One of my teammates was on sick leave again today, and honestly, it threw our whole day off. It’s frustrating to be dealing with these kinds of unplanned events, especially when you’re working in a small team where every person really counts. It made me realize that maybe our planning isn’t as resilient as we thought. We plan around tasks, deadlines, and deliverables, but we don’t really plan around people being absent more than once in a while.
The reality is, with a small team, even one person being away already creates a gap that’s hard to cover. We end up stretching ourselves thin just to keep things moving. On top of that, it’s not easy nowadays to find reliable staff. I honestly pity the HR team sometimes. They’re under pressure to save costs, so companies hire people at salaries that are probably below market value, and then in the long run, the company loses more money because of inefficiency and inconsistency in the work delivered.
It’s quite frustrating to see this cycle repeat itself. The problems are visible, and they can be improved, but the solution often requires more financial investment, and that’s where everything gets stuck. Still, I try to remind myself that people do get sick, and it’s not always about blame. Sometimes it’s also about fixing the system so it can handle these situations better.
There’s a quote I remembered today, “A bad system will beat a good person every time,” W. Edwards Deming. Maybe what we really need is not just “better people” but a better structure that supports the team, even when someone is out.
I just hope HR and management will sort things out soon for everyone’s sake.
Link to the source of the image.