Tapping Out

with dignity

Jan 13, 2025

I sent my resignation on the 2nd of January.

It was accepted at around 2 pm on the 6th.

My last day working as a Rehabilitation Consultant was the 9th.

When discussing my resignation with others, I used the term, I’m tapping out before my physical and mental health suffered; after all, that is what the probation period is for.

According to the Cambridge online dictionary, “Tap Out” is used in many different contexts. I was referring to the martial arts one of “to tap the floor to show that you accept that your competitor has beaten you”.

It indeed felt like my rehabilitation consultant job was beating me, and I didn’t want to hang around to find out how persevering in a job that wasn’t right for me would affect me.

I don’t feel beaten having walked away, even if it means my life right now is uncertain. I would have felt beaten if I had stayed.

I was in the job for 4 months. I started to struggle 6 weeks in, and I spoke with various connections and decided to wait it out until Christmas.

I initially dealt with micromanagement, but a change in team leader improved this area, which helped me realise that the role was not going to change and was not the right fit for me.

My resignation was drafted with some help from Chat Gpt. I’d never written one before. How do you say thanks but no thanks?

I kept it simple, thanking the hiring manager for the opportunity to try the role but stating that I’ve decided it's not right for me. Going forward, I will put my energy into education and job applications that align with my career goal of athlete well-being.

I embraced the opportunity to provide feedback during my exit interview. I reported liking my team; however, the culture in my office didn’t feel inclusive, particularly for a new person coming in. I voiced the lack of personable contact from my Regional Manager, which left me feeling like I wasn’t a human. I also raised the billable hours’ structure and the stress this caused me, as well as being handed work for the sake of meeting my targets and stressing this work wasn’t meaningful because it was either work I’d advised I didn’t enjoy or was confident in completing and because the tasks weren’t for my clients. I suggested realistic gradual billable targets could be devised for new starters like me, who don’t have enough files to achieve the targets but wouldn’t necessarily be able to handle the workload that more files bring due to everything taking 2-3 times as long to complete. At the same time, you learn the tasks at hand. I certainly felt the pressure to get good fast and was not meeting the expectation that I would be more efficient by now.

When giving feedback, it's important to provide potential solutions to your issues. You’re saying, "This is the problem. This is how I think it could have reduced or prevented the problem or how you could prevent it from being a problem for the next person. I will cover this more in another blog idea I have about feedback.

Reflections of a Clare Bear

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