Delays/dying-features with unexpected sickness / leave is common in startups and lean companies - if these things don’t affect schedule, it means you have “spar

Delays/dying-features with unexpected sickness / leave is common in startups and lean companies - if these things don’t affect schedule, it means you have “spares”, either in man power, in scheduling, or both. Spares are a good thing, but they are a trade off - you either pay constantly to have extra capacity and avoid delays, or pay only when an event happens. Which one is preferable depends on the relative costs, your culture, your industry, etc. One of my customers is a big government agency that is well staffed, and can keep on working at the same rate with 10% of their employees quitting tomorrow and another 20% getting one week off for Covid every month. You can imagine how (in)efficient day to day work there is. If I actually had to work there, and not just deliver finished projects, I would lose my mind.