Wibta if I chose to leave a co-op after they terminated another member due to a recent conflict?
I am a member of a local co-op. I won’t get into the details, but the big thing is that I am the only member under the age of 55 and most of the other members are in their 70s. I take care of the majority of online business needs (website, google business account, etc) and also a good deal of advertising, so they rely on me a lot. There is another member who is extremely toxic, I will call them P as in “problem”. They create a ton of petty drama and are constantly talking shit about everyone, and are very polarizing. This is the way they move through life - P has lots of “enemies” from neighbors to random people on Facebook. So of course they have problems with many other members of the co-op, but most of them have been there for a long time and are used to this person. I have been there a couple of years but am still one of the newer members.
I’m not a very confrontational person but will set boundaries when needed. I had to work with P on a small project recently and they were so unprofessional, I just had enough. It was a silly frivolous project with very low stakes and this person created so much unneeded drama. I should also mention I was not the only person working with P on this project and the other member was also PISSED. They went to HR and that is how all of this escalated.
Anyway, our lease is up for renewal mid-summer and this is an opportunity to leave the co-op without closing the typical 2 year contract. I told P their behavior was offensive and I notified the co-op I would be leaving when the lease was up. They asked me if it was because of P and I said that there are other factors, but yes, P was ultimately the crux of this decision. But I’m also tired of working on the weekends, and I have young children i would rather invest my time in mothering that dealing with this nonsense.
They asked me point blank “will you stay if we get rid of P” and I said I would not answer that. That P has been there much longer than me and I am in no way trying to drive them out. That it is just time for me to move on. Did P influence my decision to leave? Absolutely. But I’m not going to create a “me or them” situation, and frankly I don’t need to be a part of the co-op whereas I think P does. I did say however that I think P will continue to cause them problems and they need to figure out how to deal with them and meet a certain standard of professionalism.
A few hours after this conversation I got a co-op wide notification that P had been terminated for recurring unprofessional behavior towards other members of the co-op. I also received a message from P blaming me for it, and I blocked them and did not respond.
The co-op is waiting to see if this changes my decision to leave. I’m ready to move on. I think the place has bad vibes and that if I stay P will just be ruminating and bad-mouthing me until the day they die. I just want to shed the drama. However, I feel like they have made me into some sort of life-boat and are worried about what they will do about all their online stuff, attracting new younger members, their advertising, etc. There is also the risk that of 2-3 other members will also leave if I do and it puts the survival of the entire co-op at risk. WIBTA if I still decided to leave after they terminated this other member?
EDIT: thank you all for the thoughtful feedback - I’m leaving! And feeling guilt free about it. Thank you thank you, I may have caved to the pressure otherwise.