John has been with this company for more than 15 years. John Smith's (obvious fake name) partner got a lucrative job in another city where my company has their primary HQ and multiple branch offices. John's partner and their two kids moved to the new city and they spent a year apart while John waited for a position to open or to be granted a transfer to the new office. His job wouldn't change at all mind you, his location itself doesn't matter for him to do his job. Anybody he needed to personally interact with he already does so over e-mail or over the phone. Well, no new positions opened up and no transfers were granted. There was one potential one in waiting, the company had been considering creating a new specialist role which someone from that city likely would have gotten opening up an opportunity for him to transfer. Also, another employee was willing to trade office locations and swap cities but they needed a few more months before they were ready. Once again, there were multiple branch offices and Head Office in this city, so there was plenty of office space available and the company allows limited work from home time anyways, so if limited, no office space would even be necessary. He also wouldn't be changing groups at all, so the staff budgeting would remain the same. After a year of waiting, no opportunities presented themselves and he had been effectively separated from his spouse and kids for over a year and was done. He found a new position with a new company in the city and moved, completely overhauling his career and wiping out his 15 years of seniority in the Union. Immediately after, someone from the new city applied to his old position and took it and a position he would have wanted opened up in the new city. Today, a few months after he left, the specialist position was created taken by the other employee and another position was opened that he could have taken.
If it wasn't incredibly unprofessional I would send out a group e-mail nominating my boss and his boss for the Fuck John Smith award for how thoroughly they unnecessarily fucked up his life and his career.