4 ms·

>If you have say, a CFO or a specialist mechanic (that you only need 1 of, but definitely need) and they take a year off, what do you do? Just go without a CFO/

>If you have say, a CFO or a specialist mechanic (that you only need 1 of, but definitely need) and they take a year off, what do you do? Just go without a CFO/mechanic for the year? Or do you start the hiring search, bring in another person as a temp CFO for a year? What do you do if your single point gets sick or quits? As a business you need a backup (plan).

simonsarris 8y ago
Absolutely. If they quit, of course you go through the long candidate search process and hire a replacement. If they get sick, many companies are on a timer. Specialist work backs up, projects get delayed, extensions are filed, and so on. If a sickness was expected to last a month or a year, I would expect non-trivial problems to arise.
- chefkoch 8y ago
  If you absolutely need one for the business to function you need more than one person knowing how to do the job. Maybe not as good as the first guy but beeing so dependant on one person can put a company out of business. I thought that was basic knowledge espcially in tech.
  - simonsarris 8y ago
    In tech, you do not commonly hire people in pairs. If you need a DBA you hire one. If he quits or dies you hire another one. If he leaves for a year, what do you do?
    - chefkoch 8y ago
      >he quits or dies you hire another one. And in the weeks/months until you found one ? It's not like babies appear over night, you have months to prepare.
      - x0x0 8y ago
        As has been quite clearly stated elsewhere, hiring a dba who wants a gig for 6-12 months rather than an indefinite gig is either much harder or much more expensive than hiring a dba on the indefinite plan. Same reason consultants get paid a lot more; the person you hire knows they're going to be job searching shortly. There's often specialist work than can be delayed or performed more slowly by other team members. I'm not sure how that's relevant.
  - tptacek 8y ago
    This is simply not a norm in American business. Most companies have numerous team members that have no redundancy or fail-over. For instance: a mid-sized startup hires its first GC --- it is certainly not a norm for that company to hire two lawyers in case one needs to take leave, and also not the case that the rest of the team can simply pick up the slack.
    - walshemj 8y ago
      A company that needs a GC as an employee is no longer a startup
    - chefkoch 8y ago
      Outsource it to a contractor / lawyers office or whatever you did before? As in my other response, you have months to prepare a solution.
      - tptacek 8y ago
        I'm not getting involved with the broader debate, I'm just saying that the idea that you're meant to have redundancy for all your staff is not a norm.
mbesto 8y ago
At some point (less than 52 weeks) if a $CxO gets sick, then you start investing in an alternative solution. I'm all for parental leave, but the parent account poses a great question - how do you financially account for it? Vacation leave is easy - you allocate days and everyone gets them.
- otoburb 8y ago
  Even with governments paying for parental leave up to the cap, and often with Canadian companies in the talent war offering to "top-up" to X% (e.g. 80% of normal pay), it means that on average Canadian companies may not be as financially competitive compared to international companies operating in labour markets that do not need to offer as much parental leave (e.g. USA). It's a choice that Canadians (and other countries) have made based on the value Canada places on work-life balance that are simply different from other countries around the world that don't have similar policies. There's definitely a trade-off (societal value vs. economic firm competitiveness).

simonsarris 8y ago

Absolutely. If they quit, of course you go through the long candidate search process and hire a replacement. If they get sick, many companies are on a timer. Specialist work backs up, projects get delayed, extensions are filed, and so on. If a sickness was expected to last a month or a year, I would expect non-trivial problems to arise.

chefkoch 8y ago
If you absolutely need one for the business to function you need more than one person knowing how to do the job. Maybe not as good as the first guy but beeing so dependant on one person can put a company out of business. I thought that was basic knowledge espcially in tech.
- simonsarris 8y ago
  In tech, you do not commonly hire people in pairs. If you need a DBA you hire one. If he quits or dies you hire another one. If he leaves for a year, what do you do?
  - chefkoch 8y ago
    >he quits or dies you hire another one. And in the weeks/months until you found one ? It's not like babies appear over night, you have months to prepare.
    - x0x0 8y ago
      As has been quite clearly stated elsewhere, hiring a dba who wants a gig for 6-12 months rather than an indefinite gig is either much harder or much more expensive than hiring a dba on the indefinite plan. Same reason consultants get paid a lot more; the person you hire knows they're going to be job searching shortly. There's often specialist work than can be delayed or performed more slowly by other team members. I'm not sure how that's relevant.
- tptacek 8y ago
  This is simply not a norm in American business. Most companies have numerous team members that have no redundancy or fail-over. For instance: a mid-sized startup hires its first GC --- it is certainly not a norm for that company to hire two lawyers in case one needs to take leave, and also not the case that the rest of the team can simply pick up the slack.
  - walshemj 8y ago
    A company that needs a GC as an employee is no longer a startup
  - chefkoch 8y ago
    Outsource it to a contractor / lawyers office or whatever you did before? As in my other response, you have months to prepare a solution.
    - tptacek 8y ago
      I'm not getting involved with the broader debate, I'm just saying that the idea that you're meant to have redundancy for all your staff is not a norm.

mbesto 8y ago

At some point (less than 52 weeks) if a $CxO gets sick, then you start investing in an alternative solution. I'm all for parental leave, but the parent account poses a great question - how do you financially account for it? Vacation leave is easy - you allocate days and everyone gets them.

otoburb 8y ago
Even with governments paying for parental leave up to the cap, and often with Canadian companies in the talent war offering to "top-up" to X% (e.g. 80% of normal pay), it means that on average Canadian companies may not be as financially competitive compared to international companies operating in labour markets that do not need to offer as much parental leave (e.g. USA). It's a choice that Canadians (and other countries) have made based on the value Canada places on work-life balance that are simply different from other countries around the world that don't have similar policies. There's definitely a trade-off (societal value vs. economic firm competitiveness).