What happens if I leave my job today? No, I’m not ditching the Lonely Marketer (in fact, I have some milestones coming up…stay tuned). What I am talking about is my “paying” job. The job where I am part of a small marketing group that handles every aspect of marketing for a small tech company. Who would know, understand, and backfill my position?

A few years back I was working in marketing for a larger company. Other than where the going away happy hour would be, there was really no big issues with someone leaving the company. There were enough people that picking up the slack until a new hire came in was no problem.

The small company is a different story. Much different. There are no two people that do the same job in our marketing group…and I doubt we’re alone in that. We all focus on something different and rarely get the time to understand or learn what the other is doing. Plus, we all pick up tasks here and there that we become good at and the company depends on us to do.

No, the end of the world would not be upon us if someone left. In fact, it gives the rest of us a chance to learn. Once everything settles and a new person is hired, the rest of the group has a better understanding for that person’s role.
Now, the trick is to make everyone aware of each other’s role without the departure of a member of the team.

How does your company do that?