Muari

ACTUAL CASE HISTORY: Claudia was always near the top of her class, in high school, in college, and in business school. And so it was in her hotel industry career: within eight years of her joining the world’s second largest hotel company as a management trainee she rose to its corporate headquarters, as its Senior Vice President of Sourcing. As always before, she was once again “near the top.”From Claudia’s perspective, promotions were never a problem. Time and again her hard work and solid reputation for near-total devotion preceded her. She didn’t seek promotions; they seemed to seek her. When she was contacted by an executive recruiter about a position as Chief Operating Officer of a direct competitor, Claudia took it in stride. It seemed like one more validation of what her parents had always taught her: hard work will reward itself. After consulting weight loss tips with her husband, she decided to aggressively seek the position.Claudia’s eight interviews over four days went extremely well. She got along especially well with the company’s new CEO, for whom she’d be working. She was presented an offer that nearly doubled her present compensation, and the opportunity – for the first time in her life – for considerable financial security. She soon accepted. Human Resources was then assigned the task of preparing her employment contract, and Claudia hired legal counsel to review its terms.Claudia had never been in this situation before: she’d never left a company since business school. She decided to handle all aspects of the resignation process herself, relying on her considerable common sense and people skills. She composed a wonderful resignation letter, and distributed it to her direct boss and her closest colleagues.