Dear Prudence,
One of my colleagues, someone I admired very much, left recently, and her replacement is … well, a little lackluster. Her work has been okay, I guess, but has lacked the panache and insight of her predecessor. I know she had big shoes to fill, and my expectations are not her concern (I’m not her manager, after all), but sometimes it has felt like she’s not making much effort to do her job particularly well. It reflects on the whole company as her work is public-facing.
Now she’s gone off on maternity leave. Prudie, her temporary replacement is absolutely head and shoulders above her in quality. He’s an external temp but he’s really knocking it out of the park here these last few weeks. My worry is that when she comes back from maternity leave, naturally he’ll leave, and we’ll have to go back to lackluster output that honestly isn’t doing the company any favors. I feel like going to the boss and saying we should keep him on, plus-or-minus her staying in another role, as he’s patently far better than she has so far demonstrated herself to be.
To add to the mix, they’re both POC and I know Black women have really not been well-represented in our field, and it feels regressive to want to replace her with a man, even if he is also Black, and especially when we ought to be making it less of a professional risk to take maternity leave. But his output is just objectively so much better than hers, and feedback from customers says the same. I guess it’s possible she comes back with a bit more energy and pizzazz, but I’m not hopeful. Any thoughts?
— Temp Is Awesome