My best employee put in her notice today for another opportunity making 10k more. Cannot blame her at all. But I'm talking a true rockstar, irreplaceable, example employee. I fought like hell for her and wrote a heartfelt and passionate plea to HR to work with her to retain her. They were only willing to meet her halfway and she declined. Gutted isn't even a strong enough word for my current state. HR doesn't give a fuck because they won't personally feel the weight of losing her. That's just on me and the remaining team members left behind (who will now also probably consider leaving.) I was already feeling disenchanted for a lot of reasons but this event now has me looking elsewhere as well. As with many companies, I'd say we lost nearly half of our staff this year and HR just doesn't seem to care. I'm utterly not ok. I'm going to have to backfill an irreplaceable person, onboard and train them alongside my already unmanageable workload while trying to keep a smile on my face and keep my other team members going. My anxiety currently has me feeling like my heart is racing so fast that I'm going to have a heart attack. No other opportunities even feel appealing, I don't feel qualified (impostor syndrome) nor do I want to sell myself to another corporation that will end up the same or worse. Not suicidal but feeling like I completely understand why people do it. What a blessing it would be to just be free of this never-ending uphill climb. I don't feel like I know a single peer or friend that actually enjoys their job and is able to have a life outside of work. Do those jobs actually exist? I need to know it's possible as I've never personally experienced it.