A colleague suddenly stopped coming to work. Do we deserve to know why?

May 22, 2026 — 5:01am

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A colleague who is part of a small project team (that includes me) suddenly stopped turning up to work. The remaining team members asked a supervisor what was happening. We were told our colleague was taking some personal leave and that we should continue the project without them.

A few people in the project became agitated. They started talking about how we should get to the bottom of what had happened. I said I thought this was a bad idea and that it was not our place. One team member argued that because we were now going to have to work harder to complete the project on time, we deserved to find out what was going on. Isn’t that a silly rationale?

I think your discomfort is very well-founded. The reason for your colleague’s absence became none of your business the moment you were told about the personal leave, and were offered no elaboration. Your supervisor’s reticence spoke volumes. But it seems some in your project group didn’t take........

© Brisbane Times