let’s talk about what your company discovered after an employee left

It’s the Thursday “ask the readers” question. A reader writes:

Our biggest “missing stair” is retiring soon and all sorts of things are surfacing now that people are taking over the various roles he has accumulated over the years. For example, there’s an entire category of work that he never seems to have done because he was essentially his own supervisor. On the other hand, there’s a pretty demanding role that he basically offloaded to a subordinate who is now “taking over;” i.e., getting the freedom to do the same thing she was doing before without covering for him or relying on him to pass along crucial information.

Despite the “leader’s” retirement, nothing is really changing in that department at all — no transition plan needed. (This pattern of getting competent women who care about the work to cover for him has been repeated many times in his career.) In his goodbye card, I noticed a lot of “enjoy your retirement!” and not so much “we’ll miss you!” despite the fact that he’s well-known and well-liked in the field.

I’m wondering what other readers have discovered (or finally been able to acknowledge) when others around them quit or retired. Who really was holding things together? Who was doing nothing much?

Excellent question. Readers?

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