What should I clarify before temporarily covering a coworker’s role?

Start with a short coverage briefing, ideally with the coworker and your manager or whoever is responsible for assigning the work. The aim is not to learn every detail of the role; it’s to agree on what you are taking on, what matters most, and where your authority stops.

A useful agenda is:

1. Dates and scope: When does coverage begin and end? Which parts of the role are included, and which stay with someone else?
2. Priorities: What must keep moving? What can wait, be simplified, or be handed off?
3. Deadlines and commitments: What is due, when, and who is expecting it?
4. Decision boundaries: What can you decide independently? What needs approval, and from whom?
5. Support and hand-back: Who can answer questions, and what should be documented for the coworker’s return?

Ask the coworker to walk through current work using real, upcoming tasks rather than giving you a broad description of everything they do. Take notes in a shared or otherwise appropriate work location. Avoid relying on memory for dates, owners, or approval steps.

Ask for a ranked list, not just a task inventory. For each active item, clarify its next action, deadline, impact if delayed, and whether anyone else is waiting on it. Then agree together on three buckets: continue, pause or defer, and ask before acting.

For example, suppose you’re covering a colleague who coordinates a weekly team update. The details here are illustrative placeholders, not facts about your workplace. You might record:

• Continue: prepare the update for [day/time] using the current process.
• Defer: tidy older reference notes unless [manager] says otherwise.
• Ask first: change the format or make a commitment on behalf of another team.

The key is to uncover exceptions. Ask, “What tends to look routine but becomes time-sensitive?” and “Is there a commitment that isn’t visible on the task list?” If two priorities conflict, clarify who has the authority to choose between them instead of guessing.

Make the decision boundary concrete. Ask which decisions you may make on your own, which require a quick check, and which should be passed to a named person. For each approval step, clarify how to reach that person, what information they need, and what to do if they are unavailable. Don’t assume that taking over tasks also means taking over every decision attached to the role.

You can use this copyable section in your notes:

Decision and escalation notes

• I can decide: [specific routine decisions]
• Check with: [role or name placeholder] before: [specific decisions]
• Route directly to: [role or name placeholder] if: [situation]
• If that person is unavailable: [agreed next step]
• Information to include: [brief facts or context needed]

Also ask what situations should not wait for the next regular check-in. If an issue is outside your knowledge or authority, pause the decision and contact the agreed person rather than improvising.

Close by reading back the arrangement and asking the coworker and manager to correct anything you misunderstood. Confirm where to find the current files or instructions, who will notify affected colleagues, when you’ll check in, and how the hand-back will work. List unanswered questions with an owner and a date to follow up; don’t leave an important unknown disguised as an agreement.

Here’s a compact briefing record you can adapt:

Temporary coverage: [role or work area]

• Coverage dates: [start] to [end or review date]
• Included responsibilities: [items]
• Top priorities and deadlines: [item — due date — next action]
• Work to pause or defer: [items and who agreed]
• Decisions I can make: [limits]
• Approval or escalation contacts: [role/name placeholders and situations]
• Where to find instructions and active work: [work location]
• Open questions: [question — owner — follow-up date]
• Check-in and hand-back plan: [date or trigger]

Send or save the notes where the relevant people can use them, following your workplace’s usual practices. The briefing cannot anticipate every change; when priorities, dates, or authority shift, confirm the update with the appropriate person and revise the notes.