Our Operations Manager has been with us for five years and is a perfect core values fit. However, due to recent eldercare responsibilities, she clearly lacks the time and capacity to handle her seat roles, though she still wants the job. How do we address this capacity issue without demoting or insulting a loyal employee?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a classic GWC issue where the capacity component is missing. Capacity is not just about mental capability; it also includes the physical time, emotional energy, and personal bandwidth required to do a job excellently. When a loyal employee struggles with temporary or long-term personal challenges, you must address the situation directly and with empathy, but without compromising the standards of the seat. Start by having an open conversation. Acknowledge her value to the company and state clearly that the current workload of the Operations Manager seat is not sustainable for her right now. Review the five major roles of her seat together. Ask her to help you identify which of those roles are slipping. From there, you have two choices. You can temporarily adjust the seat by delegating some of her secondary roles to other team members, provided you have the budget and capacity elsewhere. Alternatively, you can design a new, highly valuable specialist seat on the Accountability Chart that requires fewer hours or less emotional overhead, and transition her into it. This preserves her connection to the company and respects her core values alignment, while allowing you to hire a full-time leader who has the complete capacity to run your operations. Protecting a seat at the expense of business health helps no one, including the employee who is burning out trying to maintain it.