I worked a job where when one of the team moved on, we'd all pitch in to keep things running while management would work to fill the vacancy. Management would work fast, and we'd fairly quickly get a new person.

When I moved to my next job, I automatically started busting my ass trying to get things done. My new coworkers had to take me aside and point out that there was no help coming. They weren't going to hire anyone to help, and if I killed myself trying to keep things working, they might not even hire someone to replace me.

After years of us complaining that we needed more people, management decided to bring in a consultant to review our work, evaluate the department, and report on what actions, if any, were necessary. It was fairly clear that management expected the experts to report that we had enough staff.

After interviewing everyone and shadowing us while we worked, they reported that for the size of the organization and the amount of work we were doing, and comparing our staff to staff at similar organizations, we should have had at least twice as many people on our team.

To their credit, this served as a wakeup call to administration. They realized that they needed to take steps to correct the staffing, and also realized how lucky they were to have the staff they had to keep things running. That was over 20 years ago, and things have continued to improve.