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Core Leave: What?

November 16, 2008
Gosh, sometimes things just don’t add up.  Earlier last week I received an “Out of Office” reply from someone announcing that she was on “Core Leave.”  Huh? 

Having no idea what that was, I did a little research to quickly learn that it is not all that popular a term or a concept.  At least not yet.  I did find a blog from a man by the name of Doug Blacker who knew from firsthand experience that Core Leave is mandatory absence imposed by an organization on its employees.  It is intended to foil any nefarious plots that may be in the making, and in the hands of unscrupulous workers.  The key feature is that any contact with the company is forbidden.  That means no emails, phone calls or logging on. 

I’m thinking it was created for situations like the one at Société Générale’ in Paris where a trader’s scam brought the company to its knees, cost it millions and put it in the vulnerable position of potentially being taken over.  Fair enough.  Especially in light of our own financial calamity, it would appear as though we are in fact without appropriate oversight and control mechanisms in place.  But if we are talking about removing employees from workflow in order to break the links in a chain that tie a potential scheme together, we don’t need this whole new elaborate structure.  It seems silly.  Why not just make vacation mandatory?  I’m finding that that is exactly what Core Leave is turning out to be despite itself – much needed, uninterrupted time off.  Talk about making things harder than they have to be.

Posted by Donna Flagg on November 16, 2008 | Comments (2)