How a person leaves a job tells you more about them than how they started. I have watched people leave well and leave poorly, and the difference is rarely the decision itself. It is found in how they handle the transition, what they protect, what they communicate, and whether they continue to take responsibility when the next opportunity is already in view.
People leave for good reasons. A better opportunity, a move, a role that fits more closely, or a stage of life that asks something different of them. A manager who takes every resignation personally has misunderstood the job, because nobody owes you their whole career. The goal is not to keep people from leaving forever, but to build something great so that they stay while it serves them, and to make leaving well easy when the time comes.
Leaving well is a skill, and it is mostly about the handoff. The person who leaves well gives reasonable notice, documents what only they know, finishes what they can, and is honest about what they could not complete. They protect the team they are leaving, rather than protecting only themselves. They treat the final two weeks with the same seriousness they brought to the first two, because the job is not fully finished until someone else can carry the work forward.
That diligence may seem small during the exit, but it matters long after the last day. It costs very little to communicate clearly, document carefully, and leave the next person with a fair chance to succeed. It earns a great deal, because people remember who made the transition easier and who made it harder.
Leaving poorly is usually not dramatic. It often looks like coasting once notice has been given, or quietly deciding to stop caring a few weeks early. Everyone notices, especially the people who have to absorb the work that was left unfinished.
Professional AV is a small world. The integrator down the street, the manufacturer rep, the consultant on the next project, and the project manager you trained who now runs a team somewhere else will cross your path again. How you left your last seat arrives in the room before you do.
The manager has a job in this too, and it is often skipped. Make leaving well easy, thank people for the work they did, and remember who handed off with care. I remember every person who handed off with that kind of care, and so does everyone else who has had to clean up after someone who did not.
The people who leave well are the people you rehire and call when you need someone you can trust. Hold the door open, because in a small industry, most good paths cross again.