Ask HN: How much to put in a resignation letter?

Lack of transparency is IMO an even bigger problem than lack of acknowledgement.

It could be argued that there would have been other ways to acknowledge the success in sales than handing out money (though depending on how this has been handled before, that could still have come across as trying to be "cheap" and have the opposite effect).

But if it's not possible to determine whether the increase in sale had any effect on the overall finances of the company or whether the company was all-in-all doing better or worse, that's a huge problem IMO.

I've seen business owners try to shield the actual finances of their company from their employees to siphon more money out of it far too often to see financial intransparency as anything other than a huge warning sign.

Note I'm not talking about the exact numbers. But if the company is doing badly when every metric accessible to the employees indicates otherwise, something is definitely amiss.

It depends.

The advice you're getting, to say basically nothing, is sound under all circumstances. However...

If you don't need to work again { at this company, in your industry, in your city, at all }, you should feel free to say whatever you want. That freedom takes years or decades of hard work to earn, and once earned should be used! Just how willing you should be to burn bridges depends on your personal situation and the nature of your industry and profession; if these are not people you would ever work with or for again anyway, and you wouldn't want a job with someone else in the same city or industry who respects their opinion, then the advice to say nothing for your own sake does not apply.

All that said, what are you trying to accomplish? If you've decided to resign and that decision is final, you're not going to accrue any benefit yourself. If you're looking for a counteroffer, forget it; you likely won't get one, and you'll be a marked man if you do. If your motives are altruistic (either for the benefit of the shareholders or your peers), then you must be hopelessly naive. These people are corporate managers, and so are their superiors; they've been carefully selected for sociopathy, greed, and incompetence by a mature and very stable set of processes. They know morale is in the tank and they don't care. The company is probably in trouble owing to mismanagement and they're probably hoping a few people will leave on their own so they can save themselves not only the cost of pay rises but also of severance. Telling them what they already know will, at best, give them fodder for the jokes they'll tell at your expense in the executive washroom. If your goal is simply to go out in style, don't bother with the letter; no one will read it anyway. Instead, write a public article (carefully avoiding the use of confidential information!) or invite all your peers out to a giant party at which you roast management ruthlessly. The leadership principle is to criticize in private and praise in public, but the opposite applies when dealing with corporate management: anything negative you want to say has to be said in public. Private criticism of corporate managers only gives them an opportunity to get ahead of you, whether by having Security remove you from the premises immediately, by slandering you among your peers, or by suing you. Why? Because when you tell them something you're not telling everyone, you give them information, and they will always use that information to their advantage and your injury. Unfortunately, if you have something negative to say about your employer, the only effective place to do so is in the press.

So while I disagree that one should never provide one's reasons out of self-preservation, I also don't see much point in using the letter of resignation as the means of doing so. Whatever your goals, there are better ways to achieve them.

a3n pretty much said everything I was going to. I heard it from my dad originally and his reasoning was that if you aren't happy then a title change/money isn't going to fix that long-term. Also most people, myself included, are bad about letting that shit stew until it bubbles over and in my experience there is nothing that can be done to reverse that. Normally the trust is lost and can't be gained back and even it could your life will be magnitudes of times better to just move on from a toxic environment instead of trying to change the company you are currently at.

The future consequences are also huge, you may no longer be seen as "team player" which can slow or halt your career, better to not take the chance and move on.

This is all you need to say.

If you are pressed on your reasons in a meeting or otherwise, make it clear that it was a hard choice and that you thought through it very well so that they don't counter the offer.

Keep it professional. It's all upside if you do.

This is perfect and provides the exact amount of detail that you should offer in your exit interview or when pressed in person.