How to Write a Two Weeks’ Notice Letter — Examples Included

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When you quit a job, you usually need to let your employers know two weeks ahead of time.

This is the standard. There are occasions when you might want to give three or four weeks’ notice.

For example, if you have a high-level job or a lot of responsibilities, you may want to give more notice.

However, you are never obligated to give more than two.

You should not give less than two weeks because this can look bad to future employers.

You should write a two weeks’ notice letter even if you have already verbally given your notice.
 

How should you start your two weeks’ notice letter?

This is no time to beat around the bush.

You need to get right to the point of your letter and say that you are resigning.

Name both your job title and the date of your last day at work. You should be clear and unequivocal.

Avoid saying something like “If all goes well, I plan to leave on May 2.”

There should be no doubt about the fact that you are leaving and when your last day will be.
 

Should you say why you are leaving in your two weeks’ notice letter?

You can say why you are leaving, but you don’t have to.

There are a few things to consider as you decide.

Your reason for leaving your job and your relationship with your employer are both relevant.

What is most important is that you don’t say anything negative here.

If you’re leaving because you hate your job or you think your boss is terrible, don’t say that in your resignation letter.

If you feel like you need to say something, you can always use vague language, such as “Another opportunity has come my way.”

In addition, regardless of how you feel about your job or your employer, include a thank you.

If you genuinely loved the job, you can be specific about what you gained in your time there.

If you didn’t like the job and are happy to be moving on, you can still be professional in this part.

For example, you could write something like this:

“I have appreciated the opportunity to work for Acme Industries, and I have learned a great deal in my three years here.”
 

How should you wrap up a two weeks’ notice letter?

At the end of your letter, you should address any ongoing projects that you have and indicate that you will make sure that they are passed on to someone else or completed.

If you don’t tend to work on projects but instead might need to train a replacement or leave instructions for a replacement, you can say something to that effect.

You don’t have to go into a lot of detail about how you will do any of this. You can have that conversation at greater length in person with your colleagues and supervisor.

This is essentially just a courteous acknowledgement.

You could also mention helping with the transition in other ways as appropriate.

Another thing you could possibly include is an invitation to contact you about any questions after you have moved on.

Like sharing information about why you are moving on, including this is dependent on your relationship with your employer.

If you really like your coworkers or your supervisor, you can offer to do so.

Although it’s not common, some workplaces might pressure you to be available in this way after you move on.

You aren’t under any obligation to help out if you don’t want to, so you don’t have to mention this if you aren’t comfortable with it.

You can then end with a courteous statement of appreciation, something along the lines of “I am genuinely grateful for all that Acme Industries has done for me.”

To figure out what to say here, you could also review 15 different ways to say thank you in the business world.

While the informal suggestions would not be appropriate in a resignation letter, most of the formal ones would be.

What should the tone of your two weeks’ notice letter be?

The tone of your letter should be professional, friendly and positive.

If you are on good terms with your supervisor or whoever you are writing the letter to, you can be more casual, but it should still be professional.

There are a few reasons for this.

You never know when you will encounter the people you are working with now in another stage at your professional life.

You may also need references from your current supervisor later.

How to write a voluntary resignation letter can also give you some tips about the tone you should use.
 

How should you format your two weeks’ notice letter?

This is business correspondence, so you should format it as you would any other business letter.

Consider preparing it as a regular letter instead of an email since this is more professional.

You can also send a letter as an email attachment.

Use your own letterhead, or start with your name and address in a block against the left-hand margin.

Skip a space, and then put the name of the person you are writing to and the business address in a block.

Skip another space, and put the date.

Skip one more space for the greeting.

The greeting will vary depending on how formal your relationship is with the person you are writing to.

If you use their first name when you talk to them, it’s fine to do that here.

If you call them “Mr.” or “Ms.” followed by their last name, use that.

If you still aren’t quite sure how to start your greeting, you may find the answer in how to start formal letters.

Your letter should be brief, under a page, and should only be a few paragraphs.

Each paragraph should be no more than three or four sentences. You don’t want the reader to see a block of text when they look at the letter.

At the end of the letter, you should use a formal sign-off like “Sincerely.”

If you are closer to the person you are writing to, you might want to use something like “Warmest regards.”

Alternately, in a more informal letter, you could leave off the second instance of thanking the person and instead use “many thanks” as a sign-off phrase.

You should then leave a space and type out your name.

If you are sending a hard copy of the letter, put your signature in between the signoff and the printed version of your name.

You can send the letter through inter-office mail or deliver it directly yourself.

Whether or not you have discussed your departure date with your supervisor, be sure that the letter gets to them at least two weeks’ before you leave.
 

Example 1 of a two weeks’ notice letter

The example below is of a letter written by someone who had a good relationship with their supervisor.

Example 2 of a two weeks’ notice letter

In contrast, this letter is written by someone who is glad to be moving on.

Notice how the letter writer remains tactful and professional.

Marcel Iseli

Hey fellow Linguaholics! It’s me, Marcel. I am the proud owner of linguaholic.com. Languages have always been my passion and I have studied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics and Sinology at the University of Zurich. It is my utmost pleasure to share with all of you guys what I know about languages and linguistics in general.