When Employees Stop Showing Up: A Business Continuity Lesson From Washington State Ferries

In the News:  Washington State Ferries reported Monday morning that widespread service interruptions and canceled sailings were occurring because there were not enough qualified crew members available to staff several vessels. The disruption followed a large number of engine room employees calling in sick amid an ongoing wage dispute.

Source: https://www.king5.com/article/news/community/transportation/some-washington-state-ferries-routes-are-risk-being-out-of-service-monday/281-d306fb89-5455-443e-9e04-3e44a5125201

Every business depends on people. Technology, equipment, buildings, inventory and capital may make an organization possible, but employees are often what make it operational. When enough of the right employees suddenly become unavailable, even a very large organization can discover just how quickly normal operations can come to a halt.

Washington State Ferries provided a dramatic example of that vulnerability on October 5, 2026.

According to Washington State Ferries, 23 engine room employees called in sick Monday morning. Qualified employees who could have filled the vacant positions declined to do so. Because ferries cannot legally operate without the required crew, 13 of the 18 vessels in service were sidelined, resulting in canceled sailings and significant disruptions throughout the Puget Sound region.

Whatever ultimately caused the employee actions or how the labor situation is resolved, there is a much larger business lesson here:

What happens to your organization when the people you absolutely need are suddenly unavailable?

Your Employees Can Be One of Your Greatest Assets — and One of Your Greatest Operational Risks

Employers often think about risk in terms of fires, lawsuits, cyberattacks, equipment failures, economic downturns or the loss of a major customer. Far fewer businesses seriously calculate the consequences of suddenly losing a significant portion of their workforce.

That loss does not necessarily mean employees permanently quitting.

Employees can become unavailable because of illness, weather, family emergencies, workplace disputes, resignations, labor actions, transportation problems or simply because several people happen to be absent at the same time. A competitor could recruit several important employees. A manager could unexpectedly leave. An entire department could experience an internal dispute. In some industries, a small number of people may hold licenses, certifications or institutional knowledge that cannot immediately be replaced.

Washington State Ferries demonstrates the problem particularly well because certain positions are operationally indispensable. WSF says its vessels must meet U.S. Coast Guard staffing requirements before sailing. If a required position cannot be filled, the vessel cannot simply operate short-staffed. It stays at the dock.

That is an extreme example of something that exists in thousands of private businesses.

A construction company may need a licensed employee. A trucking company needs qualified drivers. A medical practice needs properly credentialed personnel. A restaurant cannot operate normally without kitchen staff. A manufacturing company may depend upon technicians who understand specialized equipment. A small accounting office may have one employee who understands payroll processing for every client.

The question management should be asking is not simply, “How many employees do we have?”

The better question is, “Which employees or positions could stop this business from operating if they were unavailable tomorrow?”

Twenty-Three Employees Affected Most of a Ferry System

The scale of Monday’s disruption is what should get the attention of business owners.

Twenty-three engine room employees calling in sick ultimately contributed to 13 of 18 operating ferries being taken out of service. That meant a relatively small group of specialized employees had an enormous effect on the organization’s ability to provide its core service.

This was not an entirely theoretical staffing risk for the ferry system, either. WSF’s own 2026 Service Contingency Plan discusses continuing challenges associated with qualified maritime staffing, particularly engine room personnel. The plan acknowledges that last-minute relief requests can result in canceled sailings even when vessels begin a sailing season fully staffed.

Historical numbers reinforce that point. In fiscal year 2025, WSF reported 826 cancellations related to crewing. Of those, 57% involved licensed engine room staff and another 25% involved unlicensed engine room staff.

For a business consultant, those numbers highlight something important: known vulnerabilities should eventually become planning assumptions.

If management knows that a particular employee classification, department, supplier, piece of equipment or technology represents a recurring operational bottleneck, the organization should be developing contingencies around that vulnerability.

Hope Is Not a Contingency Plan

Many small and midsized businesses effectively operate with a contingency plan that consists of one sentence:

“We’ll figure it out if something happens.”

That works until something actually happens.

Business continuity planning means identifying critical functions before the emergency occurs and determining how the organization will continue operating when those functions are disrupted.

Management should know which positions are indispensable, who can perform those jobs, which responsibilities can be temporarily reassigned, what certifications are required, how long replacements would take to obtain and what operations must be reduced if staffing falls below certain levels.

Cross-training becomes especially important. When only one employee understands a critical process, that employee represents a single point of failure. Businesses routinely recognize this concept with computer servers and telecommunications systems but sometimes overlook it when evaluating their people.

An organization should never intentionally make an employee less valuable. It should, however, make the business less dependent upon any one individual.

That distinction matters.

Plan for 10%, 20%, 30% — and Worse

Businesses routinely prepare financial forecasts based on different revenue scenarios. Workforce availability should be modeled in much the same way.

What happens if 10% of your employees are unavailable tomorrow?

What happens at 20%?

What happens if an entire department is unavailable?

What happens if three of your most experienced employees leave during the same month?

What happens if the only person qualified to perform a particular function gives two weeks’ notice?

And what happens if the absence lasts one day, one week or three months?

The purpose is not to predict exactly which event will occur. The purpose is to understand the consequences before the organization is forced to make decisions under pressure.

A good contingency plan establishes priorities. Some operations may continue normally. Others may operate at reduced capacity. Certain services may temporarily stop. Management should already understand which customers receive priority, who has authority to make emergency decisions, how customers will be notified and how cash flow will be affected.

The Financial Damage Can Continue Long After Employees Return

One of the biggest mistakes management can make is measuring a staffing disruption only by the revenue lost while employees are absent.

The long-term damage can be considerably larger.

Customers who cannot receive service may find another provider. Orders may be canceled. Production schedules can fall behind. Contracts can be jeopardized. Overtime expenses may increase. Remaining employees can become exhausted. Customer-service problems can multiply. Refunds, discounts or credits may be required. Vendors may become concerned about the organization’s stability.

Reputation can also suffer.

A customer generally does not care about the internal staffing problem that prevented a company from delivering what was promised. The customer remembers that the company did not deliver.

For a business, that means the financial effects of a three-day disruption could continue for months.

Management therefore needs to calculate more than immediate lost sales. A meaningful contingency analysis should consider lost revenue, additional payroll, overtime, temporary staffing, customer concessions, contractual penalties, delayed receivables and the potential cost of losing customers permanently.

Compensation Alone Does Not Eliminate Workforce Risk

WSF publicly noted that Staff Chief Engineers have a base salary of approximately $157,000 and can earn more than $350,000 with overtime, in addition to leave and retirement benefits.

Those figures are noteworthy, but from a business-management perspective they illustrate another important point: compensation does not eliminate dependency.

An organization can have highly compensated employees and still face significant workforce risk.

Employee retention involves compensation, but it can also involve workload, scheduling, management, morale, advancement opportunities, workplace culture and succession planning. Conversely, even an organization with excellent employee relations must still prepare for circumstances beyond anyone’s control.

A business continuity plan is not an accusation that employees are unreliable. It is an acknowledgment that people are human and organizations must be prepared for disruption.

Know Where Your Business Is Vulnerable

Every owner should periodically conduct what could be called a key-person dependency audit.

Identify the people and positions without which the company cannot operate normally. Determine what knowledge exists only inside someone’s head. Document critical procedures. Maintain access to passwords, vendor information, contracts, operating instructions and customer records under appropriate security controls. Cross-train employees where practical and establish who assumes authority when managers are unavailable.

The same analysis should extend beyond employees.

What happens if your largest supplier stops delivering? What happens if your Internet connection disappears for two days? What happens if your building becomes inaccessible? What happens if your accounting system fails? What happens if your largest customer leaves?

Business continuity is ultimately about eliminating unnecessary single points of failure.

Employees Are Essential, Which Is Exactly Why Businesses Must Plan

Employees can be the greatest strength of an organization. Experienced employees carry knowledge, relationships, skills and institutional history that cannot always be quickly replaced.

That is precisely why management must understand the financial and operational consequences of losing access to them.

Whether employees become unavailable because of illness, resignations, retirement, a labor dispute, a coordinated work action or circumstances entirely outside their control, the business still has customers, bills, contracts and financial obligations waiting on the other side.

The lesson from Washington State Ferries is therefore larger than ferries or today’s labor situation.

A business can have the equipment. It can have the customers. It can have the money. It can even have demand waiting at the door. But if it does not have the people required to deliver the service, the business can stop.

Business owners and managers should not wait until the parking lot is empty, the phones are ringing and customers are demanding answers to decide what happens next.

Contingency planning needs to happen while everything is still working.

A strong business prepares for the unexpected, identifies its vulnerabilities, protects its critical operations and understands the financial consequences of disruption before the disruption arrives. The goal is not to guarantee that nothing will ever go wrong.

The goal is to make sure that when something does go wrong, the problem does not become an existential threat to the business.