How to prepare for a leaving colleague without letting the company know about it

Question

we are a small company with about 100 employees. Our department consists of three people. Our bus factor is as close to 1 as it can get. I know for certain, that a colleague will be leaving in october, but won't tell the company until midst of september.

How to prepare for the imminent impact?

I've taken the following steps:

Prepare an job advertisment which can't go public until he informs the company
Try to participate in his daily work/projekts which is not really possible, because management is expecting to deliver current projects
Asking him to document everything, which does also not work, because he wants to finish his running projects for a good testimonial

Telling the management/company is not an option for me.

Management will expect that at least everything will continue as it is, which is not possible right now. They'll also expect, that features with high priority will ship, this is also not possible. They know, that we can't substitute each other but do not accept it. — J. Doe, Aug 06 '18 at 21:31
Is there a reason your colleague told you but not your manager? — Seth R, Aug 06 '18 at 21:33
Yes, but me and my other colleague will be hold responsible. Meaning less bonus, more stress, worse testimonial if we choose to leave during the chaos. — J. Doe, Aug 06 '18 at 21:35
then it's a bad company, the manager should be the one responsible, it's their job — Kilisi, Aug 06 '18 at 21:36
@Kilisi Great employees care about the well being of the company regardless of whether they are called management. He is trying to find a way to mitigate the negative impact to the company while respecting the confidence of his co-worker. Just saying, “not my job”, isn’t a great answer. — Ben Mz, Aug 06 '18 at 21:45
Advocate for the types of things in these answers - https://workplace.stackexchange.com/q/9128/2322 — enderland, Aug 06 '18 at 21:50
he wants to finish his running projects for a good testimonial - Why is he so certain that leaving no way for his co-workers to pick up his work will result in a good testimonial? Does he have a reason to believe he won't be at least partly blamed for the chaos after he leaves? — BSMP, Aug 07 '18 at 16:50
@BSMP - I was thinking exactly the same though, the guaranteed way to get a bad testimonial is to leave in the way your coworker is leaving. I will be honest, I have no idea what a testimonial is exactly, but I suspect its basically a referral and/or recommendation. In which case I most definitely, wouldn't provide a good referral or recommendation for an employee, who left in the way you describe (who was only worried about getting a good one) — Donald, Aug 08 '18 at 18:24

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 06 '18 at 21:57

All you have at the moment is hearsay.

If you really want to take it seriously then analyse how it will affect the tasks you are responsible for and do what you can to mitigate.

The rest is not your problem, it's the role of management to ensure that everything continues to run, and they will have the notice period to do it in. You may be consulted then. There is no need to act prior to the leaving becoming official.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 07 '18 at 13:27

This is not your problem. Your colleague did you no favors when (s)he told you this.

Point #1 is this is a management problem. The company should already have plans in place if 1/3 of a small team should leave for any reason. What would the company do if someone won the lottery? Was hit by a bus? Just quit? The answer should be the same for all of these.

Point #2. You colleague is being very unprofessional here. They should not have told you. They are putting the problem on you - which is not your job. They should tell the company now so the company can start the replacement process and have some time for knowledge transfer and cross-training. I know that the normal notice is two weeks. However, by them telling you they made their leaving your problem. You're going to have to clean up the mess left behind.

You're suggesting the colleague should give the company over 2 months notice? That's a common way to become unemployed 2 months earlier than planned. — Dan Pichelman, Aug 07 '18 at 13:59

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 06 '18 at 21:57

Realistically, nothing should be too different.

The things that reduce a bus factor from 1.001 to 2 are the things you should do regardless of whether or not the employee is quitting or not.'

Asking him to document everything, which does also not work, because he wants to finish his running projects for a good testimonial

If your management doesn't value or prioritize this, then ultimately it's going to basically suck for everyone involved. You will feel this the most.

Basically, this needs to be considered important regardless of whether someone is leaving or not.

IF your colleague leaves then things will be in place. But ultimately that benefit is mostly present regardless of whether someone leaves or not.

There's not much else you can do short of breaking your colleagues trust. And for all you know something will change and that decision (which is still a ways out) will not come to be.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 08 '18 at 09:22

1) I hope you didn't prepare that job advertisement on the company IT infrastructure. Even if you set it to private / unpublished it might be found. Are you even authorized to hire?

2) Usually there is a notice period for which your colleague will remain employed after he handed in his/her resignation. That is the time to prepare officially.

3) Rightfully you're concerned that your workload will rise but short of management hiring new personnel, your team will have to compensate and (if/when appropriate) push back on unrealistic expectations.

How to prepare for a leaving colleague without letting the company know about it

4 Answers4