What to do when HR leaves and everything breaks

When companies need to make cuts, HR and operational roles are often the first to go.

Not because the work doesn’t matter. Because it’s the kind of thing people only notice when it breaks. Which it often does when they go.

PeopleOps holds a ton of knowledge that isn’t always documented. That sometimes shouldn't be in writing. When they leave, that memory leaves with them.

The lucky ones get to manage their own exits. The unlucky ones have to do it after the fact.

😳 I've seen Slack accounts accidentally left active, letting someone watch the gossip about their exit in real time.

🫣Triple-deducted benefits. Final paychecks that never arrived.

🙈 Insurance plans that never ended. People who stayed on payroll for weeks before anyone caught it.

📞🎶 Founders on hold for hours because they’re the last Super Admin standing—and they forgot their password.

I'm not sharing to put anyone on blast. HR knows better than anyone—letting people go is part of the job.

The important thing is that a clean exit gives people dignity. Especially if that person was the one who always made graciousness look easy.

It’s deeply awkward when the “in-theory departed” person has to clean up their own exit. Especially if the person they’re guiding through it thought they were “expendable.”

When there’s no one left who understands what’s at stake, and the one who used to catch dropped balls is the one being dropped, there’s no buffer. The very expertise the company used to pay for gets turned against it. In self defense. It starts to feel adversarial.

If you realized too late that the person you just let go was the glue holding things together...

If you’re the one who’s left trying to keep things from unraveling...

This is your chance to avert disaster.

HR doesn’t have to be in-house. It doesn’t have to be full time. It doesn’t even have to “feel” like HR. 

But it does have to be done right. 

If you need help tying up loose ends or turning chaos into a checklist, I’ve got you.

Quick session. Flat rate. Then you’re back in control.

Get a sanity check for your People Ops