You make substantive points, Tim. Thank you. "An employee should not experience their time off as a period where his [her/they] work load is just temporarily buffered until his [her/they] return, but where colleagues will step in and take care of business."
I take this point seriously and don't wish you to think otherwise. In theory, I absolutely agree. In practice, sometimes we all face constraints. There are roughly 300 of us (order of magnitude). Every now and then, there are not enough of us to go around on everything on a timeline that meets the legitimate need that you present here. We'll continue to work on this. But, to clarify, no one ever said it was a "useful practice" nor did anyone suggest that it was generalized across the org. What I was wondering about in my previous email and now reiterating in this one too, are people willing to grant their request: a bit of time and allow for one person to return to work? Does that seem like a way to move forward? Warmly, /a On Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 2:50 PM, Tim Landscheidt <t...@tim-landscheidt.de> wrote: > Anna Stillwell <astillw...@wikimedia.org> wrote: > > > […] > > > I also hear that the pause on the interactive work is temporary. I’ve > heard > > them request time. I am comfortable granting that request, but no one is > > required to agree with me. They’ve also said that the person with the > most > > information is on vacation. As someone who has seen employees go through > > considerable stress in the last years, the entire executive team is > working > > to establish some cultural standards around supporting vacations. We want > > people here to feel comfortable taking proper vacations and sometimes > that > > can even need to happen in a crisis. People often plan their vacations > well > > in advance and may not know that something tricky will come up. Just so > you > > understand one bias I bring to this conversation. > > > […] > > I concur with DJ in his initial mail that this is not a use- > ful practice, and I doubt very much that it relieves employ- > ees' stress. It conveys the organizational expectation that > employees are SPOFs without any backup. An employee should > not experience their time off as a period where his work > load is just temporarily buffered until his return, but > where colleagues will step in and take care of business. > Especially such a major decision like "pausing" a team > should not depend on the inner thoughts of one employee, but > be backed and explainable by others. > > Tim > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ > wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > -- "If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it." - Margaret Fuller Anna Stillwell Director of Culture Wikimedia Foundation 415.806.1536 *www.wikimediafoundation.org <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org>* _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
