WIBTA if I left my job while my boss is dying
I am early in my career and am coming up on my 2 year anniversary. This role has been a good learning experience, but I’m underpaid and have been feeling myself stagnate in the last few months and feel like it’s time to look elsewhere. I’ve been applying to jobs for the past couple of months.
My boss has had cancer since before I started this role. His management style/leadership is a big reason why I chose this role over another offer (which would have paid more but otherwise didn’t seem to be as good of a growth opportunity).
Up until a few weeks ago, you wouldn’t have known he had cancer by looking at him or interacting with him. I’m not saying it isn’t/wasn’t serious, but the cancer growth was getting smaller and his prognosis seemed optimistic.
A month or two ago he began a clinical trial and has lost a significant amount of weight, about 50lbs in a short period of time. His most recent doctor’s appointment showed some growth in the tumor, plus he has a “blockage” that he needs surgery to address. He is currently in the hospital and has been for the last few days and will have the surgery tomorrow. I don’t know a ton of the specifics, but the outlook doesn’t seem good. I don’t know what his chances are, what cancer stage he has, or how his cancer works in general, but I have this feeling that things aren’t looking up.
Our team is small within a larger department. There are three of us including my boss; my coworker is more senior than I am. I honestly can’t gauge how important I am to things running smoothly because it feels like my role doesn’t have much impact in our department, but I don’t know how the workload for my coworker and I would change if his capacity is limited long-term.
I really don’t know how to handle this. Would I be fucking everyone over if I left? Happy to answer any clarifying questions but trying to maintain privacy/anonymity.
Edit: it’s come to my attention that someone posted a similar situation on this sub recently. I was unaware of that, sorry if this feels repetitive, feel free to ignore it if you feel some type of way. I’m just looking for some guidance on my specific situation.