If you plan to hit the road, pave it first

Have you given any thought to how you're going to leave your job? If you don't plan to retire from this position - or die with your boots on, as the saying goes - you eventually will have to navigate these waters.

Popular music gives us plenty of clues on potential leave-takings. For inspiration, one can listen to songs such as "Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover" or "Take This Job and ..." well, you know the rest.

For a slightly better guide, here are some of the common job-leaving patterns and tips for preparing for your departure.

Suddenly, in a huff

We've all known someone - or have been someone - who gets up one day and can't face another minute in this job. Or perhaps something happens at work, tears or angry words follow, and out come the cardboard boxes to pack up the worker's locker or desk. This is just about the worst way to leave a job in terms of keeping your reputation intact. But sometimes when you gotta go, you gotta go. Just try to minimize the bridge-burning on the way out the door.

Triumphantly, with another job in hand

Far more commonly, a worker will conduct a job search on the sly, taking afternoons off for suddenly critical dental appointments and returning with a job offer in hand. This is a fine process, as long as you follow some basic standards of decency: Don't use your current employer's resources to conduct your search; make up for time lost to interviews by staying late to complete your work; and try not to take other employees with you to the new job.

Openly, with plenty of warning

Suppose an office worker begins attending engineering classes in the evenings. Does anyone doubt he or she is planning to change jobs? Although the transition may take awhile to implement, the intent is nevertheless clear. These leave-takings tend to be accompanied by lots of goodwill, because no one is surprised or offended. The departing employee has the added advantage of asking for help in finding new job opportunities.

Protractedly, with extensive transition duties

Sometimes the company will forewarn an employee of a restructuring and then ask for help creating new positions of which that employee will not be part. The emotional costs in this scenario are high. Who wants to be told he or she is good enough to develop the new department but not to work there? The situation is made far worse if the employee is asked to keep all or part of the plan a secret. In these cases, it's always better to be able to discuss the impending departure openly, for personal closure and for purposes of an effective job search. If this won't be possible, consider leaving ahead of schedule, on your own terms.

However your departure from a company unfolds, you will be better served in the next chapter of your life if you've taken some basic steps first. Even if leaving is not in your plans, do yourself a favor by laying the following groundwork: