Googler goodbye e-mail: 'So long, suckers! I'm out!'

When he left Google for Imeem, Jason Shugars' goodbye e-mail started, "So long, suckers." Credit: Spencer Weiner / Los Angeles Times.

It was not the most eloquent subject line for a farewell e-mail to 5,000 co-workers: "So long, suckers! I'm out!"

But Jason Shugars worked at Google, whose off-center corporate culture is more forgiving than that of your average buttoned-down investment bank. In the rest of his goodbye, Shugars, a senior sales compliance specialist, reminisced about workplace moments that included putting cake down his pants at a sales conference, stealing a boss' $8,000 leather couch and singing "Hit Me Baby One More Time" in a miniskirt and braids.

"It took me a long time to write it," said Shugars, 34, who left Google to become director of ad operations for the music streaming website Imeem. "I didn't want to send out a stale 'good working with you, please reach me here' e-mail. Who wants that?"

That's a good question these days, now that thousands of people are finding themselves with pink slips and the need to let colleagues and contacts know they are moving on and -- perhaps more important for job seekers -- how they can be reached.

The farewell e-mail has suddenly become commonplace, a new art form in the electronic age. Yet like so many aspects of the Internet era -- how to unfriend on Facebook, how much to reveal on a personal blog -- the technology has gotten ahead of the etiquette. There are, quite simply, no rules.

Read the full story for more examples of how the universality of e-mail and the confessional spirit of the times are spicing up goodbye messages.

-- Robin Abcarian

Comments

so where teh frack is the email he sent?

useless article and even bigger useless waste of space.
(imho)

[Matt]

Worst Digg Ever

[not this guy]

who cares. it really shows his brain power when he is making a career choice like that

[Jack]

This is called burning your bridges.

Send what you want, but remember, you never know who is doing the recommending and hiring..

[meghan]

laaaame

This is the most idiotic article I've ever read. I read the LA times each day and for this to even make the newspaper is appalling. Morons like this guy here deserve to lose their job

[Maca]

Surely you don't want to burn a bridge like that? What if Big G takes over the next employer?

[Jason]

Ooh, it's COOL to be snarky.

(Crap... *I* just did it.)

It's okay. When Gen X finally runs everything, this will no longer be newsworthy.

[Jason Shugars]

If you want to read the email it's here on my blog:
http://www.theshugars.com/2008/05/my-goodbye-email.html

I wasn't being laid off or fired. I was leaving on good terms to work for imeem.com.
The goodbye email was actually a fond recollection of some good memories, and a thank you to the Goog.
js