TL ; DR – coworker quit with no notice and left us short staffed in our department and scrambling to find a replacement.
I work in maintenance at a manufacturing plant. We had some terribly busy years during the pandemic and things have slowed down for us over the last year and are now back at a normal pace. Our swing shift is not really needed, but management refuses to get rid of the shift in case things pick up again as it's easier to hire more people than to shut down and entire shift and then have to search for all new leads and supervisors, etc. Maintenance stays busy with our preventative maintenance and projects but there are plenty of times where we're answering one service call and then on another right away. Our staffing has not been much of an issue for the most part, although we've had some people leave in the last year due to our job not paying competitively enough with other employers. We have started to feel the staffing pinch, and with things slowing down we're on a hiring freeze.
Today, I came into work and got started on my daily tasks. I'm the first one in and start the whole plant up and get things going so when the workers show up we can just get started. A few hours into my shift, my supervisor came over and informed me that one of the technicians had quit the night before and gave no notice, he just handed in his badge and left, all that was said was they had got a new job somewhere else. Now my coworkers and I are stuck picking up his slack and trying to complete the tasks he still had to do or left half done. We're also scrambling to find someone to help cover the swing shift hours. Needless to say, we've been handed the short end of the stick here and it sucks. I understand searching for a new job and leaving and bettering your situation, but damn him for screwing us over the way he did. We're a pretty tight group and all get along well and help each other on projects and cover shifts when needed and get along pretty well, so I'm kind of pissed that my coworker just up and left how he did.
The question, how bad would things have to be for you to abandon your coworkers/work friends and leave them struggling to cover the gap you've left?