What actually burns bridges?
Hi all. I’m a U.S. based junior employee at a small nonprofit. It’s been a hot mess, especially since 2025, when all the craziness went down, and we’re down 20% staff over the last two years, which is significant when we already only had around 20 employees. The org is 70% management or higher, no one gets promoted out of junior status, and all juniors leave within 4-5 years.
I’ve been ready to jump ship for quite some time and this has been locked in ever since I got threatened with a PIP after asking for a promotion after nearly four years in the position. TLDR: No PIP and even got a performance bonus in March, same as every year. I’m broadly popular with everyone else in the office and the pinch hitter fix it all person for all the technical projects.
I’ve pushed back my two week notice because of I needed some health insurance things but I’m very fortunate to be set otherwise in terms of finances for several months and plan to move away from this godforsaken hellhole.
Now that I can submit my notice, I was wondering how much it’d burn bridges if I submitted my notice while both my supervisor and department head are on spring break next week. Our spring staff retreat is also happening the week after.
I’ll probably do it anyway since the relationship is beyond salvaging but I wanted to know what other DON’T DO THIS IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BURN EVERY BRIDGE. I’m junior enough to be cautious despite wanting to leave this industry.