How to tell your agent you’re leaving?

[Jellybabies]

Hiya everyone would love some advice

What does everyone think is the best way to politely tell your agent you are leaving? Are you meant to say why you are leaving/ what agency you are going to?

I’m in the awkward position where I am keen to leave my current agent as quickly as possible as I’ve got an offer from another agency. However in my contract for my current agent it does say the agency can make you stay for a notice period of up to two months (although I believe this is rarely enforced).

in an ideal world I’d like to leave my current agent immediately, do I state this in the email /ask whether they want me to stay for the notice period. Or do I just tell them I am leaving and see what they say in response?

Any thoughts or experiences would be much appreciated, feel free to PM me, thank you!!

[Dogcop]

You only need to tell them as much as you want to! They don't need to know why or where you are going. I would just thank them for their time with you and ask if you can leave straight away.
We left SY to go to another much smaller agency and it was all very polite with no hard feelngs. (Although Ds stayed on their books) They let dd leave immediately as there was no current work or payments needing to be processed

[ACookie]

They may need to know where you are going if there are any ends left to tie up. For example my DD has a repeat contract which requires her current agent to pass back commission to her previous agent. Otherwise I think most agents will release you fairly quickly after any outstanding payment has been received from employers.

[Pandora II]

Some will enforce notice.

I sent DD's last agent a formal email just stating we were terminating her contract with immediate effect.

They replied setting out all details of 3 months notice and any work she got in that time would require commission to them no matter how it was secured etc.

Given they hadn't sent her for a single thing in over 9 months I was fairly irritated and the auditions I requested they had failed to submit her for and she was only seen because I went behind their backs and applied myself (and made final rounds).

[RoseTowers4]

I wrote and thanked the previous agency for their hard work and asked when I could move ds spotlight profile across to new agency. I asked because they had put ds up for suitable castings and I felt they had done a good job. Not sure what I would do if they hadn't done their job.

[Jellybabies]

thanks all for your help

If I'm honest my current agent hasn't been very good and I've only had one casting in a year! So at the moment I'm not in the middle of any current work/ audition process, and there is no payments etc in process!

PandoraIII, I am a bit worried that the same may happen to me! So did they allow you to move to your new agent immediately, but you still had to give them commission for 3 months?

I'm trying to be as polite as I can in the hope they do let me leave immediately, do you think it would be worth me saying something along the lines off "clearly I am not quite right for your agency as I have not been able to secure any work"?

thanks

[Pandora II]

I ended up not having an agent for a year. DD was getting seen for the MT roles as WE is open calls a lot of the time.

I wanted to spend some time researching before making another agent error, plus DD was consistently making final rounds so I rather figured that if she got cast then it was pointless having an agent as she'd be under contract and unable to do anything anyway.

And, given previous agency were insistent that they wanted their cut, I was not prepared to go with someone else, have them do the hard work and have to hand over money to the previous.

However DD starting pushing on wanting to do more auditions and not just MT so I started looking seriously.

We now have a fantastic agent who could not be more different from previous experience. If I call (which I'm never scared to do) then I don't even have to give DD's name, they know already.

We haven't done a huge number of castings but a) they have all been potentially perfect for DD and I can see why she's been submitted and b) DD is currently under contract and so no point for the last couple of months

The right agent is worth their weight in gold, the wrong one a source of stress and annoyance.

[Jellybabies]

thanks for your reply Pandora

I am really dreading telling my agent I am leaving but I think I will have to do it in the next day or so as the new agent asked to have a reply to their offer in the next week! I am just worried that if for some reason the current agent does make me stay for the whole notice period, my new agent might withdraw their offer- do you think that is common?

[RoseTowers4]

Why don't you ask how many castings you have been put forward for ? You could say that one casting in a year is not great and you're wondering why you're not being seen. Ask for specific examples so they don't just insist they've sent you for anything suitable.

It won't stop you going but it might give you more leverage. The agency have a duty to put you forward for work and they can't insist on a two month delay if they haven't been proactive in trying to find you work.

[Yorkshirepudding]

They don't really have much on an incentive to keep you to your notice period if you aren't earning money for them so they will probably let you go, although we tiptoed around leaving one agent as they took things incredibly personally and slagged people off who left as 'disloyal'.(A good reason to leave in hindsight).

It's not easy, and I hated it too, but it is a professional relationship and therefore keeping all your communication depersonalised can help - 'it isn't working for either of us' rather than 'you haven't done xyx' or 'we think abc'

Good luck. It will be the right decision to leave, finding the right place to move to can be tricky but worth it!

[RoseTowers4]

they took things incredibly personally and slagged people off who left as 'disloyal'.(A good reason to leave in hindsight).

You must have had the same agent as we had at some point!

[Jellybabies]

RoseTowers thank that is a great idea actually, I think I will email today and ask what I have been put forward for! Then I might say something like "as this isn't working out for either of us, it would be in both our interests for me to leave immediately"?

Yes YorkshirePudding, I definitely feel like I do have to tiptoe around leaving and dread to think what they will say, fingers crossed!

[Yorkshirepudding]

Good luck! Let us know how you get on!