endings & resignations
Manila, 3 September—This is the first letter I’m writing through Substack’s native interface, and I must say I miss the simplicity. Mailchimp is an awesome tool for awesome marketing campaigns that need automation and design, but in the end, I’m just a writer.
But here’s the thing: The email list is comforting because I want to know who I’m talking to. That’s all I ask. These are dark times; if you’re whispering in a dark cave while waiting out a storm on the outside, wouldn’t you want to know who’s in there with you? I mean I would. And I’m glad you’re here with me, truth be told.
So I’m writing because Supreme Court spokesperson Theodore Te just tendered his resignation. In his letter to newly sworn in Chief Justice Teresita de Castro, he said: “I believe that Your Honor should be given a free hand to craft your own media policies and to appoint a person whom your Honor believes could best implement those policies.”
He said he was going back to “full-time academic life”—a life which, he said, he had put on hold starting 2013 “to be able to serve the judiciary and the Supreme Court.”
“I respectfully believe that I would be of greater value to the judiciary and the Court in the academic world at this time,” said Te, who was appointed SC PIO chief in December 2012.
True, the position of the Supreme Court spokesperson should be co-terminus with the Chief Justice. In doing so Atty Ted Te has also spared the High Court from even more intrigue.
Here’s the full text of his resignation letter:
From Ina Reformina’s Twitter account.
Key takeaways:
1) Thinking about rage-quitting a new boss who is so unlike your former boss? Take some tips from this letter, where Te:
Opens with a sincerely worded congratulations on his new boss’s promotion
Goes straight to the point with his resignation in the next paragraph
And presents it in a favorable light where his new boss is concerned: The power is yours.
Proceeds to inform the new boss where he is going next and gives a brief explanation of his reasons
Offers his terms re: his turnover to his successor
Caps it all off with a fond professional memory he shared with his new boss in the past.
Now that’s a resignation letter.
2) Personally, I love Ted Te’s stated reason for leaving, which is to be in a place where he thinks he would be of more value to his profession. When I left my old job at the paper, this was my reason as well. I truly believed the paper was no longer the best place for me, as far as producing valuable work is concerned. I felt like I was pouring from an empty cup. I believe if one starts to think there are elseplaces to be, then there are elseplaces to be. Life is too short to be spent in the wrong places with the wrong people and for the wrong reasons.
Anyway, here’s a serendipitous find from the New York Times: Why you should take time to mourn during career transitions. The author Kimberly Lawson opens the article with her experience of leaving her own newsroom in North Carolina:
On my last day in the newsroom at a North Carolina alt-weekly, I found myself choking back tears. For the first time in almost a decade, my desk was completely clean. All of my old reporter notebooks, past newspaper editions and sticky notes with scribbled writing on them were in the trash.
At the time, I didn’t think I’d be sad to leave — I chose to quit, after all. But, to my surprise, I did feel as if I’d lost something important, and I felt that way for months, mostly because I never stopped to consider why.
This reminds me so much of my own resignation from the paper. I remember going through 12 years’ worth of files with methodical calmness, only to be sideswiped by an unforeseen barrage of straight-out sobs when I had to deliver a short message during my despedida. It was surprising and embarrassing.
Anyway again, I enjoyed writing this way. I hope this means I’m going to be writing more from hereon.
xo.