Employee vs. employer

I am facing a tough situation with one of the teams I manage. I have three resources who are on a contract that ends on 8/31. Two of the resources are subcontractors, and one is a full-time employee. One of the subcontractors gave notice last week that her last day would be 8/11.

In her mind, she probably feels she did the proper thing by giving an industry-standard two-week notice. Under normal circumstances, this would be the convention. In her case, she is a contractor who accepted a contract that ends on 8/31. In her shoes, I would have negotiated with the new employer by stating that she is under contract until 8/31 and will be able to start after that. Companies should understand how it works in our world. Instead, she accepted the offer with a tentative start date of 8/15 and then informed us that she was leaving. I asked if there was any way she could postpone her start date and fulfill the contract, and her answer did not give me confidence.

This project hasn’t gone swimmingly, and most likely, the contract will not be extended. I don’t have enough time to bring another resource to backfill her role. I also haven’t communicated to the client yet because I was waiting for a firm answer from the contractor.

Ahh the joys of management.