A mysterious disappearance

Picture the scene: You have a slick office operation. All your staff know their roles and each have their own individual ways of working.

They communicate with each other well, and when outside the office their requests for information, files and support are sent through the Office Manager. The Office Manager has been with the company since it began, which has earned a very competitive salary and has complete and utter loyalty. Then disaster strikes.

One day the Office Manager doesn’t come in – no call, no explanation. Their mobile number phone is turned off, their computer is password protected. No-one hears anything. Operations grind to a halt. Normally hugely efficient when reporting absence (one day in the last four years, for a funeral), the Office Manager’s absence is unexplained and out of character. By At 4pm you receive a phone call – the Office Manager is in hospital – the details are unknown, but the likelihood of them returning to work within the next month is nil. No contact will be made.

What do you do? Do you let operations cease? Do you let your business fold? You can’t replace your Office Manager, they need a job. Besides that, it would take a long time to train someone else, especially in the Office Manager’s absence. In no uncertain terms, you’re scuppered. No-one knows where anything is, no-one can access the files, their diaries or even the Secret Santa allocations.

Disasters like this can be averted with Consort from RedKite. Consort’s centralised system doesn’t allow one person to have ultimate responsibility – business continues as normal in the case of absence, and whilst you might allow some staff time off to go and visit their friend and colleague in hospital, business can continue as normal. Phew.