Treat it as a learning opportunity. Three buckets to triage employees into: (o) the oblivious employees, (i) employees who step up and show initiative, and (ii) employees who decide to goof off and do nothing since some of the management chain is likely missing and not being replaced.
Companies that are successful are often unwilling to risk any element of their success and can be rigid/inflexible.
One of my friends spent his 2 years of military service in Israel playing chess -- up to 2 dozen chess games simultaneously, blind folded, against soldiers in the Israeli army. After his army service, he eventually ended up in grad school and later on became a professor. But more than his research papers, it is his chess playing that I remember.
You should run it by a lawyer. Legal documents like confidentiality agreements often (re)define terms like "knowledge" and depending on what you signed when you joined up, you may be in violation of it. Better be safe than sorry.