Quote Originally Posted by cuda View Post
Ok, scenario.

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You are a manager.

You have 4 employees under you.

One employee is expecting a child (well, his wife is)

He knows how long he will be out.

He knows when the baby will be born due to cesarean.

He refuses to inform others, including you (the boss) when the birth is, and subsequently, when he will be out.

You have a major project coming up in the time frame of this possible date (company dependent type project .. like the company shuts down due to this not happening on time).

He is in charge of 75% of this project.

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Got that all?

Here is the question I want you to answer.

Are you pissed?
Yes (at the person), and No, because I transition the critical project activities from him to another right now. A big impact to a project is the loss of a PM, or change of personnel on the project. This is a standard risk in PM work and the mitigation plan is to have a transition plan, if he is a good PM, he is well aware of how critical schedules are. Especially his wife's delivery date or expected time period!

Move him off the critical path work for sure or at a minimum (critical path is those activities that have no float and any delay, will delay the project delivery). I would also assign him to activities or another project, that are not in a key role. That way, he can take off as needed, you do not lose delivery of the project or deliverables.

And yes, I would make it part of the discussion if a raise or promotion comes up. Relative or not...