My company has many offices in USA and the rest of the world. Many teams or individuals work partly or fully remotely in this company. Many people have quit the company over the last few years and some were laid off recently in my time zone. Our stocks are not doing well and the image of the company is bleak overall. But, we are developing new software products to replace our old ones and the new products are somewhat ready to release to the market. Most of the work for maintaining the old ones has been moved overseas. The work for the new products was mostly given to overseas to begin with, but we are trying to get a large part of it back back onshore.
I work in "IT" in one of the USA offices, but the rest of my team works in an office which is in a different time zone in USA. I have recently been moved to this team and I am in the process of getting KT or knowledge transfer i.e. learning about the systems and work of this team from another teammate (call him Rick). Another teammate (call him James) who has the knowledge has been moved to another team and is giving KT to an offshore team in parallel. Unfortunately, my manager suddenly announced that Rick has been moved to another team and won't be available long enough. The rest of the team complained that the move is too soon. Moreover, my manager mentioned that he is getting someone (call him Nikhil) from offshore soon to replace Rick. He will work in my team's office.
It seems that there would not be enough work for both me and Nikhil. I am not sure if my manager wants to keep me only until Nikhil comes to the USA and becomes productive. But, I'd like to know. How can I ask my manager this question in a diplomatic way, without sounding like I am worried about my job ? Thanks.