When good colleagues leave

[bctf123]

Have you ever been or worked with someone who was very good but unappreciated? What happened when they left?

They left, the organisation moved on. Colleagues sad but also moved on.

The company finally had to admit, even if only to themselves, that they should have appreciated their employee more!

I think teams and organisations are constantly evolving and when someone good leaves, it causes some ripples but the team then moulds to its new shape. New people come on board who didn't even know the person and what they did. In particular people are very good at getting things done even if its not the best way of doing it, they will find a way and life goes on. The team may not be as good as a result and over time it may degrade a bit and be less productive and even lose more people but that is life - and these things are often not directly linked to that original person going.

Nothing. Nothing happens and nothing changes. I’ve seen so many good colleagues leave (I’m the only one left at my level) and they don’t care.

If the departing staff member explains that is why they are leaving, then the consequences depend on how good the management and workplace is. In good places they realise their mistakes and try to improve things so it doesn’t happen again. But in bad places the management will not look at the part they may have played.

I worked somewhere where the staff turnover was approx 30% a year but the management was so unwilling to look at their own shortcomings that they always had some excuse about why it was all the employees and not them. They always get a lot of candidates for jobs but can’t retain staff.

They left and it took over 2yrs to replace them- they had to up the salary and reduce the work load and still struggled to find the right person.
They left and did amazing in their subsequent roles- their personal life also got better

In the nhs certainly nothing happens . There's such an unwillingness to learn from the experience of staff issues which lead them to leave. They always bleat on about how to improve recruitment and retention and offer 'leaving interviews' as a tick box exercise however nothing is ever taken on board and nothing changes

I had a colleague who was outstanding at their job and always picked up the pieces when staff were off sick or people had left the organisation and management refused to get temps in for months as they preferred to recruit instead. She completed tasks for people who slacked off too.

In the end she left as she had enough. She was doing 2 people's work. Since then there was a mass exodus of people leave and I seem to have become like her resolving the faults on top of my job as people don't have any historic knowledge as it was not written down. I have since written user guides as it is not right not having written down processes. Another colleague is the same where people go to him for advice like they did her.

Myself and staff really appreciate what she did. She did not want to leave, handed her notice in and wanted a director to sort out the problems but the director wished her well for her new job. It is ok for management as they don't have to pick up the pieces.

Yep despite it all they're pretty much forgotten instantly !

I was also this person - managed a small shop for years. Worked all hours, covered sick days and holidays etc etc. I knew the business inside out. Eventually decided I'd had enough and got a new job.

Spent a good month going through processes and writing up a manual for the staff who were convinced that I was being dramatic and that my job was a piece of piss. The owner decided not to replace me but distributed work throughout the remaining staff. That was the first mistake in my opinion.

I called back in a couple of months after I left to say hi - the place looked awful, dirty and uncared for. The remaining staff were quite shamefaced about how they hadn't coped very well since I'd left.

The place closed down within 6 months. I was sad, but vindicated.