Alessandra Capezio, associate professor of organisational behaviour at the Australian National University and a fellow at the Centre for Evidence Management, told me that in this case you may need to make a “net benefit assessment”.

“Since this may have negative spill-over effects for your team, is it worth having a difficult conversation with this person? [You might] admit that while you would love to support this and see it as making sense and being reasonable, it might impact the team,” Capezio says.

“Despite this creative being amazing, [it sounds like] the organisation cannot accommodate his preferences, and this results in an organisation-individual misfit.”

But what if there’s another reason for this team member’s desire to change their hours? What if this has little, or nothing, to do with their plans to leave the organisation? Or what if they do want to leave, but only because they haven’t yet been shown how fruitful long-term employment within this organisation could be?

Dr Wouter Vleugels is a senior lecturer at the Deakin Business School, and he said that even if the creative did have their eye on the door, you could absolutely still make it work for them.

Loading

“If the manager is right and the person is indeed thinking about leaving, the question should be why. And what the organisation can do to keep high-performing employees like them around,” says Vleugels.

Vleugels says he doesn’t have all the details in the case – that’s always a limitation of the column – but, based on what he knows, he wonders whether your organisation might consider changing its approach.

“It occurs to me that the employer has established some sort of a transactional psychological contract with this team member. And if [your organisation] doesn’t offer long-term career prospects to employees, it’s no surprise that this person is looking for another challenge or step-up elsewhere.”

Like Capezio, Vleugels recommends having a discussion with your charge to determine whether their ambitions and your organisation’s needs are compatible.

“[Find out] what sort of career goals the person has, but also the [perceived] fit with the job and the organisation at large – and why he or she thinks that fit may be deteriorating,” Vleugels says.

“I think this would result in very valuable information for the company. You may not be able to retain this particular person, but you can at least attempt to make sure the organisation can hold on to its most valuable workers over time.”

Send your Work Therapy questions to [email protected].

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.