Say what you actually think in your exit interview
There's a box on the exit interview form for 'additional comments' and it is, by design, too small for what you actually want to write. You've been told, correctly, to stick to incidents rather than character: not 'he's a bully' but 'on 14 March he cancelled the review meeting twice and then marked me down for missing deadlines.' It's oddly satisfying, building a case like a lawyer instead of venting like a wronged friend. The HR person across the table has heard versions of this before, about this same manager, and writes it down anyway. Whether it goes anywhere is not really the point on your last Thursday.
Practical
- Cost
- Free
- Best time
- Any time of year, dictated entirely by your notice period
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time it takes
- 30–60 minutes, on or near your last working day
- What people get wrong
- People either vent about personality and get politely written off, or hold everything back out of fear it'll reach a future reference; framing specific incidents, dates, and outcomes tends to be heard and taken more seriously, even if nothing changes immediately.
- With
- One other person