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On Being Indispensable

sofuckingagile.com

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Re: On Being Indispensable

#51

Post by Tabular-Iceberg »

weq wrote: post #29
swayvil wrote: post #6

Does anybody else ever reflect on how, in our modern world, utter servility is assumed? I mean are we all serfs now? Are we discussing the best method for licking master's boot?

I think its always been this way. Our parents told us democracy has won out, but in reality, its the same old story. People get fed ideas, of dreams, of one day, as an excuse, to serve. The lucky few are broadcaste around the clock to reinforce the general monenies stature. And dont give me no bull about "making it" from "nothing". The only way to truely make it, is to find someone else, and jump on that bandwagon. W…

What’s “monenies stature”?

I assume it’s a typo for something, but I can’t figure out what. If I google it I get results about money laundering, which doesn’t sound right from the context.

Re: On Being Indispensable

#52

Post by drewzero1 »

travisgriggs wrote: post #33

> I was a sentient wiki Busted up at this point. But seriously, this is me, though to a lesser degree (this guy sounds much awesomer then me). 10 years ago, I exited a shrinking technology community. I loved it, but the signs were on the wall. I knew I’d be one of the last ones to turn out the lights. I was just past 41. The prospect of looking for work at 50+ with guru expertise in a Cobol like technology terrified…

That sounds a lot like my current situation (though awesomer in turn than me). I'm doing everything from servers to microcontrollers, Android barcode scanners to power tools, running network cable to restoring antique lamps (really!). Trying to keep syntax, data types and structures straight in Python, PHP/HTML/JS, and Arduino/C++. Maintaining the network of security cameras. Sometimes database stuff too.

This is a dream job for me but I wonder where I can possibly advance from here. I know they don't (can't? won't.) pay enough for me to be able to afford to stay here forever. And I'd really like to work with a team instead of being the only person who can do a bunch of things.

I had a helper too for a while and it was awesome. But they moved away and I've been struggling to keep up. I tried training a few other people to help and they weren't really into it. It did at least force me to come up with some better documentation.

Re: On Being Indispensable

#53

Post by sdoering »

at_a_remove wrote: post #19
swayvil wrote: post #6

Does anybody else ever reflect on how, in our modern world, utter servility is assumed? I mean are we all serfs now? Are we discussing the best method for licking master's boot?

That's what offends me about this piece, really. And on top of it, Agile, which has always had the whiff of "Taylorism, but from the inside " about it. Always sprinting (huff huff huff); attention atomized by checking texts, emails, phones, voicemail, and of course iterating over an ever-increasing number of Slack channels (or Teams); everything in these bitty increments of moving the assembly line along. And this ha…

> Agile, which has always had the whiff of "Taylorism, but from the inside" about it.

Isn't 'lean manufacturing" a direct descendant of Taylor and agile a direct descendant from 'lm'?

Re: On Being Indispensable

#54

Post by [deleted] »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #11
hinkley wrote: post #10

In the spirit of the old saying, "the two happiest days of a boat owner's life are the day they buy a boat, and the day they sell it." The best advice I got starting out was, "be indispensable." The best advice I got four years later was, "don't be indispensable." In a growing company, the indispensable people may find themselves being left holding the bag while new initiatives are undertaken. I very quickly learned…

> "My company would be just fine without me," can mean "my work here is done," and you can ride off into the sunset with a clear conscience It also makes it way easier to take your vacation time. If your employer is harmed by you taking vacation, they will find ways to make you miserable for it.

[deleted]

Re: On Being Indispensable

#55

Post by hobs »

paxys wrote: post #27

The first thing to remember is – no one is indispensable. If you get hit by a bus tomorrow the company will go on without you. People may have a bit of trouble at first, but new processes will develop and new people will gain expertise just as you have now. Heck the company might be better off in the long run without knowledge bottlenecks. Second, being indispensable doesn't do a whole lot for job security. If the co…

The indispensable head of QA at my company died of a heart attack after working 100 hour weeks for years, they did not replace him.

Re: On Being Indispensable

#56

Post by wildmanx »

The people most common to enter this state are people who don't trust their co-workers to do the right thing and instead get involved so heavily that in the end they are pulling all the strings. You may call them "control freaks". Sometimes branding themselves as "perfectionists".

When reading his story it became apparent that that's likely his problem. Unless literally everybody in his org was completely lazy (which, honestly, is unlikely), he clearly drowned other people's requests for help with "oh just get out of my way, I'll just do it myself" and there you go, next dependency on himself is introduced. Note that I'm not insinuating that it was on purpose. It's just the natural result of somebody not letting others do things, and fail and learn on their own on the way.

Kudos for realizing that it's a problem and for pulling out of the process. But we only see his side of the story here.

Re: On Being Indispensable

#57

Post by lliamander »

sdoering wrote: post #45
hinkley wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is something to be said for being indispensible for novel problems, instead of for known problems. Some of the worst behavior I've seen in both myself and others has come when you can hold your company hostage by refusing to do something. Even when you are using it for 'the greater good', that's not a good look and not a great feeling. You shouldn't have to go with the nuclear option to get something done, even…

Maybe companies need some kind of "Chaos Monkey" system [0] in place for regular employees. Not in "terminating" random employee's contracts, but a culture were regular, maybe even some kind of random transferals onto other projects, or onto internal work regularly happens. Everybody knows this and everybody should be prepared to a situation that tomorrow they are not working on the same problem they work on today. H…

People who work in finance are often required to take a two-week vacation every year. It's a good "bus" test and also a good way to find fraud.

Re: On Being Indispensable

#58

Post by wildmanx »

brtkdotse wrote: post #34
hinkley wrote: post #10

In the spirit of the old saying, "the two happiest days of a boat owner's life are the day they buy a boat, and the day they sell it." The best advice I got starting out was, "be indispensable." The best advice I got four years later was, "don't be indispensable." In a growing company, the indispensable people may find themselves being left holding the bag while new initiatives are undertaken. I very quickly learned…

> If given the choice between "my company would be just fine without me" and "everything would fall apart if I didn't show up to work, I found the problem. It’s not “your company”, it’s “the purchaser of your time and attention”. Act accordingly.

Unless you are a co-founder or otherwise heavily invested.

Re: On Being Indispensable

#59

Post by kqr »

hinkley wrote: post #10

In the spirit of the old saying, "the two happiest days of a boat owner's life are the day they buy a boat, and the day they sell it." The best advice I got starting out was, "be indispensable." The best advice I got four years later was, "don't be indispensable." In a growing company, the indispensable people may find themselves being left holding the bag while new initiatives are undertaken. I very quickly learned…

Deming sometimes used bus drivers as an example. Some of them might think it's not their job to smile and be nice to passengers. They're hired to drive the bus, and perhaps help out in emergencies, but not much beyond that.

However, being nice to passengers (performing "caring labour" as Graeber would have put it) increases the chances that people choose the bus over e.g. the metro or something else. Deming concluded that it's always your job to do whatever increases the chances of the company you're working for staying in business.

I still haven't found a good way to phrase it, but I'm starting to think that for knowledge/creative work, this can be specialised to something like, "it's your job to teach others to do what you think your job is."

For knowledge/creative organisations to stay in business over the long term, they need to continuously innovate, and for innnovation you want people to be strong generalists. Not just because it lets them spot opportunities they otherwise might not, but also because it lets the organisation run more efficiently with less paperwork, and because it gives people the autonomy they need to think clearly about things.

Re: On Being Indispensable

#60

Post by drewzero1 »

smokey_circles wrote: post #35

Alternate title: How it took OP years to realise their teammates and colleagues deserve agency. No such thing as "indispensable". Very few companies and projects die to a singular departure, you're just not that special kiddo. What's actually happened here is a selfish desire to know things without sharing them. If you learn something new, share it somewhere. "People came to ask the Oracle questions only the Oracle c…

You can lead a colleague to documentation, but you can't make them think.

It doesn't sound to me like knowledge is being hoarded here; it's all there for the taking, but OP's colleagues have discovered it's more convenient for them to ask OP rather than seeking it out for themselves.

Maybe that's an issue with discoverability, or maybe OP has a history of being too available for questions. Sounds to me like OP might in fact be sharing too freely, thus making documentation/experimentation less attractive.

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