I'm about to embark on a new adventure and start a new job on Monday.
However, sadly, this means that I will be leaving my lovely children, parents and colleagues.
In my old career I use to do a lot of contracting so I'm reasonably used to moving onto new pastures (luckily, facebook helps me keep in contact).
But this is the first time I have been with these children and families for over 8 months. I have built a wonderfully close relationship with the children and their parents it will be a shame to leave them. I know what their (many) faces mean, I can predict their behaviour and I know what they love and what makes them laugh - I love turning up to work and hearing "hello Wendy" echo around the hall from the toddler room and my room.
Unfortunately, my particular working conditions meant I had to move on.
I have written all of my children a little card and been giving them out throughout the week to let them know I will miss them and that I love them. I tried to include something about their personalities in the card to make it unique for them
However, it is tricky territory - at all times I need to ensure that I am not telling parents or the children to come to my new centre.
In HR, we call it restraint of trade - basically if you move on you can't poach your clients (usually for 6mths but if you are in a very senior position it can be for years). There doesn't seem to be anything like this in the industry but out of respect for my boss I have self imposed it.
How do you manage moving on to a new job?

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