Fucked if that One Guy Leaves

Category: Theory

As I work at a start up we have a lot less people than my former company Intel. I realized one day that shit if we lost that one person it would be a lot more difficult for us to move forward on certain projects. What about these situations:

What would you do if your lead designer leaves unexpectedly?

What would you do if your CEO went to another company?

What would you do if your lead sales guy decided to start his own business?

What would you do if your partner didn’t want to work anymore?

What would you do if your major client switched to a competitor?

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6 Responses to “Fucked if that One Guy Leaves”

Stefan Hayden
March 28th, 2006
2:05 pm

no one ever cares if the designer leaves : (

Though I’m a bit biased
mayvelous
March 28th, 2006
3:31 pm

That’s something to think about. Well I guess I would do:
#1. Take over his position and the next step try to take over the world.
#2. Quit the current company to follow your CEO or find better company.
#3. Sue him for integrity rights
#4. Get another partner
#5. Bad mouth as much as you can about the competitor to the client or vice versa.
Devin
March 28th, 2006
9:18 pm

Luckily contracts prevent most of what you mentioned from happening. I suppose start-ups should consider that when they start hiring people…

With that said, let me re-pose your question: what if _______ was hit by a bus on the way in to work?

I work in an office of 5 people. Everyone takes a big part in the company’s success. But, one of the 5 (20% of the company!) had to take maternity leave. I thought we would come crashing down. Luckily, I realized, in small companies (and start-ups) everyone learns to play the roles and understand the functions that everyone serves. It’s not too difficult to recover… well, that is, if you hired the right people…

…lucky for us, we had 9 months to prepare for her departure.
Damon Z
March 29th, 2006
2:44 pm

According to my project management book, you should have a mirror team. As part of a risk management plan, project managers should interview and preselect candidates that could takeover key positions in case something go bad. Then again, this approach does not take into account the reality of budget and time constraints common to most startups and small businesses. In this case, I would just sing “Stop! in the name of love…before you break my heart”
wen-wen lam
March 31st, 2006
12:54 am

this just happened to me. all i can say it fucked if one person leaves= opportunity to prove who you are. and learn to get rid or the guilt.
Christie
June 11th, 2007
6:05 pm

Surfing around your site I land on this post every now and then. And every single time I crack up. This is one of my favorite Noah posts.

Christie