To Quit or Not to Quit

If you leave Treefrog high and dry, you suck.

Treefrog doesn’t fire people, if at all possible.

Anyone at Treefrog has the right to leave at any time (voluntary leaving), and we have the right to ask people to leave at any time (involuntary leaving) - but the Treefrog philosophy is that Treefrog goes far above and beyond to try and make things work with members of our team if they are not performing well or are unhappy. In return we humbly request that people don’t suddenly quit and leave us high and dry - but rather they work with the rest of us to figure out how to be happy or in a worse case scenario, transition out amicably while both you and the company remain intact.

Loyalty goes both ways, we should protect one another past the point of comfort.

In other word, Treefrog doesn’t fire people unless there is absolutely no way we can make it work (dysfunctional leaving), a very rare occurence, although if we can’t figure out a mutually satisfying direction, we can mutually agree that its best that we go different ways (functional leaving). Most people “quit” because they are “in the dip” and can’t see a way out - and usually, once a few conversations are had, we can find a new place for them at Treefrog (or their skills just get naturally strengthened over time) and they are now astonishingly happy here and valuable members of our team a few months later. “Quitting” doesn’t help anyone, any more than “firing people when things look a little bad” does.

There is an expectation that we’ll have each other’s back.

Plus, at Treefrog we treat each other much more like family than other companies, so people leaving is harder than usual on the rest of us who stay and stick it out. We genuinely experience group grief when people leave - like someone is cutting off an appendage.

Standard Process

Unfortunately, every situation for someone leaving is completely different. Although it has been suggested that we should have a “standard process” for people who leave - pretty much everyone who leaves leaves on different terms and for different reasons.

Quitting vs. Transitioning

There are remarkably different ways to leave.

Quitting

If you disappear with very little notice (aka “quit”), you don’t give Treefrog a chance…

to re-strategize around your disappearing,
to find a replacement in time without hurting others or clients (or adjust the pod structure or sales goals accordingly),
and to help you to ensure we can’t do something better or different to support you.

If you quit without notice, you are hurting the people you leave behind. You hurt the clients we were working on, you hurt our relationships and you lower everyone else’s salary. All of these results are counter-intuitive to Treefrog core philosophies - by quitting, you are breaking with the mutual agreement of “more mutual loyalty than at other companies”.

How do I know I’m quitting?

You give minimum notice (2 weeks or less).
You leave mid-way during active projects.
You sign a contract before you talk it out with your Champion and give us a chance to work with you.

Transitioning

An alternate strategy is to “transition out” of the company.

If you feel like you are unhappy at Treefrog, or you think you have greater opportunities elsewhere, let’s work on making you happier or transition you out.

In this case, you know you have a better opportunity somewhere else, or you are just unhappy, so you have the intent of leaving. You then openly talk to a Pod Leader clearly and directly that you are unhappy and actively looking for work elsewhere. While actively looking for work, you also actively try and work with your team/Pod to improve your life and stay open-minded about how things might possibly improve.

Also, being honest about your mental state preserves trust, meaning we can all trust you for years to come. It gives the team notice, so we can preserve client relationships and work. You could find and train your replacement, possibly, making the transition relatively seamless.

This process could be days, weeks, months - or even a year. But by “boiling the Frog”, everyone’s life stays intact. It is quite possible to transition in two weeks, if the stars align.

How do I know I’m transitioning?

You haven’t signed a contract yet (though you may have even started looking, or even have one in hand).
Your plans are open-minded to help Treefrog and yourself transition.
Before you sign an alternate contract, you have a discussion with others on the team (Your Champion, or the CEO), and give yourself a meaningful opportunity to find happiness and success at Treefrog.

CEO GUARANTEED: Treefrog will never walk a person to the door or fire them for saying you want to leave, or are unhappy with your job. It’s never happened. Not once, ever. It’s a natural thing that will definitely happen to you at some point at Treefrog. Don’t hide it! (Having said that, don’t constantly have the attitude, either - or it’s a self fulfilling prophecy).

Have an open discussion, and be brave, and we’ll find a way to ensure that we all remain intact. A few moments of bravery around your mindset and intent makes the difference for all of us.

NOTE that is it possible that you attempt to transition, but overwhelming odds prevent you from fulfilling your transition period (read: your performance slows past the point of effectiveness during the transition), in which case there will be a mutual ongoing dialogue about your leaving earlier. In which case, you’ve attempted to transition, but it fails. That’s better than quitting! No sweat!

“Pretend Lay Offs”

In many cases, we get requests to “pretend lay off” as opposed to “accept quitting”, so that the person in question can “scoop” some EI. We don’t do this, it is fraud. In addition, there are several nagative implications to our company:

It’s fraud. That alone makes it something we wouldn’t do.
We have to replace you. All possible grants/benefits that the government might have given us to help the transition hole you left are now impossible to get.
If we are trying to do something (like get great talent into the country), this negatively affects the perception of Treefrog to government types.

YES, we lay people off due to lack of work, in absolute and complete desperate circumstances. It’s an unfortunate part of life, but it means the company survives to possibly hire you back in the future.

NO, if you quit or transition, we will not pretend you didn’t.

Examples of Transitioning

1) Transition - X indicated her intent to leave, talked with the CEO about other possibilities and stuck around for a few months trying to make sure she was making the right decision, and then gave significant (months) notice, and then helped us find a fantastic replacement candidate after weeks of personal effort setting the new person up for success and helping her team manage the transition (which they have done so magnificently).

2) Transition - X also gave many months of notice, and indicated he wouldn’t leave until the Frogs were all looked after - has survived several false starts of team members to replace himself in various capacities, and is actively working with agility to make sure nothing happens to us on his way out.

*We were able to have open discussions with both individuals, time to analyze and discuss in front of all Frogs publicly (at State of the Union, in both cases), and more. This is a respectful and dignified way to leave without hurting anyone, and earns them the right to come back to Treefrog in the future - in my mind, they are still “Frogs for Life”. They are considered “Alumni”, and are actively welcome back to Treefrog any time.

Examples of Quitting

3) Quit - X sent an email indicating they were giving 2 weeks notice, then called in sick for 3 days. Then, called in and asked “if she really needed to come in again” (answer: yes, we are still paying you, that’s what “2 weeks notice” is.)

4) Quit - X left with effectively zero notice (asked to be walked to the door, even though this would have been a disaster for many of our clients), talked to clients before they left about their leaving (damaging tens of thousands of dollars of work for us, albeit innocently), talked to Frogs about it (sowing seeds of discontent and doubt for others, and creating emotional chaos and lowering productivity for everyone - going on walks and meeting for hours about the decision), left on a week when their team was mostly on holiday (thus ruining their team member’s holidays) etc., etc. It had a direct cost to us of thousands of dollars, indirect costs of tens of thousands of dollars, and cost everyone here at the company anguish (some more than others) and ultimately, salary (we eat what we kill).

“Last to Know”

Most people have a sense that they are “the last to know”, and feel like they have been slighted because there isn’t a giant fanfare about people leaving months ahead of time (as if we always know months ahead that people are leaving, which we do not). But the rule of thumb is this: if people have announced they are imminently quitting, we don’t immediately go running around the office telling everyone. If people give us months of notice, we’ll let everyone know well in advance.

Keeping the “quiting” timing relatively private is also for several practical reasons:

Although the quitter is excited to tell everyone (because they have often mentally moved on), typically, chaos ensues. “Who is going to replace them”, “How will we cope”, etc., etc. - productivity falls to zero for people who love drama or deeply connected to the person or role. We have people to find their replacement: not everyone needs to stop working and pay attention to the drama for two weeks.
On many, many occasions, after a few days of discussion, the person wants to “unquit” (or, through the quitting discussion, we are able to fix what was ailing them, e.g. someone’s mouse was malfunctioning, and we didn’t know). Sometimes (no kidding) this happens the last day, as their future employer backs out at last minute. If we announce it, there’s no coming back from that, and their leaving becomes self-fulfilling prophecy as no-one believes in them any more.
The announcement of “imminent quitting” leaves a dark cloud following said person around the last few weeks they are around. It adds complexity and rumours and self-doubt to everyone around them - unnecessary drama. It costs everyone major hassle and slows their future success.
Once someone starts thinking about leaving (and it becomes part of their narrative), almost all conversations with them are about this, and not work. We are paying people to do work, not talk about their future life. We aren’t paying people for two weeks of discussion about quitting. So why talk about it?

People leave. It sucks, cause we hire awesome people. But we are not going to mourn or celebrate it. We will keep going, and so will they. No sweat.

The rule of thumb:

If someone is transitioning, we’ll announce it publicly well ahead of time, and give people lots of chance to talk it out and come to terms with it. There is a fair assumption that this isn’t a dysfunctional disappearance, and it’s just a life change. Though unfortunate, it is respectful and dignified.
If someone is quitting, we will share it on a “need to know” basis. It doesn’t do anything but damage to those who remain. We may or may not share it right away.

Again, these are just rules of thumb, as every situation is completely different. We just want to maximize the success of the people who continue, because the people who leave no longer drive our mutual success. (Yes, past employees are still great friends of ours - but especially if they quit, how does that benefit Treefrog?).

“Treefrog Owns the Client Relationship”

There is also the additional feeling that anyone who leaves wants to talk it out with each client - especially because they’ve created such a personal relationship with the client in some cases. Simply put: no. Every time this happens, we get into massive expensive discussions with the client and in every case, it sends the client for a spin and prevents our and the client’s future success. Sometimes the leaver even tells the client we are going to bankrupt or adds unnecessary (and untrue) drama, and damages the client relationship permanently.

The ideal client transition process is:

You are leaving, for whatever reason.
Those who are left will strategically decide exactly what will happen to clients for which you had responsibility (commensurate on many factors, usually many beyond our control - like who we can hire to replace you in the time we have, or who has similar talents at Treefrog, etc.).
Once this strategy is in place (i.e. new people have been hired, or relationships have been transitioned, or whatever), we will tell the internal team what the plan is. We will give them time to strategize and prepare for the new world order.
Then, the people taking over the relationships will communicate the fact that you are leaving to their new clients.

Bottom line: Treefrog owns the relationship. The person who picks up behind the leaver needs to manage the transition in order to continue to feed their children, not the leaver. If you talk to a client about leaving before arranging it with your superior or replacement, you are violating your contract with Treefrog.

“Communicating with Clients After You Leave”

Communicating with clients after you leave about work related to or unrelated to Treefrog (or Treefrog itself) is a violation of your contract with Treefrog and will be reciprocated with legal action. You are in violation of Canadian Privacy Law, your contract with Treefrog, Treefrog’s contract with the client, and common courtesy itself. In addition, you are opening yourself up to significant liability.

Non-Compete - We have a contract stating we own the relationship with the client (a “non-compete”). You may not work for a client of Treefrog’s (without explicit permission) for a period of at least two years after employment.
NDA - We have a contract stating you may not speak about client information, data, etc. if you are not an employee of Treefrog (an NDA, or “Non-Disclosure Agreement), which extends past your employment, forever. In many cases, it is a major privacy violation, at best, as client data and projects are protected, by law - by both us and the Canadian Government. So speaking with us afterwards is legally acceptable, but not with a client. This includes talking about Treefrog employees, emails, files, communication, gossip, you name it. Everything Treefrog is out of the discussion, legally.

Obviously, you are welcome to have high-level opinions of Treefrog, positive or negative, and share them. But calling a past client the day after you were let go and telling them Treefrog is going to go bankrupt (happened), is just plain tacky and, technically, a comment on the machinations of Treefrog’s business operations, and thus a violation of your contract. We appreciate that you are possibily emotionally disconnected - but is that a reason to hurt the people who continue to call Treefrog their home? Cause this certainly falls outside of your NDA, and opens you up to various legal issues.

Easiest way to avoid legal jeopardy, knowing the human penchant for negative gossip after leaving a company (you have your own narrative to write! You will definitely need to rationalize it in some way!): just don’t talk with past clients at all, if you can help it. Obviously, you are welcome to communicate with clients as friends, or as colleagues, whenever you want. You just can’t talk about Treefrog, without crossing the line of legal appropriateness - and that’s a hard thing to do if your relationship was built on it.

“Turning off the Door Code”

We have had the experience that someone, after they gave their notice of 2 weeks, came into Treefrog after the fact and decided to “help themselves” to a variety of things (like paper, sharpies, boxes of paper clips, and the like) with the intent of starting up their own business. “But this is just office stuff I use”, they said. smacks head.

If you quit (vs transition), your door code will be turned off immediately. This is not a point of disrespect, but of protection of those who are left to pick up behind you. If you’ve been here less than a year and transition, your door code will likely be turned off as well. You are not to be on the premises outside of business hours once you have given notice or have been let go. (This is as much for your own safety as Treefrog’s).

If you transition, there is an underlying trust to the relationship, so this doesn’t really apply. You keep your door code, no problem, until your last day.

Basically, when you quit, we will be shutting down all communication mechanisms and anything you don’t absolutely require to minimize every else’s brain drain. The focus will be on keeping the rest of the team alive after you leave, not on you.

The Goodbye Party

In many cases, people would like to remain friends with people who leave, which is normal and appropriate, despite the professional severance. This is usually why people want to know why someone is leaving (unless it affects their job, in which case they will have a “need to know” anyway). However, in this case.

Here’s how the Goodbye Party works;

People who leave will be asked if they want a goodbye party. If they do, we’ll notify the whole team.
This will be booked for approximately one week after their last paid day, on an evening, organized by them.
Frogs will be let known of this date, anyone who can make it, can come out. (The leaver can tell everyone, or request that Treefrog do so on their behalf).
Treefrog takes no responsibility for the costs or anything whatsoever of the party.

To be honest, very few of these parties are well attended - not due to disrespect, but because everyone has a life, despite your moving on. Don’t take it as a sign of disrespect if no-one shows up, even if they promise they will! It’s just bad timing.

The 3-to-6-Month Mourning Period

aka “Respectful Behaviour Around Leaving a Job”

After you leave for any reason, coming back onto Treefrog property within a few days after leaving is tacky, and makes everyone uncomfortable. After you have left - don’t come back to the office again right away to hang out - or try to get back in after hours using your keycode (this has happened several times). Standing outside in the parking lot during work hours talking about why you hate Treefrog and why it is going to fail in full view of the whole team (also happened, several times) creates unecessary drama and prevents us all from being productive until you are gone. If you need to get stuff you have forgotten, arrange to come in with a senior Frog to collect your stuff at the end of the day, so you don’t cause a bunch of unnessary emotion - or arrange to pick it up after hours.

(This is not just a Treefrog rule, this is just common courtesy your mother should have taught you.)

If you left on good terms (and you know this for sure), after a few months, once everyone is settled into the New Normal, it’s lovely to come back and visit. We’d love to see you once in a while! We don’t want you to go away and die, we want you to go away and be truly successful, whilst minimizing drama for all parties while everyone settles into life without you. After 3-to-6 months, all the client skeletons are dried up, projects are closed and whilst we may miss you, residual frustration with you will have dissipated.

If you didn’t leave us high and dry, you are probably Alumni, and you’d be more than welcomed - but actively invited - to future Frog events. We’d love to hear about your future self, and how you are doing, regularly.

If you left on bad terms (read: were a dick when you quit, or acted like an ass, e.g. threw a beer jug at me (happened), told everyone to fuck off (happened), called the Health Department on us (happened), stole Treefrog equipment (happened), tried to convince everyone Treefrog is terrible and they should get a job at their new company (happened), threatened to sue over misunderstanding how ESA works (happened), etc. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlclUwqDo3s), please don’t come back soon. It’s just weird, and makes everyone very, very uncomfortable. Mutual trust has eroded. Give it a decade or two. Time cures all woes, eventually.