Off-boarding

Remove access, conduct interview and close down all accounts when someone is leaving – and drink the grave beers.

Removing access to systems is important, and should be done the day after the person leaves the team. Here, it's also a good idea to change access passwords to common shared developer password systems like Bitwarden, LastPass and the like.

Some super paranoid organisations also changes the database passwords. Not needed if you didn't share them or used proper user management in the first place.

However there is another part of off-boarding that usually doesn't make it to the off-boarding lists. As discussed in the firing chapter, it's a good idea to host a good bye event for the person leaving, no matter why they are leaving.

People need closure, and a good framing. Some well-chosen words and a drink (or virtual over Slack) is a good idea, to keep the morale of the other people in the team.

It’s also a good idea to not have people just continue with work again but to perhaps take the rest of the day off if they want or slow things down. Why? Because people do get affected by changes whether we like it or not.

Read more in "The CTO Playbook" available on Amazon/Kindle.