years I’ve watched a few employees wear out their welcomes in various departments of a company.  They are “that” employee that everyone allows to behave differently because they’ve been grandfathered in to the system and their ridiculous actions are looked the other way on because it’s just the way they are.  Everyone around them tends to be numb to them and their ridiculous actions. 

Usually, it’s time for this employee to go, and it has been time for this employee to go for several years.  The problem is, while the company is working on an exit strategy, the employee has zero self awareness to let themselves go.  Often times after you let an employee go, they reflect on it later with the intentions that they should have ushered themselves out the door years earlier but something kept them coming back.

I ask myself all the time if I’ll know when it is time to go.  Can I be that self-aware to be able to point out the signs to myself and gracefully disappear into another company?  I sure hope so because I’d rather walk out the door gracefully before anyone ushers me out and turns off my key card. 

If it’s time for you to go, then go.