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Roster Freeze Policy — Documentation & Knowledge Program

Guide

Roster Freeze Policy — Documentation & Knowledge Program

HR documentation · policy owned by the Human Resources unit (see ORG.md). A time-bounded freeze on roster changes for the duration of the Org-Wide Documentation & Knowledge Program.

Authority: Principal ruling, 2026-06-01 — docs/documentation-program/approval.md §2 (ruling 2). Risk addressed: R5 (horizontal scope creep) and R10 (roster hygiene) — docs/documentation-program/README.md §11.

STATUS — LIFTED 2026-06-01. The freeze’s lift condition (“until Phase 2 closes”) is met: the program reached G3 / COMPLETE (COO sign-off, reports/2026-06-01-program-completion.md). Normal hiring and unit-rename activity resumes under the Staffing & Delegation policy. Note: per the exception path, any post-program roster change still hands off to the Archivist and triggers a Handoff Register re-run for the new/renamed edges (the register is now the org’s live integrity gate). This record is retained per GR-8 (write-once memory); the policy below describes the freeze as it operated.

The freeze

The ORG.md roster is frozen for the duration of the Documentation & Knowledge Program — until Phase 2 closes. While the freeze is active:

  • No new hires. HR holds all hiring requests, regardless of originating Lead.
  • No unit renames. HR holds all unit-rename requests.

Why: a late hire or unit rename mid-rollout invalidates frozen Interface Contracts and Handoff Registers (ORG.md is already at v13). Holding the roster steady prevents agents documenting phantom handoffs to dead or moving roles.

Exception path (only if a change is unavoidable)

  1. HR notifies the COO/PMO before making the change.
  2. HR applies the change to ORG.md (and the agent definition, per the standard process), then hands off to the Archivist.
  3. The affected wave’s Handoff Register reconciliation is re-run for the new or renamed edges (owner: COO/PMO).

Routine roster hygiene that removes ambiguity — e.g. confirming a legacy role’s retirement or correcting a stale reports to line (Wave 0, R10) — is not a hire or rename and is not blocked by this freeze.

Scope and lifetime

  • Owner (enforce): Human Resources. On exception (re-run): COO/PMO.
  • Active from: 2026-06-01. Lifts when: Phase 2 of the program closes.
  • This policy supplements the Staffing & Delegation policy (hr/policies/staffing-and-delegation.md); it does not replace it.