I also have a withdrawal that is stuck in "awaiting approval" mode ... whatever the hell that's supposed to mean!?  Its been nearly 48 hours already with no response and i have also had absolutely no response to the ticket i lodged about it.

And being understaffed is no excuse at all.... Hire more staff if you can't handle backlogs. Traders being unable to access their money or trades for days (or even weeks) on end is pure bullshit!!
These kinds of issues are causing me to believe the rumours out there that there's something seriously wrong at Poloniex and that perhaps they are running a fractional reserve system.
I've seen top crypto traders say things like "If you haven't already done so, pull your money off @Poloniex asap. They've stopped responding to support tickets."

My experience with them and others mentioned here certainly seem to lend creedance to these comments.

IF and when Poloniex support sorts out my withdrawal i will certainly come back here and give them credit for that but until then i remain a skeptic.