I plan on leaving my employer for a new job with a two week notice, but a coworker has a vacation planned two weeks after I leave and there is no one else to provide cover. I would think asking to delay my start date with my new employer by a week would be reasonable, but two weeks might not be agreeable.
I don’t want to cause any friction with my new employer, but I also don’t want to leave on bad terms with my current employer. Will I be ineligible for rehire if I were to leave before my coworker takes off for vacation?
Just proceed as planned. If the company is so fragile it can’t survive one week without someone to cover a position, well it’s in such dire straits that it’s going to be out of business within a year anyway. If you company survived Covid, it can certainly survive this.