I was the warehouse manager for a large national fire suppression company (sprinklers, valves, plumbing etc). I had 15 people working for me but I was expected to be the manager and head shipper, so basically I was doing two jobs. I gave the company a month’s notice that I was leaving to allow them to find a replacement (either from within or from outside). They said they would promote from within and replace one of the warehousemen.
Two weeks go by and still no decision from upstairs, they refuse to allow me to pick and train someone without their ok. Their screwing around was starting to get to me at this point. I WAS planning to write down the names of all my contacts with the companies that we work with, current account numbers, specific agreements etc for my replacement. (Understand that this was a long time ago, the majority of this information was buried in a filing cabinet in accounting – beyond inventory not much was computerized yet.)
My second to last shift management made a decision and decided that their favourite suck-up “Dave” was getting my job. Two problems with that; there’s absolutely NO WAY to teach anyone that job in a shift or two, and also “Dave” was a f—-ing moron. Fortunately “Dave” assured me that he already knew how to do my job.
I left and went on vacation to Mexico for 3 weeks before starting school for my new career. When I got home my answering machine was filled with progressively more angry/panicked emails from management threatening me with everything from poor references to legal action. Never did call them, but talked to a few of they guys who worked there during the change over. “Dave” had no clue what was going on, orders were coming in but virtually nothing was going out. He quit after a week. It took them almost two months to put the right person in place, and get things running properly again.
The branch manager was also fired over the whole event.
TL:DR Every job is important. When someone gives you notice they’re leaving, TRAIN A REPLACEMENT.