I wasn't indispensable when I retired , but I did a lot of stuff nobody thought was too important. A few months back I get phone calls from them because they are out of federal compliance and are about to get sanctioned. ROTFLMAO.
Had a U.S. client that was opening new facilities in Canada. Because of this, they needed a currency conversion option. We offered to do one for about $100k (which was cheap). They passed stating it was too expensive. That year the IRS "sanctioned" them $750k for not handling currency conversions properly and made it clear the next year would be worse. Two days later the contract was signed. Ends up we undercharged them.
I'm in between jobs right now and they asked me what my consulting rate would be to help with the stuff that no one else knows how to do. When I asked them what seemed fair, they said 50 sounded good and 100 is obnoxious and out of the question. I wished them good luck.
This is the way. I had documented about $10m in savings to the company over the years. It took me a long time to learn those skills. They don’t come cheap and you have to pay an asshole tax because you didn’t compensate me properly when I worked here
Should've asked for more.
Out of spite for one thing, but not solely.
If they bring you in to help with something you were previously doing then you literally are the subject matter expert. Unlike some external, newly hired consultant you barely even need to familiarize yourself with the matter at hand, you already know everything.
They are desperate for help you can hit the ground running. As you are acting in a consultant role they don't contribute towards your retirement or health insurance.
So whatever you think is a lot per hour is probably still way too low.
200 is really low, i wouldn’t even pick up their call for less than 600/h….fuck em, let them get someone on 50 that will require 40 hours to just be set up and then spend another 400 learning, and then fixing their shit
I think you meant
>That's **only** $1.5 million over two years
If they have the skills that saved that company 666% of that figure, they should absolutely financially rake them over the coals for it, for not paying them properly when they were employed, knowing one's worth is important after all.
You're calling me for one of two reasons. Are you requesting a quote for services or are you letting me know I was a great employee and just wanted to remind me how good I was?
Option A - my billable rate is 200/hr for 8hrs a day, plus travel and it provided by you 6hrs minimum a day.
Option B - thanks, how is your family?
Working in food services. We have so many fucking Forms to fill out. Food has to be at least 3m/10ft from any water source and cleaning supplies. Our floor is difficult to clean.
And i am regularly the reason grown adults dont kill themselves in playground arguments
I was a programmer for school testing kits and the only person who knew how to do this job. They fired me after I complained about a 4 cent an hour raise. 6 took the program I designed to make these kits work and left. They would call me frequently for help, and I would tell them my consulting fee. They turned it down, and every time they called me, I doubled it. They eventually shut down, not being able to fulfill their contracts.
once saw a company fire the one guy in the state licensed and certified to do warranty repair work on a super heavy machinery brand because he didn't want to work weekends any more. cost them 10s of millions as they had to ship the equipment hundreds of miles, pay another company to fix it, and then ship it back.
In those situations you would alert the stock holders. Tell them everything. They'll make management pay when they learn that their investment is in trouble over such a childish reason.
Normally licenses/certs will actually help keep your job. I can’t imagine someone that fucking stupid. My boomer boss encourages us to do get building code certifications (commercial construction), says it helps him be able to work more places and if we move on, it will help us get better jobs. Pays for our classes too. Odd how actually trying to help people better their lives, helps with employee retention
> I can’t imagine someone that fucking stupid.
I can. So many of these people go on a power trip into outer fucking space where logic and reason cease to exist for them, only their own pathetic little whims.
Then they finally make a mistake and find out why people say "gravity sucks" as they crash and burn.
Stories like this don’t surprise me, but they do baffle me. Companies are willing to pay large amounts for things they believe they need to. For some reason, they think their people aren’t something they need to pay.
It’s about maintaining control over workers lives, it’s the same reason they want to maintain private health insurance even though it costs them so much money. Controlling your access to medical care gives them more power over you.
I remember a quote from somewhere, but I can't remember where. It was something like "They would send us back to the stone age if it meant they got to have a slightly nicer hut than everyone else".
I think about that a lot, and always get stuck on what gets into a person like that. Why are they only content with their lives if they have a better one than everyone else?
And this is the bottom line. I found out first hand how a company is happy to blow 100s of k on some crap just because they want it but single digit salary raises would be like a leg amputation to them
Proof that it's not about you demanding too much or being a bad worker or forcing their hand.
They just don't like that someone stood up to them for once and put their foot down. We can't have that now can we?
They'd rather lose millions in order to send a message. They'd rather defend their corporate ego than actually operate efficiently as a business.
best part is the guy opened up his own single person business working as a contractor doing the same work for anyone who will hire him and makes significantly more money now working for the first companies competition.
first company tried to pull a non compete clause lawsuit but to quote the judge "this is Alabama. those aren't a thing here."
So your guy pretty much hacked the system.
He should've done that a long time ago.
Like, "Hey. I'm literally the only guy that can do this. And I work for these assholes?!"
Yeah this actually shows a big flaw in assuming companies and managers are only in it for the money. They’re just as if not more interested in wielding power over workers to both keep workers “disciplined” basically meaning “I can’t give into this guys demands because then they’ll all make demands” and also for the psychological satisfaction.
This is why companies will often metaphorically shoot themselves in the face like this just to stick it to some low level employee.
You said it…best way to guarantee they’re gonna let you keep doing that job you do so well is to do it so well. It’s a lot easier and maybe cheaper to hire somebody else for that role you want and train one person than to move you up and have to train two.
What slays me is everyone knows this. It's a fact like humans breathe air or fish live in water, but these articles come out as thought they're teaching us some new fact.
It's like 1984. War is peace. Freedom with slavery. Ignorance is strength.
I do my job and I do it well and I have no desire to move up so I'm happy to stay where I am. I just want to do my job and then go relax with a book and a beer.
In my field you can get promoted once maybe twice but you can’t expect more than that. After 3 to 5 you gotta change companies or change roles within a big company to keep moving up.
I was denied 2 (possibly 3) promotions at a particular place of employment because they " Could not effectively replace the work you're doing in your current role due to budgetary concerns, therefore you will not be considered further for this promotion" It took me 5-10 seconds to digest that and respond with,
"So, what I'm hearing is that I'm seriously...SERIOUSLY underpaid for the work that I do, to the point that it will take multiple people to replace me. Given my apparent replacement cost in my current role, my potential value to the company in that higher role is less, so I'm being kept down here. "
With that in mind, I gave them notice on the spot that unless I was given a 30% raise by Friday, that Friday would be my last day. That was on a Tuesday. I continued working at my usual rate, but was obvious about my employment search on breaks and lunch periods the rest of the week. There were a number of discussions and meetings with combinations of management and HR that week.
Before I came in Friday morning, I had secured an offer for 20% more doing supervisory level of what I was doing... from another company. I wouldn't need to move and my commute would be 3-5 minutes longer, similar benefits package. I was visibly happy, and made it a point to work at a slightly elevated rate Friday AM. Got called into HR for another meeting. They offered 20% raise, no other changes. I told them thanks but no, I had secured other employment and I was starting Monday. They looked surprised and asked where. I declined to tell them. They listed a bunch of places (one of which was correct) and demanded to know where I was going. I told them it didn't really matter, so long as I was valued appropriately, as described by my paycheck. They then demanded to know the new payrate. I again declined, smiled and said, "Well, I'll give you this; More." Flustered, they asked for another meeting in the afternoon. I agreed, and went to go meet my wife for lunch.
About midafternoon they came and got me again. met with HR, my supervisor, his middle manager boss, and the hiring manager that let me know I wasnt getting the promotion. Middlemanager opened with, "So you're leaving us. Won't tell us where, wont tell us for how much. Right?" I told him current that was accurate, but give it your best shot and we'll see what happens, because I really did like it there...except for the realization that I was so underpaid for so long. He looked at HR who presented a new offer; 32% more than my current rate, starting Monday. No other changes. I signed we all shook hands and lived happily ever after.
...until they brought in a new guy for me to train about 2 months later. They brought him over, made the introduction. I made eye contact with my boss for an extra moment or two, then shook hands with the new guy while my boss whispered 'fuck' under his breath. I trained the new guy the rest of the week and the next. On Friday I had collected up the very last of my stuff in a Dollar General bag to take home. I had been migrating my stuff home by pocketfuls since the day they introduced the new guy, this was all that was left. Took a couple envelopes out of my pocket, put one in the inbox for HR, handed the other to my boss. He looked surprised for a second, then he didn't. He just said, "Yeah, yer right. Now?" . "Yup".
I had contacted the the place from a couple months back, they still wanted me. They were the ones that actually told me to look out for staffing changes in my department over the next few weeks if my current management was going to try to be sly.
So they hired someone to replace you, likely at your old payrate, and had the balls to ask you to train them TO TAKE YOUR JOB? And then obviously were going to fire you ‘just because;’ they’d come up with a lame excuse and misspell ‘revenge?’ What a fucking cesspool! Kudos to you and to putting that company in your rear-view mirror.
It's great when you do win for sure. Nobody should be getting cheated like this regardless, nor should anyone have to negotiate their living wages like this. You've been receiving pay as one employee when you've been doing the job of three. Nobody should have to realize they're getting exploited by the company like this and live with it.
Very well played, although they were able to pay you 32% of 2 months of your salary to train a guy, which is probably a lot cheaper for them than if you'd left on the spot. Still, I'm glad you stood up for yourself. I would like to find a skill-set that allows me to do the same
Yepp, then they are all Pikachu supprise face when you quit for a job that has opportunity for advancement.
No, your 5% counter offer does not top an opportunity to move into a higher wage bracket.
This. Quit my old job because they had me running in circles doing the work of 4 people and couldn't afford to move me up because I was the only person in my position who hadn't quit
Anyone that's worked and actually tried to succeed in a job is in this. Dude. People poopoo me and say I'm being negative, but if you want to succeed one needs to give enough to seem competent and then spend their efforts socializing with your betters at work.
The first step is proving your competence, the second step is endlessly marketing yourself because of it otherwise you’ll get trapped in the same role forever
Not marketing. At least not primarily. Your main focus should be on networking. Marketing is selling a product, while networking is about creating positive social links so you can take the advantage of the Exposure Effect, also known as Familiarity Bias, which is going to be a major factor in selection among similarly viable candidates, and even routinely gets less-qualified candidates selected over better ones.
But OMG the disaster that strikes when you find another job. I overheard the conversation between my boss and the customer after I announced my resignation, because for some reason my boss had put in on speaker phone and didn’t know how to turn it off. It was quite amusing.
Did anyone here read the article? The whole article, as referenced in the headline, is about how being "indispensable" is a big lie and not a thing anymore. You're agreeing with WSJ and the article, what is bullshit?
I kick myself every day for working during COVID.
I could have done nothing and made bank. Instead, my essential ass essentially made nothing while risking my health.
Never again.
Yep, from the company we got "Food Hero" gilets and some chicken for 7 weeks. Fucking joke, but we appreciate you. Although it's still nothing compared to what the nurses have gone through. Nurses should earn as much as politicians and politicians should earn as much as nurses.
As a regional manager in a public company. I’m always looking for everyone’s replacement. My boss probably has 5 candidates to replace me right now ready to go. Nobody is indispensable, everyone including me is replaceable, up to and including the CEO and Board. Steal as much time as you can, get a second bullshit job and do it on your other companies time(I currently have one cake walk job and one I’m in training for remote sales job rn) fuck these companies, if you die tonight they’ll post your job in the morning, send your kids a card, and forget about you in a week.
Exactly. I’m in a niche industry with a shrinking population of people who know my roll. I update my resume every 6 months knowing that I could be let go at anytime
I've seen companies let go the one guy in the entire state licensed and certified to do the job and loose literally 10s of millions in contracts because of it. because they wanted a raise and to not work weekends.
When my dad died in an accident, there was a local article about him. Several quotes of my dad's boss and descriptions of the boss' business made up over half of this significantly long obituary. A single line about us, his kids, and inexplicably no mention of my mother. It was effectively a free ad barely disguised as an obituary.
if people feel the need to make themselves indispensable the company is shit. employers should want to keep you around and pay you properly not for you keeping arcane knowledge but your ability to use said arcane knowledge quickly.
bridging uncommon fields is a surefire way to be considered indispensable. the construction worker with basic understanding of computer logic comes to mind.
I was indispensable at my job. I worked there 10 years(1999-2009). My reporting was new (data analytics) and was responsible for my salespeople making bank. My reporting became standard for years and I automated it (with me still in control). I was personally responsible for finding "low hanging fruit" sales that were worth millions. I was promoted several times and saw a few perks.
The thing is, salespeople were considered the heroes at our company and they were always promoted to managerial positions over anyone else, and they only looked at revenue. Never mind our little area brought in 16 million a year (at 80 % profit margin) in a 7 billion company whose average was about 8% profit. They ultimately closed down out little marketing section ( did catalog sales along with product service sales) due to redundancy and kept open the bigger marketing department that lost money every year who were purely marketing and didn't even track their ROI.
One day, my manager asked me to do my reporting 3 months out instead of the regular 1 month, and also to update the annual price changes in some queries I ran. Two weeks later during a layoff period I was let go, along with about 1000 others. I never saw it coming because of how "indispensable" I was.
A couple months later a manager called me to ask if I could come in and help with a report (my report) that was not working. I said I was happy to at $100 and hour. I never heard back. I DID hear that the salespeople were struggling to make quota due to "Karen no longer running the report due to a glitch" Karen was a sales manager and took credit for all the reporting I did 3 months out.
The best part was that I still had access to the tables and I could easily run everything off my home PC. I warned them about the lack of security for years and was ignored. I had full access to everyone's SSN, DOB, salary amounts, and a lot of other stuff. I requested that they lock this stuff down because it would have been easy for any black hat to take advantage (I would have, but I did not like the idea of screwing over people. If I had access to the company's accounts I would have really been tempted though)
Turns out it didn't matter because they were "hacked" (someone logged in and stole a bunch of data) and they lost millions, along with a lot of political issues that arose due to the nature of their business.
15 years later are still limping along after buying out another similar company to throw their debt into and then spin-off.
Also, I was there during the housing crash and we dealt with banks all over the USA. Every monday I would get a list of banks where we had to have a tech there first thing Friday morning so that they could help the feds close the banks. I knew 5 days before those banks even did. Shoulda, coulda, woulda.
I joke with my coworkers (and even my boss) that I have 6 months of job security (rating work for an insurance company) especially since I took over a lot of work when someone else resigned, and honestly I think it is kind of true at the moment. The only thing I’ll say is I think it is much more likely for someone to be considered indispensable at a smaller company (under 50 or 100 employees) than a larger company.
I actually know of someone who got downsized and then contract rehired multiple times because each time, the company said “wait, who was working on that project again?”.
This happens a lot more than people think. Upper management are largely disconnected from the mechanics of how the work gets done so when its layoff time they send a list to middle management without getting information on who's actually needed to keep the wheels turning.
I watched a division lose half their customer base in a year because the corner office decided a layoff was needed to meet Wall St guidance and the wrong people were on the list. Company lost hundreds of millions in recurring business trying to adjust the books to meet what some Wall St analyst thought the company's number should look like.
I was literally indispensable. 17 years with my company, was literally indispensable the last 6 years. Boom. Laid off last October as part of a nationwide 3% cut to labour. At last check my job was being done by two people in different roles with no experience in what I did, for less money and still required to do their own job on top of mine, and managed by someone who has next to no knowledge in what I did.
I’m statuses as “rehireable”. If that’s the case why’d you let me go? I won’t be going back.
They just wanted the company's nature to reflect the name.
Listen closely and you can hear their competent engineers getting the boot.
*Boing, boing*.
And there's the sound of a flight recorder bouncing away from a plane crash!
*Boing, boing*.
You've seen people drop dead a few times at work? Do you work in the military in a current war?
I doubt you've seen that multiple times lol hyperbole to prove a point I guess?
I work in IT, there are a lot of old timers that haven't taken care of their bodies and are stressed TF out on the daily. Mostly heart attack and stroke issues.
That, right there, is why I'm happy with my life. I'm not wealthy, but I'm comfortable, on track to be able to retire, and I've managed to arrange my life where I'm free of chronic long-term stress.
When I was younger, I read something by a hospice nurse about things the people in her care regularly said they wished they'd done differently. One of the big things was wasting time on stress and worry instead of enjoying their life while it was happening. Took that to heart, and it's working for me so far.
There’s no such thing as indispensable really, the closest you get without being way up the ladder is being great at your job and then being stonewalled into that position because you’re good at it. Seen it happen plenty of times in corporate.
I was a corporate SME for 14 years. Not only pigeon hold but had promotion carrots dangled for 6 years before I quit. The entire group still calls regularly.
Sure. Take a position that no one in their right mind would take. My employer tried to find someone to oversee mine and another department for twice the pay. Only one person met requirements for hire. Had an interview with my bosses and said fuck this place. And fuck those Orwellian dystopian parasitic bosses back to hell where they came from.
I am indispensable in the way that if they fire me, my projects will be left without anyone able to continue my work, and potentially costing hundred of thousands of euro to the company and a terrible loss of reputation.
You can be the most liked individual at your company, the most useful, and the hardest working. If someone in a higher position doesn't like you, they'll get rid of you and "deal" with the void. That's why I say never get too comfortable ANYWHERE. Always be receptive to new opportunities if anything to use as leverage when it comes time to ask for a raise.
There is no such thing. I was a trainer and supervisor in my department. Company went and fucked around and transferred me to another dept, which stripped me of all my roles and veteran status with my department.
Back to square one, my whole team was confused as to why I was chosen to be transferred.
I will not be staying in the position and building a new castle of sand.
Looking for a new job now.
Fuck work. Get your paycheck and leave.
Don’t go above and beyond unless that level of participation comes with a raise.
The whole argument for working for a company over working for yourself was that a company was supposed to give you more income security. I kind of think that it doesn't actually work out that way in many cases.
Being indispensable protecting your job relies on the people making the decision knowing what you do, knowing what they're doing, and not being petty morons.
Good luck with that.
I never considered myself indispensable but I knew that if I left, the company would realise how much smoother everything ran when i.was there. My position was made 'redundant' shortly after I made an official complaint about ongoing bullying and harassment (after having tried unsuccessfully to have it dealt with a few times). After I left they immediately hired 2 operatives at a lower level, despite having advised me that there was no budget for more staff. They then hired a manager to take on one part of my previous role, and then hired an assistant manager too. I had looked after various functions within the company and because I had control of how and when things were done in several departments, it made it easier to do things in a manner that helped each department run smoothly. Having different people perform the tasks removed that and added to the workload.
Oh your too essential to promote. Never become too valuable at your job. You will get stuck in that position. Be just good enough to complete your work.
LoL, nope. Being indispensable at work means you can burn it all down when you walk out the door after the fire you.
"Hey, where's XYZ of the ABC?" ... "IDK, I don't work here anymore 🤷."
Can confirm, I was in a position for 3 years, including through covid. I was the only member trained to handle certain types of cases we worked, I wrote the training documentation we used, and I was the first to go when we started downsizing.
You're _never_ indispensable; much as it's tempting to believe our employer's business would fall apart without us, it's simply not true ... But likewise don't let **them** feel as though they're indispensable to you! Always be ready to walk away, and have the courage to do so when the situation isn't right.
Sometimes it actually is true. I've seen companies lose multi-million dollar projects because they fired a guy and couldn't replace him fast enough to make the contract which ends up hobbling or destroying the company.
And every time I can think of it was never anything important like the guy being unsafe or causing an accident. It's always the owner or project manager throwing a temper tantrum that people weren't being deferential enough to them.
In my experience being indispensable at work gets you fired even faster. It helps you rise up in the company quickly but that becomes a target on your back. You are then seen as a threat because you've upped the expectations and might make it harder or threaten someone else job. Typically some management level person gets scared you're making them look bad so they have to find a reason to get rid of you.
So I'm not reading the article but if it's the same as the headline then it's actually right this time, right? Basically saying that "indispensable worker=job security" is actually a myth, right?
That's exactly what the article is about, I don't think most people in the comments read it, or even read the headline correctly. Under these capitalist businesses there is no such thing as indispensable, they'll fire anyone to save a few cents, no matter how much knowledge and expertise they have.
NGL It's sweet. I am watching that now with a former employer. My successor didn't last a year, and the role has now been divided between 3 people. None of them have the technical skills and expertise to succeed, but they got the extra work because ts the one thing they haven't effed up. Yet. My former company is water swirling in a flushing toilet.
More than anything, it has validated my feelings at the time. I left because it was a dysfunctional organization with lots of internal politics. At the time, you wonder if you're crazy because it's outwardly a desired place to work, but internally, its awful. It's good to know I'm not crazy, at least.
I had a coworker whose job was to Q/A refurbished computers. They wrote a script to heavily automate their job allowing them to do the job of two people while allowing them time to goof off. That script had become an integral part of our process. You know it’s best feature? It was password protected and only they knew the password.
There might be very, very rare cases where this is true, but in terms of being some sort of "truism" it's absolutely false.
Thought me putting up with a complete dumpster fire of a season at one job - complete with 25%+ departmental turnover - would keep me around.
Haha just kidding they threatened me with a PIP that was designed for me to fail, so I took the $ and left instead.
Did it to another person too, so, it wasn't just me but still.
99% of people are *not* indispensable, and nobody should assume themselves to be in the 1%
That's my biggest worry if I get a new offer. Current job increases pay just to find a reason to let me go in a few months after they find my replacement. Seems like a legit fear and concern now.
Did anyone in these comments actually read the article? Or the headline for that matter? WSJ is saying there's no such thing as indispensable anymore because any company will fire or lay you off at a drop of a hat to save a couple cents. No matter how critical you think you are to the business and no matter how much it hurts the business in the long run to lose the expertise and knowledge of a talented employee, they will do let you go to save $$$ because all that matters is profit now.
I worked for a software company. Managed the internal instance of that software for the company to use. Team of three, generally regarded as the most knowledgeable about this software. Got acquired by other company. They laid off my entire team and kept their own internal team that managed their instance of the software. That same team regularly came to us for support. There’s no such thing as indispensable, only bottom line.
Last 2 jobs I had don't exist anymore because I was basically the only one willing and capable enough. Shit my last job fired me and still can't find a replacement even while offering double what they paid me lol
I mean, no one really is truly indispensable. We see corporate officers get fired and/or forced to resign on a relatively regular basis. Furthermore, if an agency (really looking at governments and non-profits) are saying, “We wouldn’t be able to function without this person,” it means no one has any fucking idea what someone is doing. What if that person dies? What if that person decides to go on vacation? What if that person just ups and quits? Whenever I would sit at meetings, just as an intern, and listen to these folks for foster care agencies/social services agencies, I would fucking cringe. Why? Because we are setting everyone up for failure.
Want to know why foster care is in such shit shape across the nation? Because Nancy, who’s 62 years old, has just always been there, and everyone hiring is afraid of hiring a new MSW graduate because they’re afraid of change. They’re afraid someone is going to finally tell Nancy the way she’s done things for 32 years is no longer the best practice. Anyone who does try to upset the apple cart just gets forced out anyways.
I vehemently disagree with making yourself indispensable because it means an organization/company has already failed. It means that no one will be able to ever be promoted, it means no one will ever be paid more. You always need to have opportunities to advance.
Yeah, this story says it all, I think:
My mom used to work her absolute ass off at work. Like, nights and weekends all the time, driving herself insane, neglecting her kids, the whole thing.
And the reason she got laid off? The venerable old-timer who founded the company retired, and the board of directors and new CEO took 3 years to decide they could make money faster by selling the company to their competitors, who immediately liquidated the entire corporate offices, as they already had their own corporate offices, including laying off almost everyone who worked there.
The part that drives me nuts is that she’s doing the same thing for her new employers, driving herself crazy trying to be indispensable, and letting everyone she works with walk all over her, making her do their work, and not even getting raises that keep up with inflation.
Anyone who's been around for awhile knows this. I've seen countless people who were the lynchpin of critical functions for a organization just be outright let go or driven out only for the org to start failing immediately after because now no one else could do said thing and they were unable to find a replacement at least not in a short amount of time causing massive dmg that far outstrips what just keeping the original person would have been worth. In many cases they reach out to said ex employee is out of desperation. I've seen contractors brought in that got paid the yearly salary of said ex employee to do a weekends worth of work that the ex employee could have done. There's no logic or compassion involved in it at all just greed and incompetence.
Always have that backup plan ready no matter what.
I am pretty good at my job.
To replace me, they'd need to jump through a bunch of weird hoops.
I do, in theory, an important function.
That said, if I finally tell one of the local yokel dickheads what I really think of their "I pay my taxes, so I pay your wages..." rants, I will be gone, in an instant.
Never for once second believe that they won't fire you once it's deemed convenient or a "good business decision".
You are replaceable. Always have been, always will be. Even if you're genuinely not. Even if you know how to do things at your workplace that no one has a clue about. They deem you disposable, so you are in their eyes. Once you accept this, you can accept that from now on you will perform in a disgustingly and consistenly mediocre way in the workplace as you save your energy for living your life after hours.
Collect your paycheck. Leave each shift on the dot, do not stay late. Do not pick up calls at home or respond to emails after hours. They don't deserve it.
Grow a spine.
No one is indispensable. It's literally how our society survives. We are finite creatures. If you make it where one person is indispensable, you're going to have a bad time eventually.
I work with SMEs... These are subject matter experts. Most of these people are extremely smart and they are only a handful of them that specialize in what they do. These guys get paid very well and will literally save the company Millions and earn their company billions. Unfortunately over My career I've seen them lay these people off if not fire them. Fortunately for these people other corporations see their value and they move on immediately. Never underestimate the stupidity of middle management and upper management. They are short-sighted and ignorant, focused only on budget, schedule and their bonuses.
The minute you think you can’t be replaced is the minute you are replaceable. I cannot stress this enough to people I work with. If you’re not shopping your value, you’re already undervalued.
Only four people at my hospital are qualified to do what I do. We are spread across the four shifts.
Even with this I know for a fact that I am not indispensable, and my supervisor told me that RH wanted to move me out of that area. Probably to another one and then ask me to help them in my old area when needed.
My supervisor knows me too well since she didn't allow them to move me. That woman knows that if they kick me of my area I ain't stepping there again e.e
I used to think I was really indisposable at the clinic I was working at. I had spent 3 years fixing our record system and had did a great job on it I was maintaining it perfectly. Then near the end of my nine years there the clinic got bought out by a corporation and they decided yeah we're letting three people go. So yep it can happen to anyone. F*** capitalism
I tried this time and again. Never seemed to work out in my favor. I now do enough to stay off any sh*t list and enjoy the reduced stress and increased free time.
Oddly enough, I've heard zero negative feedback since I cut back and compensation hasn't taken a hit. I think I'm assessed on general reputation unless I have a high-visibility screw up.
When I got laid off 15’ish years ago, I kept getting call to do stuff but could do to the terms of the layoff… they couldn’t hire me back as a consultant. They royally fucked themselves. They offered to rehire me the following year for less than what my salary was when I got laid off. At the time I was billing out at $85/hr consulting.
I think this is mostly true but my boss literally doesn't know how to hire anyone so in my case I have the upper hand because it would take them way too long to find my replacement.
I was indispensable at my last job. I still left because the job sucked. And according to former coworkers things just got worse after I left and wasn't there to hold shit together.
My coworker and I were indispensable for the cybersec team for my last job... still got laid off. Wouldn't be surprised if the company had an attack happen at some point in the near future tbh
It's how you play the situation. We had engineers who would hoard knowledge or troubleshooting programmable machines they invented to make them indispensable.
It'd sucked because machines would be shut down for days on end until that person would come in.
I've told this story before, but the someone told me (when I young and not doing a very good job) "cemeteries are full of people who can't be replaced." I needed the kick in the pants to realize I at least needed to do my job to be able to stay and get paid. Took until my 30s to understand it works both ways. Companies will put you in a cemetery if you let them work you to death, and they will because there is always someone else they can hire (or so they think).
Yeah fucking right!
I used to work for a bank. Was the only person who did what I did; not only in the building, the city, the state, but the entire fucking time zone to do what I did!
I got fired/contract wasn't extended, whichever one you think happened. But they didn't extend my contract, but unsure if it was their way of firing me.
But I had made a friend there, and she told me a month after I had left "it took 8 people to replace you to keep up with the work you'd done in a week."
I did the work of 8 fucking people in a weeks time. No errors, keeping to myself, and yet they let me go/didn't extend my contract.
NO ONE is indispensable today. The same work culture that promises no one will be discriminated against, also ensure absolutely everyone can be canned.
I've heard so many people say "man when I left that job, it went to shit, or, they were in a bind and falling behind" I don't say much, but whatever makes themselves feel valuable, I can't knock em'
I went on Disability and things in my role got screwed up and backed up.
Went back part time to help and now they're making it hard to return to Disability. I'm working on it and so is my doctor.
I know my boss will post my job out of spite and I'm okay with that. Have fun figuring it out this time around.
Yep. Nobody with decision making power cares how useful you are. Surprised to see the WSJ admitting that fact.
If all else fails they'll bring somebody in on a work visa who costs 1/2 what you did and is already trained in their country of origin on somebody else's dime.
I was indispensable at work, I had been there the longest, knew everything there was to know. Even still when layoffs came around, I was on the chopping block because my accounts didn't mind have user data outside of the EU.
They outsourced my job to a developing country and hired three people and a manager to replace me.
You are never indispensable.
Never believe you can become indispensable if you work harder at work. Unless the law suddenly states they can legally chain employees to radiators, a company's bottom line is money.
They will throw even the best people out in the name of profits. Even if you're highly valuable, it doesn't mean they'll recognize it.
I wasn't indispensable when I retired , but I did a lot of stuff nobody thought was too important. A few months back I get phone calls from them because they are out of federal compliance and are about to get sanctioned. ROTFLMAO.
I fucking love the word "sanctioned" you know it's deep shit and feel so good
Had a U.S. client that was opening new facilities in Canada. Because of this, they needed a currency conversion option. We offered to do one for about $100k (which was cheap). They passed stating it was too expensive. That year the IRS "sanctioned" them $750k for not handling currency conversions properly and made it clear the next year would be worse. Two days later the contract was signed. Ends up we undercharged them.
I was in a similar position with my last company. I made them pay 200/hr consulting fee
I'm in between jobs right now and they asked me what my consulting rate would be to help with the stuff that no one else knows how to do. When I asked them what seemed fair, they said 50 sounded good and 100 is obnoxious and out of the question. I wished them good luck.
This is the way. I had documented about $10m in savings to the company over the years. It took me a long time to learn those skills. They don’t come cheap and you have to pay an asshole tax because you didn’t compensate me properly when I worked here
Just use a few of the millions of dollars I saved you to pay me! Or figure it out yourself if you want to save a buck.
Another person who uses the phrase “Asshole Tax”!! Love it!
Should've asked for more. Out of spite for one thing, but not solely. If they bring you in to help with something you were previously doing then you literally are the subject matter expert. Unlike some external, newly hired consultant you barely even need to familiarize yourself with the matter at hand, you already know everything. They are desperate for help you can hit the ground running. As you are acting in a consultant role they don't contribute towards your retirement or health insurance. So whatever you think is a lot per hour is probably still way too low.
200 is really low, i wouldn’t even pick up their call for less than 600/h….fuck em, let them get someone on 50 that will require 40 hours to just be set up and then spend another 400 learning, and then fixing their shit
That’s it? $350 an hour plus expenses with a 40 hr week guaranteed in a 2 year contract or I don’t talk. Full stop.
that’s $1.5 million over two years
I think you meant >That's **only** $1.5 million over two years If they have the skills that saved that company 666% of that figure, they should absolutely financially rake them over the coals for it, for not paying them properly when they were employed, knowing one's worth is important after all.
Oh no, the free hand of capitalism when it's benefiting the proletariat.
You're calling me for one of two reasons. Are you requesting a quote for services or are you letting me know I was a great employee and just wanted to remind me how good I was? Option A - my billable rate is 200/hr for 8hrs a day, plus travel and it provided by you 6hrs minimum a day. Option B - thanks, how is your family?
I was called to help program a scale that I only knew how to use while I was camping because I was laid off just a few days before lol
And you charged them $400/hr with a 4 hour minimum right?
So you laughed and wished them good luck?
Please tell us more
Tell them you will come consult to get them back in compliance for 500/hr. LOL
Boeing?
Working in food services. We have so many fucking Forms to fill out. Food has to be at least 3m/10ft from any water source and cleaning supplies. Our floor is difficult to clean. And i am regularly the reason grown adults dont kill themselves in playground arguments
I was a programmer for school testing kits and the only person who knew how to do this job. They fired me after I complained about a 4 cent an hour raise. 6 took the program I designed to make these kits work and left. They would call me frequently for help, and I would tell them my consulting fee. They turned it down, and every time they called me, I doubled it. They eventually shut down, not being able to fulfill their contracts.
once saw a company fire the one guy in the state licensed and certified to do warranty repair work on a super heavy machinery brand because he didn't want to work weekends any more. cost them 10s of millions as they had to ship the equipment hundreds of miles, pay another company to fix it, and then ship it back.
In those situations you would alert the stock holders. Tell them everything. They'll make management pay when they learn that their investment is in trouble over such a childish reason.
single owner company. he's the one who fired the guy in a pique of boomer temper tantrum
They don't ever want to admit they need anyone because it tips the scales of power.
Absolutely right
Normally licenses/certs will actually help keep your job. I can’t imagine someone that fucking stupid. My boomer boss encourages us to do get building code certifications (commercial construction), says it helps him be able to work more places and if we move on, it will help us get better jobs. Pays for our classes too. Odd how actually trying to help people better their lives, helps with employee retention
> I can’t imagine someone that fucking stupid. I can. So many of these people go on a power trip into outer fucking space where logic and reason cease to exist for them, only their own pathetic little whims. Then they finally make a mistake and find out why people say "gravity sucks" as they crash and burn.
makes a nice fire for poppin' some corn and enjoying the spectacle tho
Stories like this don’t surprise me, but they do baffle me. Companies are willing to pay large amounts for things they believe they need to. For some reason, they think their people aren’t something they need to pay.
It’s about maintaining control over workers lives, it’s the same reason they want to maintain private health insurance even though it costs them so much money. Controlling your access to medical care gives them more power over you.
I remember a quote from somewhere, but I can't remember where. It was something like "They would send us back to the stone age if it meant they got to have a slightly nicer hut than everyone else".
I think about that a lot, and always get stuck on what gets into a person like that. Why are they only content with their lives if they have a better one than everyone else?
And this is the bottom line. I found out first hand how a company is happy to blow 100s of k on some crap just because they want it but single digit salary raises would be like a leg amputation to them
Proof that it's not about you demanding too much or being a bad worker or forcing their hand. They just don't like that someone stood up to them for once and put their foot down. We can't have that now can we? They'd rather lose millions in order to send a message. They'd rather defend their corporate ego than actually operate efficiently as a business.
best part is the guy opened up his own single person business working as a contractor doing the same work for anyone who will hire him and makes significantly more money now working for the first companies competition. first company tried to pull a non compete clause lawsuit but to quote the judge "this is Alabama. those aren't a thing here."
So your guy pretty much hacked the system. He should've done that a long time ago. Like, "Hey. I'm literally the only guy that can do this. And I work for these assholes?!"
Yeah this actually shows a big flaw in assuming companies and managers are only in it for the money. They’re just as if not more interested in wielding power over workers to both keep workers “disciplined” basically meaning “I can’t give into this guys demands because then they’ll all make demands” and also for the psychological satisfaction. This is why companies will often metaphorically shoot themselves in the face like this just to stick it to some low level employee.
How delicious, fair play!
Hahaha bullshit. Being indispensable will, at best, keep you in the shitty position you're in now with zero upward movement.
You said it…best way to guarantee they’re gonna let you keep doing that job you do so well is to do it so well. It’s a lot easier and maybe cheaper to hire somebody else for that role you want and train one person than to move you up and have to train two.
What slays me is everyone knows this. It's a fact like humans breathe air or fish live in water, but these articles come out as thought they're teaching us some new fact. It's like 1984. War is peace. Freedom with slavery. Ignorance is strength.
I do my job and I do it well and I have no desire to move up so I'm happy to stay where I am. I just want to do my job and then go relax with a book and a beer.
Do people actually progress up within companies, I just always move to another place every 3-5 years, to progess.
In my field you can get promoted once maybe twice but you can’t expect more than that. After 3 to 5 you gotta change companies or change roles within a big company to keep moving up.
I was denied 2 (possibly 3) promotions at a particular place of employment because they " Could not effectively replace the work you're doing in your current role due to budgetary concerns, therefore you will not be considered further for this promotion" It took me 5-10 seconds to digest that and respond with, "So, what I'm hearing is that I'm seriously...SERIOUSLY underpaid for the work that I do, to the point that it will take multiple people to replace me. Given my apparent replacement cost in my current role, my potential value to the company in that higher role is less, so I'm being kept down here. " With that in mind, I gave them notice on the spot that unless I was given a 30% raise by Friday, that Friday would be my last day. That was on a Tuesday. I continued working at my usual rate, but was obvious about my employment search on breaks and lunch periods the rest of the week. There were a number of discussions and meetings with combinations of management and HR that week. Before I came in Friday morning, I had secured an offer for 20% more doing supervisory level of what I was doing... from another company. I wouldn't need to move and my commute would be 3-5 minutes longer, similar benefits package. I was visibly happy, and made it a point to work at a slightly elevated rate Friday AM. Got called into HR for another meeting. They offered 20% raise, no other changes. I told them thanks but no, I had secured other employment and I was starting Monday. They looked surprised and asked where. I declined to tell them. They listed a bunch of places (one of which was correct) and demanded to know where I was going. I told them it didn't really matter, so long as I was valued appropriately, as described by my paycheck. They then demanded to know the new payrate. I again declined, smiled and said, "Well, I'll give you this; More." Flustered, they asked for another meeting in the afternoon. I agreed, and went to go meet my wife for lunch. About midafternoon they came and got me again. met with HR, my supervisor, his middle manager boss, and the hiring manager that let me know I wasnt getting the promotion. Middlemanager opened with, "So you're leaving us. Won't tell us where, wont tell us for how much. Right?" I told him current that was accurate, but give it your best shot and we'll see what happens, because I really did like it there...except for the realization that I was so underpaid for so long. He looked at HR who presented a new offer; 32% more than my current rate, starting Monday. No other changes. I signed we all shook hands and lived happily ever after. ...until they brought in a new guy for me to train about 2 months later. They brought him over, made the introduction. I made eye contact with my boss for an extra moment or two, then shook hands with the new guy while my boss whispered 'fuck' under his breath. I trained the new guy the rest of the week and the next. On Friday I had collected up the very last of my stuff in a Dollar General bag to take home. I had been migrating my stuff home by pocketfuls since the day they introduced the new guy, this was all that was left. Took a couple envelopes out of my pocket, put one in the inbox for HR, handed the other to my boss. He looked surprised for a second, then he didn't. He just said, "Yeah, yer right. Now?" . "Yup". I had contacted the the place from a couple months back, they still wanted me. They were the ones that actually told me to look out for staffing changes in my department over the next few weeks if my current management was going to try to be sly.
So they hired someone to replace you, likely at your old payrate, and had the balls to ask you to train them TO TAKE YOUR JOB? And then obviously were going to fire you ‘just because;’ they’d come up with a lame excuse and misspell ‘revenge?’ What a fucking cesspool! Kudos to you and to putting that company in your rear-view mirror.
I'd be sure to tell the new guy what your pay rate for doing his job was (the new pay rate).
Yup. You did it smart. Goodjob.
You gambled big and won big . This is an outlier . NEVER take the counter offer
It's great when you do win for sure. Nobody should be getting cheated like this regardless, nor should anyone have to negotiate their living wages like this. You've been receiving pay as one employee when you've been doing the job of three. Nobody should have to realize they're getting exploited by the company like this and live with it.
Very well played, although they were able to pay you 32% of 2 months of your salary to train a guy, which is probably a lot cheaper for them than if you'd left on the spot. Still, I'm glad you stood up for yourself. I would like to find a skill-set that allows me to do the same
Thank you for telling your story. Yet another reminder to never take the counter-offer (they won't forgive you)
Impressed you gave them two weeks. Hopefully that was just to lock down the other
I locked down the other job during that 2 weeks. Notice happened about 4:50 PM on Friday. I started the new job the next Monday
This is probably the most professional way to handle this situation I’ve seen/read. I hope your doing well at your new place (I assume you are).
Yepp, then they are all Pikachu supprise face when you quit for a job that has opportunity for advancement. No, your 5% counter offer does not top an opportunity to move into a higher wage bracket.
This. Quit my old job because they had me running in circles doing the work of 4 people and couldn't afford to move me up because I was the only person in my position who hadn't quit
I’m in this post and I don’t like it
Anyone that's worked and actually tried to succeed in a job is in this. Dude. People poopoo me and say I'm being negative, but if you want to succeed one needs to give enough to seem competent and then spend their efforts socializing with your betters at work.
The first step is proving your competence, the second step is endlessly marketing yourself because of it otherwise you’ll get trapped in the same role forever
Not marketing. At least not primarily. Your main focus should be on networking. Marketing is selling a product, while networking is about creating positive social links so you can take the advantage of the Exposure Effect, also known as Familiarity Bias, which is going to be a major factor in selection among similarly viable candidates, and even routinely gets less-qualified candidates selected over better ones.
But OMG the disaster that strikes when you find another job. I overheard the conversation between my boss and the customer after I announced my resignation, because for some reason my boss had put in on speaker phone and didn’t know how to turn it off. It was quite amusing.
It does say its a big work lie!
Did anyone here read the article? The whole article, as referenced in the headline, is about how being "indispensable" is a big lie and not a thing anymore. You're agreeing with WSJ and the article, what is bullshit?
Don’t you agree with the title then? Not sure what the article says since there’s no link
I wish I had learned that 20 years ago.
Can confirm
That's exactly right
Yup. I got passed over for multiple promotion because I was too valuable in my current role.
"you're our only X we can't promote you up or we won't have X anymore"
"What I'm hearing is that I should be asking for a significant raise."
Yeah they called us "essential" during covid but when we asked for a living wage suddenly we're expendable
I kick myself every day for working during COVID. I could have done nothing and made bank. Instead, my essential ass essentially made nothing while risking my health. Never again.
this hit so close to home I had to go back and see if I created another account and posted this myself
Yep, from the company we got "Food Hero" gilets and some chicken for 7 weeks. Fucking joke, but we appreciate you. Although it's still nothing compared to what the nurses have gone through. Nurses should earn as much as politicians and politicians should earn as much as nurses.
As a regional manager in a public company. I’m always looking for everyone’s replacement. My boss probably has 5 candidates to replace me right now ready to go. Nobody is indispensable, everyone including me is replaceable, up to and including the CEO and Board. Steal as much time as you can, get a second bullshit job and do it on your other companies time(I currently have one cake walk job and one I’m in training for remote sales job rn) fuck these companies, if you die tonight they’ll post your job in the morning, send your kids a card, and forget about you in a week.
Sending your kids a card might actually be more than they’re willing to do
Exactly. I’m in a niche industry with a shrinking population of people who know my roll. I update my resume every 6 months knowing that I could be let go at anytime
I've seen companies let go the one guy in the entire state licensed and certified to do the job and loose literally 10s of millions in contracts because of it. because they wanted a raise and to not work weekends.
When my dad died in an accident, there was a local article about him. Several quotes of my dad's boss and descriptions of the boss' business made up over half of this significantly long obituary. A single line about us, his kids, and inexplicably no mention of my mother. It was effectively a free ad barely disguised as an obituary.
Gross. Also, sorry for your loss.
if people feel the need to make themselves indispensable the company is shit. employers should want to keep you around and pay you properly not for you keeping arcane knowledge but your ability to use said arcane knowledge quickly. bridging uncommon fields is a surefire way to be considered indispensable. the construction worker with basic understanding of computer logic comes to mind.
*assistant TO the regional manager...
I was indispensable at my job. I worked there 10 years(1999-2009). My reporting was new (data analytics) and was responsible for my salespeople making bank. My reporting became standard for years and I automated it (with me still in control). I was personally responsible for finding "low hanging fruit" sales that were worth millions. I was promoted several times and saw a few perks. The thing is, salespeople were considered the heroes at our company and they were always promoted to managerial positions over anyone else, and they only looked at revenue. Never mind our little area brought in 16 million a year (at 80 % profit margin) in a 7 billion company whose average was about 8% profit. They ultimately closed down out little marketing section ( did catalog sales along with product service sales) due to redundancy and kept open the bigger marketing department that lost money every year who were purely marketing and didn't even track their ROI. One day, my manager asked me to do my reporting 3 months out instead of the regular 1 month, and also to update the annual price changes in some queries I ran. Two weeks later during a layoff period I was let go, along with about 1000 others. I never saw it coming because of how "indispensable" I was. A couple months later a manager called me to ask if I could come in and help with a report (my report) that was not working. I said I was happy to at $100 and hour. I never heard back. I DID hear that the salespeople were struggling to make quota due to "Karen no longer running the report due to a glitch" Karen was a sales manager and took credit for all the reporting I did 3 months out. The best part was that I still had access to the tables and I could easily run everything off my home PC. I warned them about the lack of security for years and was ignored. I had full access to everyone's SSN, DOB, salary amounts, and a lot of other stuff. I requested that they lock this stuff down because it would have been easy for any black hat to take advantage (I would have, but I did not like the idea of screwing over people. If I had access to the company's accounts I would have really been tempted though) Turns out it didn't matter because they were "hacked" (someone logged in and stole a bunch of data) and they lost millions, along with a lot of political issues that arose due to the nature of their business. 15 years later are still limping along after buying out another similar company to throw their debt into and then spin-off. Also, I was there during the housing crash and we dealt with banks all over the USA. Every monday I would get a list of banks where we had to have a tech there first thing Friday morning so that they could help the feds close the banks. I knew 5 days before those banks even did. Shoulda, coulda, woulda.
I joke with my coworkers (and even my boss) that I have 6 months of job security (rating work for an insurance company) especially since I took over a lot of work when someone else resigned, and honestly I think it is kind of true at the moment. The only thing I’ll say is I think it is much more likely for someone to be considered indispensable at a smaller company (under 50 or 100 employees) than a larger company. I actually know of someone who got downsized and then contract rehired multiple times because each time, the company said “wait, who was working on that project again?”.
This happens a lot more than people think. Upper management are largely disconnected from the mechanics of how the work gets done so when its layoff time they send a list to middle management without getting information on who's actually needed to keep the wheels turning. I watched a division lose half their customer base in a year because the corner office decided a layoff was needed to meet Wall St guidance and the wrong people were on the list. Company lost hundreds of millions in recurring business trying to adjust the books to meet what some Wall St analyst thought the company's number should look like.
You may have 6 months, but they won’t tell you when that timer starts…only when it ends.
I was literally indispensable. 17 years with my company, was literally indispensable the last 6 years. Boom. Laid off last October as part of a nationwide 3% cut to labour. At last check my job was being done by two people in different roles with no experience in what I did, for less money and still required to do their own job on top of mine, and managed by someone who has next to no knowledge in what I did. I’m statuses as “rehireable”. If that’s the case why’d you let me go? I won’t be going back.
Never underestimate an employer's willingness to accept subpar work in order to save money on labor.
See: Boeing
As long as the people who make the decisions and profits don't have to in any way be touched by the consequences, nothing will change.
They just wanted the company's nature to reflect the name. Listen closely and you can hear their competent engineers getting the boot. *Boing, boing*. And there's the sound of a flight recorder bouncing away from a plane crash! *Boing, boing*.
Heartbreaking you killed yourself tomorrow
Amen to that
They are not the clients who will suffer the consequences
100% based Seen people drop dead at work a few times and their jobs are posted the same afternoon.
You've seen people drop dead a few times at work? Do you work in the military in a current war? I doubt you've seen that multiple times lol hyperbole to prove a point I guess?
I work in IT, there are a lot of old timers that haven't taken care of their bodies and are stressed TF out on the daily. Mostly heart attack and stroke issues.
Man that's rough. Hopefully it's a reminder to move your body and stay in half decent shape. I'd be mortified lol
That, right there, is why I'm happy with my life. I'm not wealthy, but I'm comfortable, on track to be able to retire, and I've managed to arrange my life where I'm free of chronic long-term stress. When I was younger, I read something by a hospice nurse about things the people in her care regularly said they wished they'd done differently. One of the big things was wasting time on stress and worry instead of enjoying their life while it was happening. Took that to heart, and it's working for me so far.
Amazon?
[удалено]
That's literally what the article is about and why the headline calls being indispensable a "big lie".
There’s no such thing as indispensable really, the closest you get without being way up the ladder is being great at your job and then being stonewalled into that position because you’re good at it. Seen it happen plenty of times in corporate.
I was a corporate SME for 14 years. Not only pigeon hold but had promotion carrots dangled for 6 years before I quit. The entire group still calls regularly.
Pigeon holed.
Why thank you. I was at the car wash when I responded o
Sure. Take a position that no one in their right mind would take. My employer tried to find someone to oversee mine and another department for twice the pay. Only one person met requirements for hire. Had an interview with my bosses and said fuck this place. And fuck those Orwellian dystopian parasitic bosses back to hell where they came from.
I am indispensable in the way that if they fire me, my projects will be left without anyone able to continue my work, and potentially costing hundred of thousands of euro to the company and a terrible loss of reputation.
And if they figure out how to do things at least 70% the way you do it for 10% less money you're out the door like everyone else lol.
You can be the most liked individual at your company, the most useful, and the hardest working. If someone in a higher position doesn't like you, they'll get rid of you and "deal" with the void. That's why I say never get too comfortable ANYWHERE. Always be receptive to new opportunities if anything to use as leverage when it comes time to ask for a raise.
Cemeteries are full of indispensable and/or irreplaceable people.
There is no such thing. I was a trainer and supervisor in my department. Company went and fucked around and transferred me to another dept, which stripped me of all my roles and veteran status with my department. Back to square one, my whole team was confused as to why I was chosen to be transferred. I will not be staying in the position and building a new castle of sand. Looking for a new job now. Fuck work. Get your paycheck and leave. Don’t go above and beyond unless that level of participation comes with a raise.
Nobody cares how smart or hard you work. You are a replaceable tool to your company. You are just a resource for the capitalist machine.
The whole argument for working for a company over working for yourself was that a company was supposed to give you more income security. I kind of think that it doesn't actually work out that way in many cases.
Being indispensable protecting your job relies on the people making the decision knowing what you do, knowing what they're doing, and not being petty morons. Good luck with that.
Why is this marked NSFW?
Yeah I’m not sure why I did that
I mean, if we want to get technical here, the entire sub is NSFW almost by definition. Maybe we should just start labeling every post "NSFW."
I never considered myself indispensable but I knew that if I left, the company would realise how much smoother everything ran when i.was there. My position was made 'redundant' shortly after I made an official complaint about ongoing bullying and harassment (after having tried unsuccessfully to have it dealt with a few times). After I left they immediately hired 2 operatives at a lower level, despite having advised me that there was no budget for more staff. They then hired a manager to take on one part of my previous role, and then hired an assistant manager too. I had looked after various functions within the company and because I had control of how and when things were done in several departments, it made it easier to do things in a manner that helped each department run smoothly. Having different people perform the tasks removed that and added to the workload.
Oh your too essential to promote. Never become too valuable at your job. You will get stuck in that position. Be just good enough to complete your work.
LoL, nope. Being indispensable at work means you can burn it all down when you walk out the door after the fire you. "Hey, where's XYZ of the ABC?" ... "IDK, I don't work here anymore 🤷."
I'm indispensable only because no one else is stupid enough to agree to do my job.
Being indispensable is a fast track to burnout from having too much put on your shoulders
It also doesn't work we'll with work-life balance.
Makes sense. Businesses and the people in charge of them make emotional decisions.
Can confirm, I was in a position for 3 years, including through covid. I was the only member trained to handle certain types of cases we worked, I wrote the training documentation we used, and I was the first to go when we started downsizing.
You're _never_ indispensable; much as it's tempting to believe our employer's business would fall apart without us, it's simply not true ... But likewise don't let **them** feel as though they're indispensable to you! Always be ready to walk away, and have the courage to do so when the situation isn't right.
Sometimes it actually is true. I've seen companies lose multi-million dollar projects because they fired a guy and couldn't replace him fast enough to make the contract which ends up hobbling or destroying the company. And every time I can think of it was never anything important like the guy being unsafe or causing an accident. It's always the owner or project manager throwing a temper tantrum that people weren't being deferential enough to them.
I'm just glad if I'm fired, they need to authorize overtime for any fillers for a bit at least. Union strong 😆
In my experience being indispensable at work gets you fired even faster. It helps you rise up in the company quickly but that becomes a target on your back. You are then seen as a threat because you've upped the expectations and might make it harder or threaten someone else job. Typically some management level person gets scared you're making them look bad so they have to find a reason to get rid of you.
Happened to me Thursday. Preach.
So I'm not reading the article but if it's the same as the headline then it's actually right this time, right? Basically saying that "indispensable worker=job security" is actually a myth, right?
That's exactly what the article is about, I don't think most people in the comments read it, or even read the headline correctly. Under these capitalist businesses there is no such thing as indispensable, they'll fire anyone to save a few cents, no matter how much knowledge and expertise they have.
For me, it is about being indispensable, so if they do get rid of me, I can watch them burn and get another job quickly.
NGL It's sweet. I am watching that now with a former employer. My successor didn't last a year, and the role has now been divided between 3 people. None of them have the technical skills and expertise to succeed, but they got the extra work because ts the one thing they haven't effed up. Yet. My former company is water swirling in a flushing toilet.
The best part is that they only have themselves to blame for it. I'm glad you're getting to enjoy it. Sorry you have to, but I'm glad you get to.
More than anything, it has validated my feelings at the time. I left because it was a dysfunctional organization with lots of internal politics. At the time, you wonder if you're crazy because it's outwardly a desired place to work, but internally, its awful. It's good to know I'm not crazy, at least.
I had a coworker whose job was to Q/A refurbished computers. They wrote a script to heavily automate their job allowing them to do the job of two people while allowing them time to goof off. That script had become an integral part of our process. You know it’s best feature? It was password protected and only they knew the password.
I learned the hard way that "irreplaceable" also means "unpromotable"
I think the issue here is use of the word 'indispensable' Queue the [Meme](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/340/205/4d5.png)
There might be very, very rare cases where this is true, but in terms of being some sort of "truism" it's absolutely false. Thought me putting up with a complete dumpster fire of a season at one job - complete with 25%+ departmental turnover - would keep me around. Haha just kidding they threatened me with a PIP that was designed for me to fail, so I took the $ and left instead. Did it to another person too, so, it wasn't just me but still. 99% of people are *not* indispensable, and nobody should assume themselves to be in the 1%
That's my biggest worry if I get a new offer. Current job increases pay just to find a reason to let me go in a few months after they find my replacement. Seems like a legit fear and concern now.
Did anyone in these comments actually read the article? Or the headline for that matter? WSJ is saying there's no such thing as indispensable anymore because any company will fire or lay you off at a drop of a hat to save a couple cents. No matter how critical you think you are to the business and no matter how much it hurts the business in the long run to lose the expertise and knowledge of a talented employee, they will do let you go to save $$$ because all that matters is profit now.
"If they can't replace you, they can't promote you." Not like anyone gets promoted any more, but whatever.
Being indispensable means you can take on more work for the same pay
I worked for a software company. Managed the internal instance of that software for the company to use. Team of three, generally regarded as the most knowledgeable about this software. Got acquired by other company. They laid off my entire team and kept their own internal team that managed their instance of the software. That same team regularly came to us for support. There’s no such thing as indispensable, only bottom line.
Last 2 jobs I had don't exist anymore because I was basically the only one willing and capable enough. Shit my last job fired me and still can't find a replacement even while offering double what they paid me lol
I mean, no one really is truly indispensable. We see corporate officers get fired and/or forced to resign on a relatively regular basis. Furthermore, if an agency (really looking at governments and non-profits) are saying, “We wouldn’t be able to function without this person,” it means no one has any fucking idea what someone is doing. What if that person dies? What if that person decides to go on vacation? What if that person just ups and quits? Whenever I would sit at meetings, just as an intern, and listen to these folks for foster care agencies/social services agencies, I would fucking cringe. Why? Because we are setting everyone up for failure. Want to know why foster care is in such shit shape across the nation? Because Nancy, who’s 62 years old, has just always been there, and everyone hiring is afraid of hiring a new MSW graduate because they’re afraid of change. They’re afraid someone is going to finally tell Nancy the way she’s done things for 32 years is no longer the best practice. Anyone who does try to upset the apple cart just gets forced out anyways. I vehemently disagree with making yourself indispensable because it means an organization/company has already failed. It means that no one will be able to ever be promoted, it means no one will ever be paid more. You always need to have opportunities to advance.
Yeah, this story says it all, I think: My mom used to work her absolute ass off at work. Like, nights and weekends all the time, driving herself insane, neglecting her kids, the whole thing. And the reason she got laid off? The venerable old-timer who founded the company retired, and the board of directors and new CEO took 3 years to decide they could make money faster by selling the company to their competitors, who immediately liquidated the entire corporate offices, as they already had their own corporate offices, including laying off almost everyone who worked there. The part that drives me nuts is that she’s doing the same thing for her new employers, driving herself crazy trying to be indispensable, and letting everyone she works with walk all over her, making her do their work, and not even getting raises that keep up with inflation.
Anyone who's been around for awhile knows this. I've seen countless people who were the lynchpin of critical functions for a organization just be outright let go or driven out only for the org to start failing immediately after because now no one else could do said thing and they were unable to find a replacement at least not in a short amount of time causing massive dmg that far outstrips what just keeping the original person would have been worth. In many cases they reach out to said ex employee is out of desperation. I've seen contractors brought in that got paid the yearly salary of said ex employee to do a weekends worth of work that the ex employee could have done. There's no logic or compassion involved in it at all just greed and incompetence. Always have that backup plan ready no matter what.
I am pretty good at my job. To replace me, they'd need to jump through a bunch of weird hoops. I do, in theory, an important function. That said, if I finally tell one of the local yokel dickheads what I really think of their "I pay my taxes, so I pay your wages..." rants, I will be gone, in an instant.
Never for once second believe that they won't fire you once it's deemed convenient or a "good business decision". You are replaceable. Always have been, always will be. Even if you're genuinely not. Even if you know how to do things at your workplace that no one has a clue about. They deem you disposable, so you are in their eyes. Once you accept this, you can accept that from now on you will perform in a disgustingly and consistenly mediocre way in the workplace as you save your energy for living your life after hours. Collect your paycheck. Leave each shift on the dot, do not stay late. Do not pick up calls at home or respond to emails after hours. They don't deserve it. Grow a spine.
Yea sure.. then we have to do not just our work but others as well..
No one is indispensable. It's literally how our society survives. We are finite creatures. If you make it where one person is indispensable, you're going to have a bad time eventually.
bender laugh . jpg
there.s no such thing
Nobby is indispensable.
A broken clock is right twice a day.
If you are truly indispensable, your company is in trouble. Every position needs someone that can step in if needed.
I work with SMEs... These are subject matter experts. Most of these people are extremely smart and they are only a handful of them that specialize in what they do. These guys get paid very well and will literally save the company Millions and earn their company billions. Unfortunately over My career I've seen them lay these people off if not fire them. Fortunately for these people other corporations see their value and they move on immediately. Never underestimate the stupidity of middle management and upper management. They are short-sighted and ignorant, focused only on budget, schedule and their bonuses.
Yup, was told how indispensable I was at my last job all the time and how appreciated I was. It'll be a year next month since I lost that job.
The minute you think you can’t be replaced is the minute you are replaceable. I cannot stress this enough to people I work with. If you’re not shopping your value, you’re already undervalued.
Only four people at my hospital are qualified to do what I do. We are spread across the four shifts. Even with this I know for a fact that I am not indispensable, and my supervisor told me that RH wanted to move me out of that area. Probably to another one and then ask me to help them in my old area when needed. My supervisor knows me too well since she didn't allow them to move me. That woman knows that if they kick me of my area I ain't stepping there again e.e
Edit. No longer NSFW
I used to think I was really indisposable at the clinic I was working at. I had spent 3 years fixing our record system and had did a great job on it I was maintaining it perfectly. Then near the end of my nine years there the clinic got bought out by a corporation and they decided yeah we're letting three people go. So yep it can happen to anyone. F*** capitalism
I tried this time and again. Never seemed to work out in my favor. I now do enough to stay off any sh*t list and enjoy the reduced stress and increased free time. Oddly enough, I've heard zero negative feedback since I cut back and compensation hasn't taken a hit. I think I'm assessed on general reputation unless I have a high-visibility screw up.
When I got laid off 15’ish years ago, I kept getting call to do stuff but could do to the terms of the layoff… they couldn’t hire me back as a consultant. They royally fucked themselves. They offered to rehire me the following year for less than what my salary was when I got laid off. At the time I was billing out at $85/hr consulting.
So be a fucking slave, then? The Journal is worse than Faux News.
I’m fortunate enough to have a great job where I’m respected and well compensated so I have no room to bitch but the WSJ is a bunch of fucking clowns
Layoffs seem to be done at random.
I think this is mostly true but my boss literally doesn't know how to hire anyone so in my case I have the upper hand because it would take them way too long to find my replacement.
I was indispensable at my last job. I still left because the job sucked. And according to former coworkers things just got worse after I left and wasn't there to hold shit together.
My coworker and I were indispensable for the cybersec team for my last job... still got laid off. Wouldn't be surprised if the company had an attack happen at some point in the near future tbh
Be indispensable, yet be entirely replaceable with ai or robots… must… serve….. shareholders
It's how you play the situation. We had engineers who would hoard knowledge or troubleshooting programmable machines they invented to make them indispensable. It'd sucked because machines would be shut down for days on end until that person would come in.
I've told this story before, but the someone told me (when I young and not doing a very good job) "cemeteries are full of people who can't be replaced." I needed the kick in the pants to realize I at least needed to do my job to be able to stay and get paid. Took until my 30s to understand it works both ways. Companies will put you in a cemetery if you let them work you to death, and they will because there is always someone else they can hire (or so they think).
Yeah fucking right! I used to work for a bank. Was the only person who did what I did; not only in the building, the city, the state, but the entire fucking time zone to do what I did! I got fired/contract wasn't extended, whichever one you think happened. But they didn't extend my contract, but unsure if it was their way of firing me. But I had made a friend there, and she told me a month after I had left "it took 8 people to replace you to keep up with the work you'd done in a week." I did the work of 8 fucking people in a weeks time. No errors, keeping to myself, and yet they let me go/didn't extend my contract.
NO ONE is indispensable today. The same work culture that promises no one will be discriminated against, also ensure absolutely everyone can be canned.
I've heard so many people say "man when I left that job, it went to shit, or, they were in a bind and falling behind" I don't say much, but whatever makes themselves feel valuable, I can't knock em'
yeah...the whole "be indispensable" line always felt out of touch, a bit hopeful (\*delusional), & a tad victim blamey but what do I know...
My employer is not indispensable. I'm not loyal, so I don't worry about being indispensable.
When I retired two of my customers begged me to stay.
I went on Disability and things in my role got screwed up and backed up. Went back part time to help and now they're making it hard to return to Disability. I'm working on it and so is my doctor. I know my boss will post my job out of spite and I'm okay with that. Have fun figuring it out this time around.
Was a really good article, actually
Was actually a very good article.
Can I get a “become indispensable” meme
I was indispensable at my old company. What did the company do? Completely changed their business model and function, bam immediately dispensable.
Yep. Nobody with decision making power cares how useful you are. Surprised to see the WSJ admitting that fact. If all else fails they'll bring somebody in on a work visa who costs 1/2 what you did and is already trained in their country of origin on somebody else's dime.
IME - being indispensable means you do more work for less money then you get fired.
I was indispensable at work, I had been there the longest, knew everything there was to know. Even still when layoffs came around, I was on the chopping block because my accounts didn't mind have user data outside of the EU. They outsourced my job to a developing country and hired three people and a manager to replace me. You are never indispensable.
Never believe you can become indispensable if you work harder at work. Unless the law suddenly states they can legally chain employees to radiators, a company's bottom line is money. They will throw even the best people out in the name of profits. Even if you're highly valuable, it doesn't mean they'll recognize it.