The Bus Test

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A few months ago a colleague went on holiday. Considering the scorching heat in London at the time, it is fair to say I was jealous he was getting away from the city.

I didn't expect a ping from my colleague at all for a week. Not on the work chat anyway. But there we were, busy mid-morning Monday and my holidaying colleague was bright and green online. For hours. Until the end of the working day.

One of the qualities I really admire about this person is his ability to do the work-life balance right. Him doing work on his holiday wasn't typical, nor right. I had questions.

My naive self asked him: "Why do you work when you're on holiday?". His answer: "Because there is work to be done - something that only I can do, and it can't wait". Me in good humour: "So we are lucky that you're somewhere with your laptop and strong internet connection". He said: "Mims, you don't want to do that. You don't want to be the ONLY person in a company who knows something. As a company, you don't want to fail the bus test." (smart words, as usual)

For those who don't know the bus test is a morbid mental game. What will happen if one of your colleagues get hit by a bus?

How much critical knowledge isn't transferred at any given moment? Is there a single person who can access all admin tools? What will happen if they are gone? Is there a backup plan for all the critical passwords and sysadmin access?

Be nice to yourself and the others. Regularly assess what your team needs to know to do their job right if something unexpectedly happens to you.

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