How to deal with someone who is serving notice period, and not giving full attention

Question

I have a team member who is currently serving notice period. This person was one of the best working person in our company, due to which the management was not willing to let go. But, the company couldn't counter the offer, his resignation was accepted.

Now, this person is no longer working like his prime. Although he is not neglecting anything, but when earlier, he used to seriously attend calls, deal with clients, overtime, internal meetings on short notice . Now he does all these casually. Also, he freely says no, when he cannot attend a meeting. He completes his work, but now, he is working like he is not interested at all.

That should not be my problem, except that my manager is pressuring me to make this colleague work as much as he used to. Or, I need to attend calls and meetings on his behalf.

My job is very different from him. I do not know every role and responsibility of his, as although the project is same, the work is different for each people. How can I let the manager know that our responsibilities are different and that taking his position while working in mine , will increase my workload and delay my work as well.

Answer 1

Well, the person won't be around much longer and has no incentive to work at 110% anymore. I (and most probably you as well) would do the same. Notice period is for handing over responsibilities and knowledge transfer. If your company is still relying on that colleague to be at 100% productivity, something is wrong with the organization. You have to realize that you don't have any leverage anymore. If the parting colleague feels that he doesn't need a reference from you, he may be gone today.

Use the remaining time to ensure a smooth handover. Advise documentation to be written and updated, bring the replacement team member in to shadow the parting member.

My job is very different from him. I do not know every role and responsibility of his

Get a statement from your manager. Are you the replacement? If yes, getting to know the responsibilities should be your top priority. Quit "domain thinking" ("That's not my job"). Even if the colleague has a degree in "foo", and you are a "bar" engineer, that's irrelevant now. In case you don't think you can handle the responsibilities, communicate that to your manager and request other people to be brought in.

Answer 2

his person was one of the best working person in our company, due to which the management was not willing to let go. But, the company couldn't counter the offer, his resignation was accepted.

Well, they were willing to let go, as they didn't bother countering the offer.

It isn't unusual for employees to "underperform" after they have given notice.

In a lot of cases, what goes out the window is discretionary effort. That is effort that goes above and beyond. In some cases effort can drop below what would otherwise have been expected.

He completes his work

Excellent. You have achieved as much as you could hope to accomplish.

Answer 3

1. Find out who is going to do their work once they've gone. That is conspicuous by its abscence in your description. If it's you, talk to your boss realistically about what needs to happen if that's going to work ("I might be able handle the DB responsiblilities if I get training, only need to do 50% of my current back-end work and only do 50% of the work the old DB was doing. And of course, it'll take several months to ramp-up to that". Not "I can do if I do a lot of overtime", that is not going to be sustainable.). If you don't think it's possible, say so now.

2. Prioritise handover with old dev. There will be a temptation from the organziation to try and get the old dev to do "one more feature"/"one more client meeting"/etc but suddenly they'll be a week left of their notice and their handover won't have been started. Especially as it seems likely they will get less motivated as their leaving date approaches.

3. Make it clear the handover is going to impact your productivity in the meantime.

4. Review the handover while they're still around. Try to follow it to do their work, to make sure it makes sense. Don't just judge it by the number of words written up.

As others have mentioned, you can't make them be productive, but you can ensure their leaving goes a smoothly as possible.

Answer 4

He completes his work, but now, he is working like he is not interested at all.

He probably isn't interested in anything except his next job. And that's where his focus should be.

That should not be my problem, except that my manager is pressuring me to make this colleague work as much as he used to. Or, I need to attend calls and meetings on his behalf.

Apparently, that's your assignment now. And your burden to bear.

You can appeal to him as a friend and/or appeal to his professionalism. It's unlikely to help much.

How can I let the manager know that our responsibilities are different and that taking his position while working in mine , will increase my workload and delay my work as well.

You can talk to your manager, and express these feelings.

Don't be surprised if your manager already knows this, but either doesn't care or has no viable alternative.

Answer 5

You have an X-Y problem, or at least the vast majority of your question is focused on the wrong issue. The only bit you need to worry about is this:

How can I let the manager know that our responsibilities are different and that taking his position while working in mine , will increase my workload and delay my work as well.

Assuming your manager isn't a fool, they are aware that giving you more work increases your workload. If you're asked to go to these meetings you have two choices:

1. Go to the meeting. When your regular work is delayed, explain that you were told to go to these meetings.
2. Explicitly ask if the meeting is higher priority than your other work. Do whichever work you are told is higher priority.

The other possibility is that your manager is expecting you to work unpaid overtime in order to cover both roles. It's your choice whether you do that; I wouldn't do so.