Boss wants to replace a good colleague because he's afraid he's likely to leave

manpreet Best Answer 3 years ago

My CEO wants to replace our star employee because he is insecure that he will leave after 6 months to a year. As the project manager, I am tasked with finding a replacement.

His mindset is based on the following reasons:

• employee has repeatedly asked for pay rises and then got one, but was not too happy when he finally got it since it was below what he asked for.

• we have made compromises with the employee, by giving him the option to work remotely. He is a lot happier now it seems, but that did not go down well with my CEO.

My thoughts on the matter are the following:

• everyone leaves at some point, there is no need to prematurely push them out of the door.

• employee is out performing other developers within the team. He is quick, and extremely reliable.

• employee is a team player, and I seem to get along with him really well.

• employee brings fresh ideas to our platform.
• I feel that as a project manager a core duty I have is to identify risks and prevent them from turning into a serious issue. The issue being slower delivery of projects.

To date, I have tried to save my employee's job by deliberately slowing down the HR process or setting the bar extremely high with candidates I do interview. I am concerned that, given our budget which is well below the market rate, we will struggle to replace him with an equivalent. At the same time, I have tried to indirectly convince my boss to keep the employee within the team. Not sure if he has bought the idea.

Am I acting in bad faith for the company?

Update: My boss is now aware of this employees talent, so I have just told him that I will continue my search but given that he has set the bar high, we should only replace him once we find a like for like candidate, he has agreed.

manpreet 3 years ago

It's not your decision to make; slowing down the process is undermining your boss's decision. You can try and talk to the boss but, at the end of the day, if I were the boss and found out what you were doing, you'd be next to be replaced.