Upper management has been unresponsive to hiring additional help [duplicate]

Question

I'm the lead of a department with a workload that requires two people. A year ago management hired an employee who spent half their time in my department and half in another department, but that employee left the company about two months ago. For the past half year I've been communicating with my manager as well as HR that the workload is too much for myself and one part-time employee, and now that the part-time employee left it is too much for me to take care of on my own. Management has not made any moves to hire another person, full OR part time, and have kept saying they're looking at internal resources to have someone from another department cross-train with me.

I plan to leave the company within the next year (for many reasons) and have been hoping to be able to appropriately train someone to take over when I leave, since I don't want the department to fall to shambles when I go. However, at the rate this is going, I'm afraid that I will resign and they still won't have hired someone, or they'll have hired another part-time employee who simply won't have the time to manage the job. Out of courtesy, should I try to hint that they should really look at hiring a full-time person so that the transition is smooth when I turn in my resignation? Or could that be putting my job in jeopardy in the meantime? (The workplace is a rather toxic environment with a high turnover rate. I have been here for two years.)

Answer 1

Your company is obviously not concerned with your work load or financially cannot hire additional help. They also probably don't think you will leave.

I would not drop any hints as to your departure. I would continue to ask for help until either A you get it or B you leave.

You cannot manage your career or worry about what will happen when you leave.

In short do the best you can, continue asking for help because you need it, and when the time comes, leave as you planned.

When you give your notice, do your best to train your replacement and leave with a clean conscience.

Answer 2

As the old saying goes you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. If the management team were any good they would have been paying attention to your repeated communications over the last 6 months that they needed to hire someone to replace the departed part-timer and they haven't. Giving an employer the knowledge that you are looking to leave could have negative consequences for you and your plans to leave on your own timescales I would be very wary of giving that sort of ammunition to an employer, even one I trusted. Giving it to one that has what you already describe as having a toxic environment would be foolish in the extreme.

I understand the sense of professionalism that means you don't want things to fall apart when you leave but your conscience is clear in that regard - you've been communicating the need for additional staffing for quite some time and they ignored it so if it all goes horribly wrong when you leave that's 100% their fault not yours.

PS: I'd be looking to step up my leaving plans if I were you, the sort of toxic workplace you describe gets worse as time goes on more often than not. Better to get clear while you still have your sanity!