Need help with a moral dilemma...

dirtychinchilla

dirtychinchilla

dirtychinchilla

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Joined
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Woking
I'm the product manager for a product at work. I'm being moved shortly to a different product as the commercial manager with the intent that I'd be having a relatively clean break.

There is currently only one person I could consider to replace me, but a) I don't think he's a good fit and b) he has privately told me that at the end of October, he plans to go travelling for 6-12 months, so he's off.

I've stated to my boss and HR that he is not a good fit for the job. However, they've been trying to get me to agree to it and may have spoken to him about it (getting an update on that next week).

I can come up with some reasons why he's not a good fit, plus he doesn't actually want the job, and he's not detail orientated in the way I think he would need to be.

What I really need is for them to advertise for a replacement.

How would you guys play this? Telling the boss and HR is not an option - I respect his privacy.
 
Do both jobs then, watch as your family starts distance themselves from you, eventually leading towards divorce, then your company goes south anyway and you are left with nothing.

Or......

throwaway4372 said:
Focus on the new product. The old product isn't your problem anymore.
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Do this.
 
I'm assuming by your initial post that you can't straight out ask him right now if he'd accept & or would let you/him tell them that he's off?
If so then you either tell them or you don't.

Suggest they open it externally, that'll buy some time. If they do want to offer it to him and he accepts then leaves that's not on you. Seems you'd then be given the work to train someone new but that's a question for you if you think they'd just dump it on you or actually help, if they'd just dump extra work on you then I don't really know what to say, you know your job/workplace the best so what's the worst case scenario?
 
Rob_B said:
I'm assuming by your initial post that you can't straight out ask him right now if he'd accept & or would let you/him tell them that he's off?
If so then you either tell them or you don't.

Suggest they open it externally, that'll buy some time. If they do want to offer it to him and he accepts then leaves that's not on you. Seems you'd then be given the work to train someone new but that's a question for you if you think they'd just dump it on you or actually help, if they'd just dump extra work on you then I don't really know what to say, you know your job/workplace the best so what's the worst case scenario?
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He'd expressed to me previously that he didn't want the job. I asked him again today and he still wasn't interested. He has to tell them that he's off, but it will obviously lead to him giving his notice, which he really needs to do later.

I suppose he leaves under all circumstances. I have asked him to double down on the training with our graduates so they can still run projects with minimal input from me. Frankly, I think this means that I'll have to continue as PM until they hire someone else.
 
He can tell them he doesn't want the job if he doesn't want it, not like he's burning bridges if he's off anyway? They can (should) all be grown ups about it.
If there's an issue with you knowing then consider if this was a private conversation inside/outside of work and you were asked to not repeat it so you didn't because of GDPR or something.
 
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Thekwango said:
just an aside, is there any risk this chap takes the job then throws you under the bus when he leaves (even if unintentionally) by telling the bosses you knew he was planning to go travelling? is that something you need to consider?
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Maybe. I think I can trust him though - I've been respecting his privacy this whole time. HR would support me on that. But yeah, worth considering
 
Tell him to tell them he doesn't want it?

He's off at the end of October? How much notice does he have to give because the boss will have to find out sooner or later.
 
adidan said:
Tell him to tell them he doesn't want it?

He's off at the end of October? How much notice does he have to give because the boss will have to find out sooner or later.
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I think a month. I will ask him to do that regardless. I'll find out from HR next week what was actually discussed. He told me he basically said nothing about wanting the job to them. Of course, he has to be circumspect with the in case they suspect him of wanting to leave
 
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