How should I quit on good terms?

[jefflaw]

Me: I'm a 35 yr old Husband and Dad. I work really hard to provide for my family that I cherish. I'm a busy guy with work (sometimes I have to work weekends), so any free time I get, I love to spend with my family, obviously. I'm in the Animation field.

 

Last October I agreed to commit to a visual art project on the side with some friends who are neither married nor have kids but they are in the same industry. We get together once a week. It was suppose to be for fun and they know i'm a busy dad so they try and work around my schedule. They'd like to now start getting together 2 nights a week and want to maybe take it a little more serious with the idea of possibly making a small series out of it for the industry.

 

I'm not 100% on the material, the project is fun because I love this field, but my artistic tastes are way different. Since I'm already a busy Dad/Husband, I've been thinking of leaving the project and from now on only working on projects I feel very strong about, since my free time is so limited. If I leave, it will set them back a little and they'd need to find someone to replace me. They could be down for a good month until they find someone.

 

My Problem: is How do I quit on good terms? I feel guilty. I don't want to tell them that I don't really like the material, I'd like to keep it so there are no hard feelings and hopefully be able to remain friends. I should probably be honest, Don't want to make up any stories.

 

Should be easy I know, It's just hard for me to Quit, I don't know how to go about it, without feeling guilty because I know my leaving will definitely set them back and I want to maintain a good relationship with them all. I also don't want them to be angry if I end up joining something else in a month or so.

[TheFinalWord]

Me: I'm a 35 yr old Husband and Dad. I work really hard to provide for my family that I cherish. I'm a busy guy with work (sometimes I have to work weekends), so any free time I get, I love to spend with my family, obviously. I'm in the Animation field.

 

Last October I agreed to commit to a visual art project on the side with some friends who are neither married nor have kids but they are in the same industry. We get together once a week. It was suppose to be for fun and they know i'm a busy dad so they try and work around my schedule. They'd like to now start getting together 2 nights a week and want to maybe take it a little more serious with the idea of possibly making a small series out of it for the industry.

 

I'm not 100% on the material, the project is fun because I love this field, but my artistic tastes are way different. Since I'm already a busy Dad/Husband, I've been thinking of leaving the project and from now on only working on projects I feel very strong about, since my free time is so limited. If I leave, it will set them back a little and they'd need to find someone to replace me. They could be down for a good month until they find someone.

 

My Problem: is How do I quit on good terms? I feel guilty. I don't want to tell them that I don't really like the material, I'd like to keep it so there are no hard feelings and hopefully be able to remain friends. I should probably be honest, Don't want to make up any stories.

 

Should be easy I know, It's just hard for me to Quit, I don't know how to go about it, without feeling guilty because I know my leaving will definitely set them back and I want to maintain a good relationship with them all. I also don't want them to be angry if I end up joining something else in a month or so.

 

I would just let them know about the time constraint dilemma. If these are friends, you can maybe say something to the effect that you cannot see devoting any additional time to these projects and someone would be a better fit their new vision. If you want to be nice, you can give them a 4 week frame of time (this is how long you indicated it would take them to find a replacement) for when you will be leaving to give them time to find a replacement.

[Almond_Joy]

Me: I'm a 35 yr old Husband and Dad. I work really hard to provide for my family that I cherish. I'm a busy guy with work (sometimes I have to work weekends), so any free time I get, I love to spend with my family, obviously. I'm in the Animation field.

 

Last October I agreed to commit to a visual art project on the side with some friends who are neither married nor have kids but they are in the same industry. We get together once a week. It was suppose to be for fun and they know i'm a busy dad so they try and work around my schedule. They'd like to now start getting together 2 nights a week and want to maybe take it a little more serious with the idea of possibly making a small series out of it for the industry.

 

I'm not 100% on the material, the project is fun because I love this field, but my artistic tastes are way different. Since I'm already a busy Dad/Husband, I've been thinking of leaving the project and from now on only working on projects I feel very strong about, since my free time is so limited. If I leave, it will set them back a little and they'd need to find someone to replace me. They could be down for a good month until they find someone.

 

My Problem: is How do I quit on good terms? I feel guilty. I don't want to tell them that I don't really like the material, I'd like to keep it so there are no hard feelings and hopefully be able to remain friends. I should probably be honest, Don't want to make up any stories.

 

Should be easy I know, It's just hard for me to Quit, I don't know how to go about it, without feeling guilty because I know my leaving will definitely set them back and I want to maintain a good relationship with them all. I also don't want them to be angry if I end up joining something else in a month or so.

 

 

DO you know other colleagues that may be into the project your friends are doing? Maybe you can announce your leaving with the farewell gift of a successor if so.

[darkmoon]

i knew a pro who quit a group - so then she turned herself into a consultant, just there to phone, unpaid and occassional at first

 

notably they'd already liked what she came up with, i think she was too accomodating, but she left on good terms to set up elsewhere

Edited January 22, 2013 by darkmoon