1) increase the workload for who remains

2) decrease the workload and delay the deadline (which could affect other parts of the company, the pnl)

3) find a contractor or two to pick up the slack, this may take a while and can still fail or cause the rest of the team to stall while that person/people onboards.

Depending on your situation money can be tight or deadlines can be tight or both. Meaning the only appreciable option may be #1: which is part of why it’s harder to work in startups where both of the above may be true.

I don’t think it’s entirely fair to blame management, but it can be arbitrary limitations imposed by management for sure.