Remember Marina Schifrin? She became the poster girl for “burning the bridge” back in 2013 when she made a video quitting her job that went viral. In the video, she critiqued her boss and danced around in her office alone at 4:30am to Kanye West’s “Gone”.
What happened next? Well, she appeared on Queen Latifah’s talk show, where the host offered her a job live on air, and went on to have a decently successful career as a comedic writer on shows like @midnight on Comedy Central and even writing her own book.
Some – particularly those who told her criticized her for quitting in such a public way – may say she got lucky. But on Marina’s part, this was a very calculated move she made that she felt would set her up for success, and wouldn’t offend her previous employer.
Not only did her company deal almost exclusively in funny parody videos, she also communicated her intentions to leave to her boss’ boss long before making the video. At the end of the day, no one was harmed, her boss thought it hilarious enough to clapback (respectfully) and she got a great career out of it.
So if burning the bridge worked for Marina, could it work for you?
What exactly is “burning a bridge”?
When it comes to quitting a job, burning the bridge refers to any action you take that leads to alienating your previous boss, colleagues or the company on a whole.
These actions range from making unprofessional remarks to your boss, your colleagues or clients, doing something silly or offensive on your last day, or badmouthing the company to industry counterparts.
Some even take it a step further by causing deliberate harm to the business’ reputation by quitting without notice, destroying important files or using company resources inappropriately, causing delays or operational chaos.
Why you shouldn’t burn bridges
There’s one main reason you should avoid burning bridges. You never know what the future holds. You might not need your boss as a reference for your next job, but you might them for the one after that.
Additionally, stories of these incidents tend to travel through the industry, and before you know it, everywhere you go, you’ll be known as the person who did that one stupid thing. It could someone sharing a harmless joke at a cocktail party, or it could be the HR manager at the next company you work for.
Overall, even if you think your actions are warranted, you don’t want to do anything that will give people a reason to judge you before they get to know who you are.
When it makes sense to burn bridges
I know we just said don’t burn bridges, however, as with Marina’s cases, there are few exceptions where it might actually make sense to do something drastic when leaving a job.
If you’ve assessed your options and you’re certain you won’t need this company or your boss again, and you feel it’s necessary to move forward in your career, then you may need to burn that bridge.
Other instances where it’s acceptable to cut all ties is when you have been harassed on the job, the company’s policies and requirements had a negative effect on your health or if your boss or employer did something illegal, unethical or so egregious that it would be consider unacceptable by any reasonable standard.
If any of these things happen and you do opt to burn the bridge as you leave, there are still better ways to go out than with an epic, attention-grabbing stunt. Where warranted, you may wish to officially whistleblow or pursue legal actions. Otherwise, you can pen a detailed letter or email, copying higher-ups and HR, detailing your concerns in a professional manner, so that they’re on record.
Finally, you can simply choose to silently distance yourself and not keep in contact with anyone from your old job. That’s sure to send the message without you ever having to say a word.
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