I’m looking for an organisational relationships policy/ process which incorporates an anti-capitalist and anti-oppressive lens.
This will aim to support any leaving staff and the organisation to have conversations about how relationships with other organisations or groups we have been working with, will work after they leave. Does anyone have something similar?
This is a really good question, @LykkeTripod - and not one I’ve seen a policy around before. I guess there’s a balance to be struck in not treating relationships as ‘intellectual property’ that the organisation ‘owns’ or that fully-exist outside of the individuals involved, but still recognises when those relationships have been exclusively related to an organisation, that they don’t get lost in worker transitions… And then the extra complexity in many of our spaces, of relationships that people brought with them before their job, or that have come to have a social element to them over time…
Not that I’ve thought this thru in detail, but wonder about something simple in a exit or handover policy around: ‘Do you hold any organisational relationships that aren’t connected to us, beyond your relationship with the person or group? If so, who would you suggest being in touch with (including contact details)? Or does it make sense to do a handover so a colleague can take that relationship on after you leave?’
Keen to hear how others handle this dynamic…
You hit the nail on the head with all the complexities! We are going to be presenting our proposed actions to the rest of the coop in August so we will share anything on here afterwards but right now it’s looking like it will essentially be a process and meeting agenda for how to navigate this discussion rather than a concrete policy, per say. We also have the added complexity but also beauty that a lot of our ex-colleagues tend to join our pool of collaborators (freelancers who we work with) so we are also considering how we deal with their exits. The key is to give clarity to folks and consider all the different aspects here, including both individual’s and org’s financial stability
Ah! Just clocked that there may be a ‘taking clients with them when they go’ worry in this? If so, that is definitely hard, because if another organisation has developed a good working relationship with a particular worker/facilitator/consultant, it would be hard to make the case that you can just do a quick email intro to someone else and have that map over… maybe there’s something about trying to get someone else involved in the work early in the transition, so it can be actively co-held by multiple workers, as the first person is leaving? (but that assumes there is active work going on and long enough notice given, so might be possible at all). Keen to hear where you get to!