Dear Prudence,
I am very excited—I just got accepted onto a postgraduate that I’ve wanted to do for years. Since my undergraduate I have been doing a course part time and working full time in a teaching post. The place I worked for was corrupt, misogynistic, and homophobic. It knowingly employed unprofessional, even dangerous people. I am not sorry to be leaving. But I was helped by a mentor and a few colleagues, and I’m going to miss them. They’re all more than twice my age, and I know they expected me to be in this job for a long time, probably until retirement, often telling me how I could use the next 20 years to my advantage.
Now that I’m leaving, I know I’m going to be hit with disappointment, annoyance, and anger. To be honest, I’m a bit scared to face all this. I’m not good with confrontation and terrible with even the idea that someone is mad at me. Especially my mentor, whom I love, but has had issues with cutting people off in the past. So how can I best deal with quitting a job that I’m glad to leave, but a bit sad to be leaving the people? I’m not sure we’d ever be friends that would meet outside of work, but I’d at least like to leave on good terms.
—Foot Out the Door