EMPLOYEE JUST DIED, MANAGER STRAIGHT AWAY ASKS WHO’S GOING TO TAKE OVER HIS WORK

Wife’s coworker died over the weekend – Project manager asks who is taking the deceased coworker’s work.

Really? She works in a company of about 2,000 so not huge, but not small. A group of about 50 have been together for 20+ years which the person who died was a group of.

They are devastated but to have a project manager ask who was going to take his work was totally shocking and uncalled for.

I’d like to say unbelievable but unfortunately it’s not.

Netizens’ comments

1. “Whoever you hire to replace them”
2. When a coworker (52m) died suddenly, The Boss called us into the conference room. He told us what happened. As we all sat there in shock, he said he’d make counselling available if we wanted it.
   The next day’s lunch was a long one as a bunch of us drank in his honor.
   Three days later The Boss told us that he would pay for all of us to get our wills done – the guy who died did not have one and his SO would have issues because of it.
   The next week he brought half a dozen of us together to figure out how the workload would be handled. The.Next.Week…. not the next day, but a fair amount of time later.
   There is a reason I’ve been with that company over 26 years. I feel for folks who are stuck in the OP’s wife’s scenario.
3. It’s a logical question to ask as a business. It’s insensitive to ask of the team they worked with, especially if bluntly asked. It’s management’s job to manage that workload, whether taking it upon themselves, dividing across the team if able, or to assign to someone in a realistic manner.
4. So. My husband’s coworker had a heart attack and died. and for about three days no one did his job.
   My husband’s boss asked if he’d like to take that job. and my husband said yes.
   People are replaceable to companies. It’s unfortunate. And honestly, I was in a PM position where I was looking for contractors to do some installations and they told me the guy previously working on my request died and I had to ask who would take over. It was really shitty of me to ask. I felt shitty asking it. But my work depended on him getting his work done, and now there was no one to do the work. I hated every second of that conversation.