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[Cassie] Thank you so much for joining us today, I'm Cassie Pierre Joseph. I lead Engagement Initiatives for
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the Employee Experience team within the Division of HR. Today I'm joined by Nancy Martinsen. Hi Nancy!
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[Nancy] Hi Cassie, it's good to be here. [Cassie] It's good to have you, please tell us more about yourself.
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[Nancy] I am Nancy Martinsen. I'm the Kent G. Sheng, Class of '78, Associate Dean of Students and Director of the
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Asian Asian American Center.
[Cassie] Could you share some
of the experience you've had as a manager when
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an employee decides to leave?
[Nancy] I recently had to say farewell to my Assistant Director and
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I think what was really challenging about that is this um... realization that I understood large
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scale what my Assistant Director did, but I didn't know the detailed things that um he did. And so one
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of the biggest challenges was recognizing that I still needed to do what I needed to do, and then I
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needed to learn all the things that I wasn't aware of in regard to the Assistant Director position.
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[Cassie] Wow that's a lot to take on. How did those things impact you?
[Nancy] I think something that's really hard
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about when you lose a staff member is is just recognizing the work still needs to get done,
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and so it's going to fall on someone. Something that I think is fabulous about the Asian Asian
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American Center is that we really do try to have a personal relationship with our interns and one
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of the things that my Assistant Director did is, he met with them one-on-one and then he also met
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with them as a team and to help them with their projects. Very time consuming but really important.
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to the mission of A3C. So I didn't want to take away from the experience. That was really important
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for me, for interns to have, but super challenging to now have to recognize that I now needed to be
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the one to... to recreate and that experience and to make time for them. [Cassie] Yeah so you talked about
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time being a challenge, how are you addressing that challenge and other challenges, and what do
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you find works best?
[Nancy] Something for me is, I'm really
big on asking for grace and giving grace. And so I
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think just... yeah just kind of recognizing that I'm new with this I'm trying to learn stuff and and
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just to ask for grace, and I find for the most part people give it to me. Something that I'm grateful
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for is I had a really positive relationship with my co-worker and so um... I was fully aware that he
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was looking for a job so it wasn't anything that shocked me or surprised me, like just having that
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positive relationship made it easier for me to ask for help from my Assistant Director before they
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left. And so one of the things I had asked for was a Transition Doc. and in that transition document
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it really was like a step-by-step, like this is how you do these things and then also a timeline
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um... 'so heads up Nancy in April
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these are the things that you need to start
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considering or thinking
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about or working on'.
[Cassie] So as you know the resignation
notice period is the last chance we have to make
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a positive impression on the employee before they leave Cornell. And that impression could make the
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difference between them being a positive ambassador,
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meaning that they go out and speak well about
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their Cornell experience.
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Or they could become a detractor for others that might consider
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Cornell, because they've left with a more negative impression. What are some tips you have for fellow
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managers that they can start doing right away to ensure a respectful exit experience?
[Nancy] Really looking
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back at my experience with my Assistant Director that I'm grateful for, is the honest and open
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communication that we had. When it was time for him to depart there was no surprise. I know that
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there were certain projects that he was so proud of and so just kind of recognizing like, 'hey these
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were some great things, how can I make sure that I'm able to continue it' or 'what information do I
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need to pass down to the new Assistant Director so that they can really continue it'. And I did ask him
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to write a welcome letter and to the new Assistant Director. I know I got a letter from the former
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um Director of A3C, and it was a nice touch. Like it was just kind of a way to... to say like,
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'I had a great time in this role and these are some things to be mindful of and these are some things
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I really hope you'll enjoy about this position and here's
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um my email in case you want to reach out'.
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I'm really really grateful for just that...
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that positive relationship that we have.
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[Cassie] Well thank you so much for
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sharing all of your experience with us today on how to create a respectful exit. Thank you
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Nancy.
[Nancy] Thank you Cassie for this opportunity, this is fun.
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[Cassie] Here are some more tips on respectful exits.
