Managing Workloads When a Teammate Takes Leave of Absence

Teams in law firms and legal departments are designed for continuity, yet even the best-resourced groups can be stressed when a colleague takes an extended leave of absence. Whether the leave is planned or unexpected, the way you redistribute responsibilities can determine if the team experiences a manageable stretch or a full-scale crisis.

This guide offers practical, legally informed strategies for reallocating work, protecting morale, and preserving service quality while a coworker is away. While examples are tailored to legal support teams, the principles apply across many professional services environments.

Why Thoughtful Work Reallocation Matters

When a teammate steps away, you are not just shifting tasks—you are reshaping workflows, client relationships, and expectations. Poorly managed transitions can lead to burnout, errors, and ethical risks, particularly in legal practice where deadlines and confidentiality are paramount.

On the other hand, a structured approach to temporary workload changes can:

• Maintain continuity for clients, attorneys, and internal stakeholders.
• Reduce stress on remaining staff by setting realistic boundaries.
• Protect quality of filings, communications, and case handling.
• Surface process gaps and cross-training opportunities you can improve long-term.

Step 1: Clarify the Scope and Duration of the Leave

Before you move a single task, gather concrete information about the leave and how it affects the team. Work closely with HR or your managing partner to understand what can be shared and how.

Key Questions to Answer

• Is the leave planned (e.g., parental leave, scheduled surgery) or unplanned (e.g., sudden illness)?
• What is the expected duration of the absence?
• Will the person be completely unavailable, or occasionally reachable for limited consultation?
• Are there confidentiality or privacy limits on what you can disclose about the leave?
• Which clients, cases, or internal functions will be directly affected?

Document these answers in a brief internal memo so everyone responsible for redistribution decisions works from the same assumptions.

Step 2: Map the Departing Teammate’s Workload

A clear, accurate inventory of responsibilities is the foundation for sane reallocation. Research on role alignment stresses the importance of comparing what a role should cover to what the person is actually doing day to day.

Create a Responsibility Inventory

Break the person’s work into categories, such as:

• Case- or matter-related tasks (e.g., drafting documents, discovery support, e-filing).
• Administrative and operational duties (e.g., calendaring, billing support, vendor communications).
• Relationship-based responsibilities (e.g., primary contact for a key client or practice group).
• Knowledge-holder tasks (e.g., the only person who knows a particular workflow or legacy system).

Then classify each duty by urgency and impact:

Step 3: Decide What to Pause, Shift, or Share

Not every task needs a new owner. Some work should pause to protect both quality and people. Organizations that thoughtfully redistribute responsibilities, instead of reflexively pushing everything onto remaining staff, see better performance and less burnout.

Three Buckets for Every Task

• Continue as is – Critical work that must be reassigned and fully covered.
• Modify or reduce – Tasks that can be simplified, automated, or done less frequently.
• Temporarily suspend – Nonessential work that can be paused and revisited when the colleague returns.

Guidelines for Fair Redistribution

• Respect existing workloads and avoid overwhelming your most reliable employees.
• Match tasks to skills and experience; research on role realignment shows performance improves when responsibilities are aligned with capabilities.
• Use this as a chance to cross-train junior staff on manageable tasks.
• Where possible, rotate high-intensity assignments among several people to avoid sustained overload.

Step 4: Assign Clear Ownership and Expectations

Ambiguity creates dropped balls and duplicated effort. As you reassign tasks, spell out who owns what, how success will be measured, and how long the temporary arrangement will last.

Elements of a Simple Coverage Plan

• Task owner: Name a primary owner and, if needed, a backup.
• Scope: Describe what the owner is responsible for during the leave.
• Service levels: Define acceptable response times, turnaround expectations, and quality standards.
• Escalation path: Identify who to contact if the new owner is unavailable or overloaded.
• End date or review date: Set a date to revisit the plan or transition work back.

For high-risk functions (such as court filings or regulatory submissions), create a short checklist to reduce error risk under increased workload. Checklists are widely used in high-stakes environments such as healthcare and aviation because they reliably reduce omissions and errors.

Step 5: Document Processes and Knowledge

When a key team member leaves, even temporarily, undocumented knowledge becomes a liability. Organizations that treat workforce transitions as an opportunity to capture processes are better prepared for future disruptions and reassignments.

What to Document Before the Leave Starts (If Possible)

• Step-by-step workflows for recurring tasks (e-filing, preparing motions, handling service of process, etc.).
• Templates and forms the person regularly uses.
• Key contacts at courts, agencies, vendors, and client organizations.
• Access details for systems, shared drives, and case management tools (following firm security policies).

If the leave is unplanned, schedule brief knowledge-transfer conversations with colleagues who have worked closely with the absent teammate. Capture notes in a shared knowledge repository rather than in personal email or local drives.

Step 6: Communicate Openly With the Team

After layoffs or other disruptions, research shows remaining employees need transparent communication, role clarity, and visible leadership to stay engaged. The same principles apply when someone is out on leave.

Internal Communication Checklist

• Explain what is changing and what is not.
• Outline who will be taking on which responsibilities.
• Share the timeframe for the temporary arrangements.
• Invite questions and feedback, and acknowledge that the adjustment may be challenging.
• Reassure the team that overload is not the goal and that plans can be revisited.

Where confidentiality rules limit what you can disclose about the leave itself, focus communications on operational impacts and support for the team, not personal details.

Step 7: Communicate Professionally With Clients and Stakeholders

Clients, courts, and external partners may notice when their usual point of contact changes. Trust is preserved when you communicate proactively and frame the change as part of a continuity plan.

Best Practices for External Notifications

• Inform key clients and contacts that a different team member will be handling their matters temporarily.
• Introduce the new point of contact, including their role and how to reach them.
• Affirm the firm’s ongoing commitment to service quality and responsiveness.
• Avoid disclosing private health or personal information about the colleague on leave.

For courts and agencies, follow any required procedures for updating contact information or attorney-of-record details to avoid misdirected notices or missed deadlines.

Step 8: Support Remaining Team Members’ Well-Being

Even well-planned reallocation can strain people. After major organizational changes such as layoffs, experts emphasize the importance of visible leadership, dialogue, and support to protect morale. The same attention to well-being helps teams navigate leave coverage.

Ways to Reduce Burnout Risk

• Set realistic workload caps and clarify what can be postponed or dropped.
• Encourage managers to check in about both capacity and stress levels, not just deadlines.
• Temporarily limit new projects or nonessential initiatives where possible.
• Remind team members about employee assistance programs or wellness resources available through HR.
• Recognize extra effort publicly and privately, and celebrate small wins.

Step 9: Coordinate With HR and Leadership

Reallocating responsibilities during a leave of absence intersect with policies on overtime, compensation, and job descriptions. HR and leadership can help ensure both legal compliance and fairness.

Topics to Confirm With HR

• Whether temporary added duties qualify for stipends or pay adjustments under firm policy.
• Guidelines on overtime for non-exempt staff.
• Any limits related to job classification or union/collective agreements.
• How to handle performance evaluations when employees are doing unfamiliar temporary work.

Leadership should also model the behavior they expect: stepping in when bottlenecks arise, supporting prioritization decisions, and reinforcing that speaking up about capacity is a sign of professionalism, not weakness.

Step 10: Plan the Return and Reintegration

Too often, teams put intense effort into covering a leave, but little thought into handing work back. A structured reintegration plan protects both the returning employee and the colleagues who supported coverage.

Elements of a Smooth Return Plan

• Meet with the returning colleague to review which responsibilities will come back to them immediately and which will transition over time.
• Share a summary of key developments during the absence (new matters, client issues, procedural changes).
• Offer refresher training on any updated tools or processes.
• Gradually rebalance workloads for coverage colleagues, acknowledging their contributions.

Organizations that treat return-to-work as a managed transition rather than an on/off switch are more likely to retain talent and maintain performance.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1: How early should we start planning for a planned leave of absence?

For planned leaves such as parental leave, begin discussions at least two to three months before the expected start date when possible. This allows time to document workflows, cross-train colleagues, and communicate changes gradually, aligning with general best practices for workforce transitions.

Q2: What if the leave is sudden and we have no time to prepare?

Prioritize immediate risk: identify critical deadlines and client commitments within the next 2–4 weeks, assign temporary owners, and create simple checklists for those tasks. Then, over the next several days, build a fuller coverage plan, document processes as you reconstruct them, and adjust workloads to avoid sustained overload.

Q3: How do we know if we should hire temporary help instead of just redistributing tasks?

Warning signs that you may need temporary staff include multiple people consistently working unsustainable hours, frequent last-minute scrambles to meet deadlines, or rising error rates. If critical work cannot be covered safely with available staff even after pausing nonessential tasks, talk with leadership and HR about bringing in contract help.

Q4: How much information about the leave can we share with clients?

Share operational details (who their new contact is, how to reach them, and how service levels will be maintained), but avoid disclosing personal health or family information. When in doubt, consult HR and follow your firm’s privacy and confidentiality policies, which are often informed by employment and privacy law.

Q5: How can we use this experience to strengthen our team long-term?

After the colleague returns, hold a brief retrospective: what worked, what did not, and what processes need permanent documentation. Update standard operating procedures, maintain cross-training where it was helpful, and incorporate lessons into onboarding and succession planning so future leaves are easier to manage.

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Sneha TeteBeauty & Lifestyle Writer

 

Sneha is a relationships and lifestyle writer with a strong foundation in applied linguistics and certified training in relationship coaching. She brings over five years of writing experience to waytolegal,  crafting thoughtful, research-driven content that empowers readers to build healthier relationships, boost emotional well-being, and embrace holistic living.

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