Seems they filled the position as recently as 7 months ago.

Right, but there was a source of knowledge (the two older employees) to obtain information from. If one of those older employees is irreplaceable, and they leave, it's going to seriously impact production systems.

These guys work at a school district. They're not working somewhere that it's going to make a huge difference to have some impact on production systems.

Honestly, I'd put my money on it being in the organizations best interests long term if the two older employees did leave them in a rut. A lot of times it's good to purge these types of places of the cruft left behind by legacy.

where does this vindictive attitude, especially given that you know nothing about the job or circumstances surrounding it, come from?

exactly.

The world is full of “irreplaceable” people.

Better version imho - Cementaries are full of irreplaceable people.

Well. I wasn’t going to go there given the context.

never caught covid when I took care of my mom when she had it last year and I worked as a cashier at Walmart during last year's Sturgis Rally and tourism season, and I somehow survived this year's Rally and tourism season as well... I'm going to be just fine, but I appreciate the "concern" nonetheless.

Is this the whole issue, that everyone drawing a line in the sand wrongly believes they can’t be replaced?