Your day off from FIRST

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

I don't mean to sound harsh, & maybe I misunderstood the post altogether, but this post & question seems kind of arrogant the way I am reading it.

It implies the poster of an answer thinks that their TEAM can not survive a day without them.

While some teams have a limited amount of people & it may be more of a challenge, everyone on the team should know enough to be able to pick up the slack of a missing teammate if they are sick, or on vacation, or just missing for a day.

I'd like to think (and also know from experience) that my team can survive a day without myself, or ANY one member of my team as everyone needs to take a day off during the 6 weeks for something usually.

A company or team should be able to survive if someone is out for a day.

Meh, I would not get too spun up over the wording. First off, it misses the point of an entertaining thread. Second, although your sentiments may be true for your team, they are not necessarily true for all teams. There may be times where a team truly cannot be successful without the participation of one key person. For any of a number of very legitimate reasons there may be various periods during a project where the expertise, knowledge, insight or skills of one particular person are so critical that they are irreplaceable. And the inverse is also true - there are times when the team cannot succeed with the participation of one poisonous personality. While both situations are to be avoided (and experienced teams will strive to do so), sometimes reality just gets in the way. This is not a desirable situation, and large organizations go to great lengths to avoid the inherent risks associated with such situations. But they do occur. The important part is knowing that potential single-point failures in the organization may exist, and being prepared to deal with them if necessary. That shows wisdom, not arrogance.

-dave



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