I work in an organisation that has a list of essential people and I happen to work close with one of them. The entire 300 people company would seriously cease t

I work in an organisation that has a list of essential people and I happen to work close with one of them. The entire 300 people company would seriously cease to exist if this person found a new job, got sick or whatever can happen. In my 20 years of working as a software developer and manager, I’ve never before witnessed someone who wasn’t replaceable. As you’re taught in MBA, “anyone is replaceable it’s just a matter of cost”, but that just doesn’t apply to this person because of how much operational knowledge they have. Both about the businesses, the finances and also the technical aspects. This person doesn’t make much more money than I do as a software developer. Which isn’t bad, but also nowhere near their value. They’ve also been sort of shifted around the organisation because nobody really know where to place them as they are essential to everyone. No effort is being done to document or train anyone in case they leave. This is obviously anecdotal, but this sorry isn’t atypical from my experience. People aren’t credited (or promoted) unless they ask and work for it. My own strategy was sort of silly, I let my bosses know how much more money I could make if I took up one of the offers I get (there is a severe lack of developers in my area or the world), and well, it worked well enough to get me good raises and into management before I decided I didn’t want to be a manager at all. I’ve cruised by people who sacrificed themselves way more than I’ve ever done, simply by playing the social and political aspects of working, and I’ve seen so many people not get their due, that I really doubt the articles point. That being said, it’s easier to position yourself well in an organisation if you’re genuinely nice to work with and being a go-to person obviously helps with that. Not only because of your knowledge and willingness to help, but also because people who have that last part are generally just more approachable. But unless you figure out a way to turn that into money, then I really double it’ll help you much in the modern job market. Quality of work doesn’t even really do a lot for people. I’ve worked with three people who did exactly the same job, and the one who produced the best quality work was paid 50% less than the two others because they were “bad at negotiating” pay… I’m sure their manager was happy about that, and it wasn’t even too dangerous as the person was simply “content” which was really a MBA way telling me the person was so uncomfortable with big life altering changes that they would likely work that job until retirement.