Do you offer to assist with finding a replacement?

I have not seen many posts on this topic so I wanted to ask for some advice that might be useful in the future. Let's say you are in a team but everyone does their own thing. What happens when one leaves and no one knows how to do their tasks? Do you offer to find a replacement on the resignation letter or do you just say i will help out closing any loose ends and transition your tasks to someone else? These 2 are different things in my book. Is it even a good idea to suggest that? So, any recommendations?

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Comments

gkca

If your employer decides to lay you off, would you expect them to assist you finding a new job? If they don't have a backup or appropriate cross-training then it's a problem with the management, why would you care?

TheFORCE

Good point, i guess it makes sense when you don't like the work environment, but what if you do?

Ertaz

TheFORCE wrote: »

Good point, i guess it makes sense when you don't like the work environment, but what if you do?

It's very situational. I've worked at places where they've asked me for a recommendation on my replacement. If you have a close relationship with them, then it doesn't hurt to offer. However, I would extend the offer informally and not in the resignation letter.

networker050184

If only one person knows how to do something at the company that's their fault not yours. I always try to help as much as I can, but recruiting talent isn't your job. Handing off projects is important though.

$bvb379

I have also had a sit down with my boss and she asked me what skills they needed to put on the wish list for the next candidate. I was moving states so nothing bad happened where I would be opposed to helping them, but if I getting laid off, I would not be saying a word.

Danielm7

I helped once with a very small company where I was the "IT guy" a long time back, helped train them after hours as well, for a fee of course. If you have a team of people and they aren't cross trained just try to document what you can, pass of duties, etc, but it's not your job to find a replacement.

cyberguypr

I always offer assistance n the way of a link to "Posting a job on LinkedIn"

On a serious note, I just say something along the lines of "let me know how I can be of assistance with the transition". This mostly means not leaving open tasks or projects hanging as well as doing some minimal knowledge transfer. I say minimal because I always document my stuff and there should be no need to bug me too much in order to understand how to do what I do. I have a policy of never recommending anyone, so if they ask me for input I will just let them know if anyone in my network is looking for a job, with a big asterisk indicating that I am not recommending them. I wouldn't go out of my way or put too much effort on this.

As networker said, it's plain stupid for a manager to put all of his/her eggs in one basket so it's on them if someone suddenly leaves and there's no coverage. If you are not bugging your manager to cross-train the team, you are doing it wrong.

BradleyHU

Hell no!!!!

sj4088

gkca wrote: »

If your employer decides to lay you off, would you expect them to assist you finding a new job? If they don't have a backup or appropriate cross-training then it's a problem with the management, why would you care?

I totally agree with everything you said here. And yes some companies try to run as short staffed as possible. But those are bad places to work and usually have a high turnover rate because nobody want to work there. I mentioned to employers in the past I shouldn't be the only guy doing my job. What if I got sick, god forbid hit by a bus, etc. Also it makes it hard to take vacation. I never stuck around at places like that. So if they don't or didn't care about having a backup for you why should you care?

Assuming I wasn't getting fired I would just document as much as I could and hand that over.

anhtran35

I stayed on an extra month in Afghanistan until they found my suitable replacement. My Program Manager provided me with great references.

tedjames

I gave my last agency three weeks notice and outlined all of my responsibilities and wrote out my procedures. Then I trained my co-workers to do much of my job. I respected my boss and didn't want to leave him in a lurch. I still give them advice on how to do parts of my old job, even nine months later.

A friend's software development job was outsourced to India. A few weeks later, his then former company called and asked if he could come back for a few weeks to train his replacement. Rather than tell them where to go, he agreed to do it for double what they were paying him. They agreed, and he made an incredible paycheck for two weeks. If that ever happens to me, I'll use that strategy.

the_Grinch

Nope not your problem. If I was leaving and somehow they had my replacement already on board I would sit with them to go over what I do. If that wasn't the case then I would expect that they'd have a co-worker sit with me or that they would request that I document some of my processes. That being said if I am leaving on good terms I'm not above a phone call or text with questions.

I once left a place and was able to give a month's notice. They in turn were able to get the guy working within a week and for three weeks he worked with me as I showed him the ropes.

blargoe

When I resigned my last job, I actually personally interviewed the candidates to replace me on the team. My manager asked if I would be willing to do so since I really was the only one who fully understood the technical requirements of my job. I negotiated for them to pay out all of my banked vacation time in return (they did not automatically do so by policy). It was awkward, but it worked out for me.

jeremywatts2005

I never train the replacement that is their job. I also make sure my documentation is very thorough with the exception of a few key points that I forgot to put in that make the whole process works whoops.