But you&#x27;re also a country with mostly &quot;at will&quot; employment laws - any one of those employees can quit with no notice. If you can&#x27;t cope for a week without any of those individuals then you have some serious business risks.<p>Except &quot;coping&quot; isn&#x27;t what everyone thinks about, there&#x27;s some bizarre expectation of 100% efficiency for short notice things. If the DBA needs a week off then plan around it. I can see a case in a small firm for some people to be contactable in case of dire emergencies - but with significant costs like holiday day reimbursement and cash if activated. Not an expectation of any contact, view that as a significant failing.