How to quit a part-time job professionally?

• I currently work at Food Lion part-time and go to school but I plan to quit as soon as school lets out for summer. First of all, Food Lion is my first actual "job" since I got it without any help. At the date I plan on quitting, I would have worked there for 6 months. Now I need help leaving this job the right way. The only other employment experience I've had before Food Lion was working with my dad at a furniture warehouse the summer before school started. He basically hooked me up with the job and it was only for the summer so school was a legitimate reason for leaving the job. Now I'm preparing to leave my part-time job for this full-time job and I'm trying to figure out how to quit without feeling awkward or bad. I don't think the reason for leaving Food Lion should matter but basically the warehouse job offers more hours, better pay, paid more frequently (weekly, instead of bi-weekly), consistent schedule, and it's closer to home (I actually live like 4-5 minutes away from the warehouse as opposed to driving 20 minutes to Food Lion). How would I go about properly quitting my part-time job? Should I quit immediately or tell my manager sometime beforehand? Should I speak with my manager directly in person or hand them a letter or both? Should I mention my other job that I'm leaving to and reasons for leaving? I want to be able to leave on a good note and make sure Food Lion is prepared for my replacement.

• Answer:

  You should definitely notify your manager beforehand. The custom professionally is to give at least two weeks' notice before you are leaving. (You don't want to let them know too far ahead of time, in case they start thinking of you as 'already gone' and cut your hours way back.) Whether you speak directly with your manager or hand them a letter depends how much you usually interact with them. It would be good to inform him or her verbally rather than in writing, if you at all can. Be sure to say that you have appreciated the job / learned a lot / enjoyed the environment / SOMETHING nice. Be as absolutely appreciative as you can and remorseful of the things you'll be missing as you can without resorting to obvious lies. Think out what things you want to mention beforehand (practice saying it to a mirror if you need to!) so you won't fumble when you talk to the manager. Often a manager for a part-time job will be very understanding about your leaving (even if they like you a lot as an employee) if you explain that the reason you are leaving is because you got a full-time job that is closer to home. (The better pay and better hours are kind of a given, so you shouldn't talk about that.) Hope it goes well! And good luck at your new job. :)