What to do when someone is out of the office unexpectedly?
October 13, 2008 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under Business
A ton of things need to be thought of when one person is out of the office unexpectedly, and even more things when you’re shorthanded and stressed out. This year, my team has been stressed out and shorthanded a LOT!
I thought it might be helpful for other managers to know what I do when someone is out of the office unexpectedly, and I’m hoping you’ll share what YOU do when you have folks sick or otherwise out of the office unexpectedly.
What to do when someone is out of the office unexpectedly
First, I assign out all unfinished tickets evenly throughout the team that will be in the office. Often this means each person gets 2 or 3 more tickets to work on a day that will already be busy, but it works really well for us. I will typically review the tasks and add what the possible solution may be, and I may even send out a few emails with possible solutions before I assign it to someone else.
Next, I look at the lunch schedules and see if anything needs to be shifted around to create maximum coverage. We have to keep coverage so when folks call us, we can still help them, and minimize their wait time. If we are down to 4 people or less, then I will buy them lunch and ask them to take a 30 minute lunch instead of an hour, or they may stick around and work through their lunch and just take a 15 minute paid break. My folks are non-exempt, and anything more than 7.5 hours a day is considered overtime for them, so they don’t complain too much…as long as they don’t have to do it for too long.
Third, I review the day’s schedule to see if we need anyone to stay late for coverage. Even if we only have a few people there, we still must staff the queue until 5:30 PM, and I like to have at least 2 people work until 5:00 PM. I send an e-mail to my earlier folks and ask them if they’re willing to stick around later and soak up some of the extra hours.
Now I’ll communicate to my team the day’s plan. If the team doesn’t already know someone is out, I’ll send out an e-mail to the entire team and let them know what they can expect for the day, if I’m buying lunch, if schedules have shifted, who’s closing, whatever needs to be communicated, I do it. Communication is critical to our success, so the earlier I can alert the team to let them know what to expect, the better. Typically this e-mail will come out by 8:30 AM.
Last but not least, I’ll look for meetings I can reschedule or cancel so I can stick around to help with coverage. Being an available resource, or diving in and taking a call or two while folks grab lunch, is the least I can do when I’m asking my team to bust their hump a little harder than they usually do.
In a perfect world, when folks call in unexpectedly, my two opening people who get to work an hour before I do can do the same things I do (except for buy lunch and cancel/reschedule my meetings) and they’ll get everything done before I even get in.
Great stuff, Phil. Interesting that you would write this today, as I manage a 17 person product support team, and we have 3 people out unexpectedly on Friday! My plan is very similar. I buy lunch for the team and shift around some schedules. We guarantee our customers that they will get a live person on the phone in two rings when they call support, so when we have people out unexpectedly, I have a list of guys on our implementation team that rotate to cover incoming support calls. Luckily, we have a company that is committed to providing superior customer service, so it’s typically not a problem to get the extra help. Communication is definitely key! Thanks for the post!