Episode 324: Off-Boarding Without Drama: How to Professionally Handle Resignations in a Small Studio

Your team member just resigned… now what?
In this episode of the Female Empowered Podcast, Christa Gurka breaks down exactly how to off-board staff professionally, legally, and without drama—whether someone quits or you need to let them go.

Most studio owners spend a lot of time perfecting their onboarding systems, but almost no one talks about off-boarding until something goes wrong. And when it’s handled poorly, it can damage your culture, client trust, team morale, and reputation.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why off-boarding is a leadership responsibility, not just an HR task
• The non-negotiable steps every studio should follow when a staff member resigns
• What to include in a resignation confirmation and separation agreement
• How to protect your clients, intellectual property, and business systems
• Exactly what to say to clients and staff (scripts included)
• How to manage the emotional side of staff exits without taking it personally
• Why exits can be a powerful opportunity to realign and strengthen your business

This episode is especially helpful for:

• Boutique fitness studio owners
• Pilates and yoga studio owners
• Physical therapy and wellness practice owners
• Service-based business owners managing small teams

If you’ve ever felt blindsided, anxious, or destabilized when a team member leaves—this episode gives you a clear, repeatable off-boarding framework so you’re never scrambling again.

🎯 Next Steps Mentioned in the Episode:

• Create a written resignation and off-boarding process
• Audit access, passwords, and systems
• Communicate clearly to clients and staff
• Document everything in your HR or payroll system

💬 Want support implementing this?
Join the Fit Biz Community for just $99/month and get coaching, templates, and real-time support from Christa and other studio owners.
👉 https://www.christagurka.com/community

📩 Questions? DM Christa on Instagram—she personally replies. @christagurka.com

Busy isn’t the goal.
 Stable, professional, and sustainable is.

Transcript

Christa Gurka | Fit Biz Strategies: 0:54

Hey there everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Female Empowered Podcast. I'm your host, Christa Gurka physical therapist, former studio owner, and I hope your go-to mentor for building a business that doesn't crumble the minute you leave the studio or have to take a vacation, or have to go on maternity leave, all those things that we as women sometimes have to do In today's episode, I'm gonna be talking about something that most of us small business owners don't even realize should be part of our systems and processes until we have a bad situation or we have an issue. So today we're talking about off-boarding a staff member, whether they resigned or whether you let them go, and what that offboarding process should be. So we talk a lot, or I've spoken a lot and given a lot of advice about onboarding. And how that should be a system and a process and a replicable so everyone gets the same experience. And I feel I haven't really talked about offboarding. So today that's what we're gonna talk about. We're gonna talk about. Why off-boarding is important, and we're gonna talk about off-boarding a team member and more importantly, doing it without drama. Okay? And so I'm gonna break down for you the non-negotiables I feel that are really, really important with off-boarding and why they're important. Specifically, they really protect your culture, they protect your clients, they protect your reputation. And I'm gonna give you some scripts of exactly what you can say to your members, to your clients, to your staff. and a little bit of mindset around your thoughts, your feelings, when somebody is leaving. Okay? So. It's also about learning how to manage the emotional side of it.'cause it really is, it is emotional when we're a small relation based business. we have these people oftentimes in our home, we have, I mean, I used to have some of the people that worked with me babysit my kids. So we are very close and interconnected to them, especially in these small businesses that we have. And it can be very emotional. I know for me, at least for a long time, when someone left. I took it very personally, I thought they were leaving me specifically because I was a bad boss, and that was my issue. I came to realize it wasn't their issue. They have every right to leave for bigger, better, different opportunities. I somehow. Took it as an issue that they were leaving me because I was a bad boss. And if that's how you feel, then we need to work on some of that mindset around how you can mitigate tho that happening to you and how you can think about it. Once it does happen, right? How we can really reframe that in our minds. Okay? So by the end of this episode, I hope you'll have a clean drama free framework ready to go, so that you don't feel blindsided by this again, and, and it's just once again, just a repeatable process in your business, everything else. Alright, so let's dive in. Why offboarding matters more than you think it does. So offboarding isn't just one conversation, it is a process, and it should be thought about as a process in your business the same way you think about onboarding. Okay? And here's what I want you to hear and what I want you to take away from this in this episode. How someone leaves, leaves your business is just as important as how they join it. It sets, sets a precedent, okay? And if you don't do it correctly or properly, or if you don't do it at all, here's what could typ typically happen. Clients sometimes get confused, especially if it's something really quick. Gossip can start amongst your clients, amongst your team, amongst your staff. Staff does feel destabilized. You scramble to fill classes and sometimes. Sometimes maybe clients do follow that staff member. That team member, not necessarily because that person, and I'm doing this in air quotes, for those of you that's soliciting, stole them, but because you didn't have a good transition process, you didn't have a solid framework for which to offboard this person, and I'm talking about both when someone resigns and when you let somebody go. Okay, so as we get into the steps today, I want you to remember that offboarding is part of your leadership, okay? It's protection for you, your team, your reputation, and it's a huge part of maintaining a very stable ecosystem in your business where everything is a process. People know what to expect, everyone kind of falls in line. It creates stability in your business. Okay? So here are some of the must haves that I, non-negotiables especially. This is, especially if someone resigns. You must get it in writing. You have to get a written resignation and preferably in an actual document so that you can save it. It's okay in an email, but I would even prefer an email that has a doc in it. So a Google Doc or a Word doc or something that. Okay. So if they tell you in person, Hey, I want to talk to you, which is very professional, I'd love to talk to you about this. Great. I, the next step is I need you to send me an email so I have this in writing. If they send it to you over text or they, tell you casually. Same thing. Everything is, I appreciate the conversation. but please can you follow up this conversation with an email that has a document with your resignation letter that documents the timeline, when you will, what your last day will be. and it really prevents, it protects you legally. Number one, it prevents confusion and it prevents that whole, he said, she said oh, well, I didn't say that, or, I didn't, this was gonna be my last day, or, I didn't know this. And anything in writing. I just think everything in writing protects everyone, protects them and, and protects you. So make sure that the, the resignation letter says they're resigning. That's important. Okay, so that they can't file for unemployment.'cause unemployment is only if they get terminated and their effective last day. Okay. And now once you get that letter, you're gonna confirm the terms of their resignation in writing. So you're gonna confirm your last day will be X date. Okay? Expectations during this next period, which we're gonna talk about now, what will happen with their schedule in the interim, what will happen with their final paycheck, and then what? Access. you're gonna look at what access they have within your company. So do they have access to the scheduling platform? Do they have access to bank information? Do they have certain passwords? Okay. So what you're gonna do is you are gonna draft, I, I recommend that you do this. Now after listening to this episode, draft a sample resignation letter template so that you have this already to go in the next time it happens. Okay? So you're never starting from scratch. So you can just go in, create in your Gmail or whatever it is, a template that's a SA sample resignation letter, resignation process. And then you can kind of already templatize it. I don't know if that's a word. with. here's your last date. Here's what will happen in the interim, here's gonna be our offboarding or exit interview. this is what you can expect in the next, I don't know, hopefully it's two weeks or longer. Okay. The next thing is, so you definitely wanna get it in writing. That's number one. Then you wanna confirm in writing to them. That's number two. Number three, especially during you do an exit interview with them, it can be in person, it can be over Zoom, and in that exit interview, you're gonna have them sign what's called a separation agreement. Okay? What's, what A separation agreement does the same way. Non-solicitation confidentiality agreements due at the beginning is it really protects your intellectual property. It protects your client list, it protects your business reputation, and it gives the staff member, excuse me, it gives a staff member a clear understanding of what they're still. Sorry, take a little sip of water what they're still responsible for, and that they're still committed to this contracts that they signed at the beginning. Okay, so what does a separation letter have? It again, it's a form letter. And it reminds them of what they committed to when they started working for you. So, so they're still under non-solicitation, which means they can't, they're not supposed to poach clients. They're also not supposed to poach other staff members. Okay? They're on a non-disclosure, still under a non-disclosure agreement, which means they can't talk about your processes and stuff. And it just reminds them Hey, remember you signed all this stuff at the beginning, we just wanna remind you that you are. Still committed to these agreements. It also, usually in the separation letter, it, there's a checkbox that says they've returned whatever they have. If you have a manual, if you have uniforms, keys, any physical, something that they need to give back. Usually in our business it's just keys to the studio, or gait fobs or anything that. So. I would draft the separation agreement, and then if you have an attorney that can look over it just to make sure it's kosher and, and all that stuff, you can have, an attorney look over it and then, one that's specifically for employees and then you can also have one for contractors. I guarantee you your future self. Well, thank you. If you're part of our, accelerator Inner Circle, or my Elevate to Exit program, you guys have access to this, resignation letters and separation agreements in your resource portal in our library. So if you're listening to this podcast and you're where do I find that? Just ask me on our next coaching call or, or Voxer me or whatever, and I can send you the links to where you can find all of this information. Obviously you have to make it your own right, with your own stuff, and I still, I am not an attorney, so I still sometimes recommend that people have their attorney if it they're in different states. Okay, so what you wanna collect from your staff member, keys, fobs, door codes. You don't collect the door codes really. You change the door codes, you change the software logins, you change any studio issued device. So if you did issue a computer, if you did issue a phone, those you have to get back. and again, any teaching manuals that you, that are part of your intellectual property, usually we don't have a lot of these, but. maybe you do. Okay. And even if they're the nicest person on the planet, even if they're your sister or brother or mom or dad, or it's business, this is how it happens to protect yourself so you don't have an issue down the road. Okay. Changing. Codes or logins. It's not personal, it's business. It's how you protect yourself. And by the way, you should change your codes periodically anyways. I know that sounds daunting and awful, but it's good business practice, okay? it protects your space, it protects your property, it protects your clients. Okay? so yeah, so you wanna, cha and I usually, if, if, I change them as as soon as I possibly can. So if you're giving, if they have access into moments or if they have access into, mind, body or Jane, you can also change their access. So without letting them go completely, you can, you might wanna change their access to information so they don't have the access to, reach out to clients or see certain financials and stuff that. A lot of times you have to keep them on those platforms. A lot of those platforms, if you erase them completely, it also erases their pay payroll history. And, oftentimes you have a final paycheck, oh, I think I forgot to mention, when you have your separation agreement, they have to return all of those, all of that property to you prior to them receiving their last paycheck. Okay? So usually we hold back the paycheck, the final paycheck, until they've. They've, what's the word I'm looking for? done their part. Can't think of what the word I'm looking for is of the separation agreement, which is return all of the information, so the fobs, the keys, et cetera. So you make sure you get that before you issue their last paycheck. Okay? So important to do. Usually if we are going to let somebody go, we change all of that information prior to letting them know we're gonna let them go. so hopefully that's not something that happens regularly for you, but if, if it is something where we're gonna let them go, we do the same in reverse. So we issue them a termination letter, we change, we've changed all their passwords and login access, et cetera. Maybe I'll do another episode about that, about the process for letting someone go. Okay, so now let's talk about. This person's resigned. Alright. Or you're, or you've let them go. Now what happens front facing, front to your, to your studio, to your staff, to your clients, okay. and I know this is where studio and business owners, PT practices, all of this, this is where people get anxious because our clients develop a relationship with their staff person. Okay, so we get really nervous. We worry that our clients will follow the team member. Our clients will get upset. What will they think about us? Something bad happened, shift blame to you. All of these things go ruminating in our head over and over and over and over again. My best advice is you get ahead of this. Be transparent and control the narrative because confusion and gossip happen all the time, and they happen worse when you don't lead with the right communication. All right, so let me give you a little formula that may help you. Okay, this could be a more public statement. Now, you could make this in a text. You could make this in a newsletter. You could send off a one-off newsletter. You could send it to individual clients. Okay? Here's a sample script I would say that you can use. You can say like, hello everyone, or, or if you do a mass email, you can obviously use the code so you can get their name in there. We want to share the exciting news that enter the person's name. We'll be moving on from enter your business name as of. Enter the last date to pursue new and exciting opportunities. Okay, so you're, you're happy, you're excited for them to be moving on. We're grateful for their time here and we wish them the very best. No worries. Your sessions and classes will continue without an interruption, and we've already arranged seamless coverage. Our priority is your care and your experience, and we're excited for the incredible team supporting you moving forward. If you have questions about your schedule or need some help booking, please reach out to our front desk. It's professional, it's short, it's neutral. It's not oversharing, it's not drama. Okay? So if you want, you can replay this later and write it down. I'll just, I'll say it again. Hello everyone. We wanna share the exciting news that enter team member's name will be moving on from enter your business name as of enter their last date to pursue new and exciting opportunities. We're so grateful for their time with us and we wish them nothing but the very best. Your sessions or classes will continue without interruption, and we've already arranged seamless coverage. Our priority is your care and your experience, and we're excited for the incredible team still supporting you moving forward. If you have questions about your schedule or want any help booking, please reach out to our administrative team, or you can also put who your administrator is. Okay. Some things that I recommend you don't say in a text or to client. You don't say, oh, we're so sad they're leaving. We can say, yeah, of course it's always hard to lose a team member, but we're really excited for them in the next opportunity they have. you could, well should not say oh, we don't know why they left. They didn't give us enough notice. They're scrambling, but we're gonna do our best. And if you did let someone go or people left under poor circumstances, you do not get into it with your clients about why they left. Okay. You do not share that. Even if they ask, I've had somebody ask why did so and so leave? And it was a bad one. We had to let this person go. And I was they're, they're just, are, we, were no longer in alignment. They just decided, we're moving in different directions. But you don't talk about the drama with your clients. Okay. And then sometimes you don't talk about it with your staff either. You could say, Same thing. If anyone has questions, come speak to me, but this person's moving on, et cetera, et cetera. Alright. I do advise getting in front of it as soon as possible. if you want to reach out to the clients individually, if they're physical therapy clients and they've been working individually with this person, you can send an individual email or notification or talk to them in person and say, I know you've really been working with. Jane and I want to assure you that your care will continue without any disruption based on your goals. I've been recommending insert new person, and I would love to help transition you into a few sessions to keep your progress moving forward. I will be around to answer any questions. Okay. Ideally you can get someone to pick up their same day, same time. Ideally. Um, if this person is resigning and they're, they gave you some notice, a great way to do this would be a handoff where they can co-teach or co-treat, um, prior to them leaving. That also builds a lot of buy-in. So those are some ways and some scripts that you can use to get in front of clients and let them know. Okay. Um. The next thing you wanna do is make sure that when you talk to that team member, they've resigned. You're having your discussion with them, that you lay some ground rules for them. Okay? I am a big fan of you. Controlling the narrative, you as owner or your manager or whatnot. So asking this new pers this person, say, you know, please do not communicate directly with clients or staff about your departure unless it's been approved by management. We would love to handle the, the transition communication, or we would love to tell this team first. Please. We'd ask that you'd hold this information until, um, you know, we can tell them together something in that regard. So I hope that makes sense. how you get in front of clients, how you get, how you ask the person leaving, if you want them. You'd be you can tell your clients you make, but you make the decision. Okay. the next thing is how you tell the team. I would use the same script that you would use with your clients, whether you send that in a Slack message, whether you create a video of yourself saying it, and you send it in your, in your slack, or you send an email or on your team meeting. But I would not wait a long time because again, gossip and people are like, oh, this person's leaving. Why didn't they tell us? Da, da, da. And people let, when they let their imagination go wild. It's never good. It isn't. I have found. Anyway. So now the next thing, lastly, let's talk about the emotional side of it. You losing staff is hard because we are small businesses and most of us rely and depend very heavily on our team. It's just the nature of our business. We're service providers. So if someone leaves and they can no longer provide that service, that's revenue loss, right? So you may feel hurt. Blindsided, betrayed, worried, angry, embarrassed. You may feel less than you're perfectionist, and people pleasing tendencies may come out and just say like, oh, I'm a bad boss, or I'm a bad this, and let's, I'd love to invite you to think about some of these things in a different way. Okay. People leaving is not at all a reflection of our worth. As an owner, it isn't. Most of the time these people are not even thinking, they're thinking about themselves and their future. Oftentimes people are leaving'cause they're moving outta the state. They're leaving because maybe they're having a baby or maybe they've decided to change careers. Okay, we are not being abandoned. They are moving on, and our studios are bigger than any one person, which is. Another reason, one of the things I coach on is to not have more than 25% revenue generation tied to one person. So let me say that in a little more clear English. We as business owners, should not have. Any one client or anyone staff member be responsible for more than 20 to 25% of our general revenue. So for example, if you have an instructor or a physical therapist that's generating and pulling in 50 to 60% of the overall revenue and that person leave, that's gonna be a big hit to your business. So we just try to. Have it more, um, shared between everyone. Okay. So yes. If 20% leaves Yeah. Would that be a hit? Yes. But it's easier to replace 20% than it's to replace 60%. And it's usually, I mean, maybe if you're a dickhead boss, maybe, but I don't think anybody listens to this podcast Usually is, but they're not leaving us as people. They're moving on. And what the way that we can think about it is. Think about how fortunate we are to have been a small part in that person's career path or trajectory. And, um, grateful for that opportunity. And every time someone leaves, we as business owners get a chance to reevaluate that role, maybe. Now it things are different and maybe you don't need that role in your business or you need a different role in your business. Maybe it's a way that you can improve your team. You can update your structure, you can uplevel your hiring standards, you can grow your leadership skills. exits are not always setbacks, okay? Exits are sometimes realignment where you can look and be like, you know what? I don't know that we need another full-time person or. Now I really wanna hire someone that's both a physical therapist and a Pilates instructor, or I really wanna hire someone that has, um, a personal training background, or I wanna hire someone now that can go to both of my locations or can work nights and weekends. Or you can decide to eliminate that role altogether. So there are times when people leave my, your knee jerk reaction is, might be to fill that role right away. And sometimes I really recommend to people, it's like, sit in it. Really see, what is that, what is your business gonna be like without this person? And is this time for like a realignment, a restructuring? So think about it in that way. So those would be the mindset shifts that I would invite you to try on the next time someone resigns, and or maybe decreases their hours, et cetera, et cetera. So just a little something to think on. All right. In conclusion, I'm gonna reiterate the steps. So here's your checklist. Okay? One, get a written resignation letter. Two, you send the confirmation email of that resignation letter with expectations and their final day, so everyone's on the same page three, okay? You provide them and request, they don't have to sign it by the way, but a request a signature on a separation agreement. All right. Four. You remove them and change their logins to their password, their system access, et cetera. Five. Collect any and all property that belongs to you. Keys, fobs, um, car A, a, anything like that. If they have computers, phones, credit cards, any of that. And you're gonna change all of the logins and access systems. Okay. Then six, you're gonna communicate clearly with the clients. You're gonna communicate clearly with your team. Okay. And then you're gonna document every single thing in their personnel file. Save it in their personnel file, or, or if you use like Gusto or an HR management system, you put it in there. And only when you've completed all of those things and you, you've received everything back from them, do they get their final paycheck? You'll thank yourself, I promise you'll thank yourself for this. so. Offboarding is never really fun. If you're letting someone go if they're resigning, it's just never fun. But it doesn't have to be super chaotic or emotional. If you follow this process, it just becomes just one other thing you do in your business, okay? And when you can stay neutral and professional and clear, your clients trust you, your team trusts you, your business feels way more stable. All right? So the same way you build out SOPs for onboarding and hiring, you should have one for. offboarding. Alright, if this is something you need help with, we do discuss things like this in our Fipass community. We do a fully built out system in our accelerator, but enrollment for that is closed until summer July, 2026, depending on when you're listening to this episode. But. You can join our monthly business community for only$99 a month. People,$99 is less than the cost of a private session for you.$99 a month gets you access to discussing things like that. This to reviewing your processes and templates to being as proactive in your business as possible rather than reactive and holding things together like duct tape. So. If your doors are always open to the community, it's months a month. There's no long-term commitment, and it's a wonderful community of women that are doing this on the Daily, led by me. I'm in there all the time guiding you, helping you, teaching you, talking you off the ledge. So if you're interested in joining our community or even checking it out for a couple months, I invite you to visit www.christagurka.com/community. You can check out all the deets there. You can always DM me over on Instagram. I'm very active there. I do reply to all of my dms. It's not a bot, it's actually me. All right, so I hope you got something from this episode, and until next time, my friends, bye for now. I.