When advocating for a parent over 10 years ago, I witnessed a situation that should have had a different outcome. At the time, my mom was moving from one care facility to another. The person who was handling all the details on the receiving end was out of the office for the rest of the week just when the transfer was about to occur. Her supervisor, the facility’s administrator, didn’t seem capable of carrying the ball in her absence,
Whether the employee’s absence was predictable or not, this situation should have been handled differently. The employee’s files should have been accessible for anyone who needed to fill in her place. In fact, we, as the customer, should never have known about any confusion. From my perspective, everything should have flowed easily. There was a total communication breakdown that was avoidable, stressful to our family and ended up being rectified properly, anyway.
How do you organize your work? If someone needed access to company information in your absence, could they find it? It could be an internal need or it could be something needed for a customer. What procedures do you have in place to make things move smoothly? People will be out of the workplace for a number of reasons on any given day – illness, vacation, conference, etc. Communication breakdown is a daily occurrence in both professional and personal relationships, what are you doing today to minimize any negative impact? What’s your back-up and what’s your back-up to your back-up?
"There’s a myth that time is money.
In fact, time is more precious than money.
It’s a nonrenewable resource. Once you’ve spent it, and if you’ve spent it badly, it’s gone forever." - Neil Fiore