3 ms·
I've met a lot of people who are proud to be "the only one who knows how to do X" where X is something very important to the company or software product. They
by IvyMike 13y ago
I've met a lot of people who are proud to be "the only one who knows how to do X" where X is something very important to the company or software product.
They seem to think this makes them extra-valuable to the company. But I think the common perception of others is that the "valuable" employee is actually always a constant bottleneck and thus a source of pain. "We can't do X because Timmy is at his kid's soccer game for another hour...ugh."
If you think that if you took time off "everything would fall apart", you might want to consider how others perceive that situation.
(Personally, I've always automated what I could and trained backup people in what I couldn't, and it''s worked out well for me. And I get to take guilt-free vacations. :)
- PeterisP 13y ago"the only one who knows how to do X" implies a Bus Factor of 1 - which is a big weakness for the organization. Even if some people may like being irreplaceable in this way, it's a failure of managers if they allow it to continue.
- mitchty 13y agoI always try to write up documentation and offload the crap I'm doing or at least teach it to someone else. Doesn't work that well in practice but it helps to demonstrate that I am trying to get information out of my brain into others. I hate being "that one guy" for anything to be honest. Means I get stuck with it forever. Like one linux kernel developer said, never be the last guy to update the floppy disk driver, you'll own that code forever.