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"Never make yourself indispensible. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted." -- Something I once read somewhere. I can't say I've followed its advic

"Never make yourself indispensible. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted." -- Something I once read somewhere. I can't say I've followed its advice, but I also can't say I've observed it to be false.

dagw 10y ago
Personally I don't want to be promoted. Promotions suck. Just keep feeding me hard technical problems and keep administrative and management responsibility as far away from me as possible and I'll be happy.
- igf 10y ago
  Unfortunately the indispensible employee generally isn't the one getting fed hard technical problems, he's the one responsible for maintaining the complex, mission-critical thingy that only he understands and which seems to break down on a regular basis. I do not envy the indispensible employee.
  - Ntrails 10y ago
    It's a trade off. I got in at 9.30, left at 5, was overpaid and spent most of my day reading HN, doing side projects, or playing cool js games like that cat one. My only meaningful responsibility was to make sure we didn't break down too much or for too long, and that took a few hours a week. I think that for some people that would have been a trade off they'd be happy to make (and in many ways it was attractive), I think if I'd got on with the people I worked with I might still be there.
  - Terr_ 10y ago
    Also pity them if they want to fix the mission-critical thingy (after staring into the void for so long) but the business' "plan" is to quietly limp along forever.
adrianN 10y ago
Who wants to change job titles if instead they can just keep doing what they're good at for more money?
- roel_v 10y ago
  Who will pay you move for doing the same thing?
  - dagw 10y ago
    Every place I've ever worked (to a greater or lesser extent). Every year I'm there "doing the same thing" the better and more productive I get at doing that thing. I also become harder to replace as the cost of training a new person up to my level becomes higher. Thus I'm worth more to the company and it's in their interest to make sure I stay another year, and paying me more is a fairly persuasive tool for achieving that.
  - notalaser 10y ago
    If someone does the same thing exactly the same way year after year, they either have a trivial job, or aren't very good at learning. Assuming this isn't the case and, the cynical, baseline answer would be "the guys who know that you'll leave if they don't". The favourable answer would be "the guys who know that experience matters". There's always, always a company out there's who will be willing to give you 5-10% extra, if only to screw up with their competition by taking their indispensable people.
JustSomeNobody 10y ago
Exactly. Every good manager has a succession plan in place for each employee.
- kirykl 10y ago
  I had a manager once that had the lazy version of such a plan. It was "don't make any process improvements that your replacement will not be able to understand"
wccrawford 10y ago
I've also heard people say that if there's someone in your company who is indispensable, fire them now. They will only be harder to fire later, and healing that wound now will be a lot easier.
- st3v3r 10y ago
  That doesn't mean companies actually do it, or are able to recognize that situation until it's too late.
kirykl 10y ago
I know someone who applied for a promotion, but was denied by her manager because they said she was too indispensable to leave her current job. A few weeks later she got an offer at a new company and quit.

dagw 10y ago

Personally I don't want to be promoted. Promotions suck. Just keep feeding me hard technical problems and keep administrative and management responsibility as far away from me as possible and I'll be happy.

igf 10y ago
Unfortunately the indispensible employee generally isn't the one getting fed hard technical problems, he's the one responsible for maintaining the complex, mission-critical thingy that only he understands and which seems to break down on a regular basis. I do not envy the indispensible employee.
- Ntrails 10y ago
  It's a trade off. I got in at 9.30, left at 5, was overpaid and spent most of my day reading HN, doing side projects, or playing cool js games like that cat one. My only meaningful responsibility was to make sure we didn't break down too much or for too long, and that took a few hours a week. I think that for some people that would have been a trade off they'd be happy to make (and in many ways it was attractive), I think if I'd got on with the people I worked with I might still be there.
- Terr_ 10y ago
  Also pity them if they want to fix the mission-critical thingy (after staring into the void for so long) but the business' "plan" is to quietly limp along forever.

adrianN 10y ago

Who wants to change job titles if instead they can just keep doing what they're good at for more money?

roel_v 10y ago
Who will pay you move for doing the same thing?
- dagw 10y ago
  Every place I've ever worked (to a greater or lesser extent). Every year I'm there "doing the same thing" the better and more productive I get at doing that thing. I also become harder to replace as the cost of training a new person up to my level becomes higher. Thus I'm worth more to the company and it's in their interest to make sure I stay another year, and paying me more is a fairly persuasive tool for achieving that.
- notalaser 10y ago
  If someone does the same thing exactly the same way year after year, they either have a trivial job, or aren't very good at learning. Assuming this isn't the case and, the cynical, baseline answer would be "the guys who know that you'll leave if they don't". The favourable answer would be "the guys who know that experience matters". There's always, always a company out there's who will be willing to give you 5-10% extra, if only to screw up with their competition by taking their indispensable people.

JustSomeNobody 10y ago

Exactly. Every good manager has a succession plan in place for each employee.

kirykl 10y ago
I had a manager once that had the lazy version of such a plan. It was "don't make any process improvements that your replacement will not be able to understand"

wccrawford 10y ago

I've also heard people say that if there's someone in your company who is indispensable, fire them now. They will only be harder to fire later, and healing that wound now will be a lot easier.

st3v3r 10y ago
That doesn't mean companies actually do it, or are able to recognize that situation until it's too late.

kirykl 10y ago

I know someone who applied for a promotion, but was denied by her manager because they said she was too indispensable to leave her current job. A few weeks later she got an offer at a new company and quit.