Indispensability; it’s the Holy Grail of employment, isn’t it? You work yourself in to a position where you can’t be fired, where your company simply can’t function without you, or would lose so much – perhaps in terms of productivity, value to the business or staff morale – with your exit through the front door that it wouldn’t even be considered. Sounds great, right? Hmm…
Different types of indispensability
Let’s clarify what we mean when we talk of someone being indispensable, as it’s commonly misdiagnosed. There’s a huge difference, for example, between being indispensable and being taken advantage of at work. Likewise, you may be one of those people who just can’t say no at work. You may also be a bit of a drama queen, a huffer and puffer, constantly proclaiming that ‘this place would go to the dogs without me’ (which, incidentally, is literally true for everyone here. We’re big fans of the greyhounds here, and if you don’t want to come along, then yes, the whole place will go to the dogs without you).
Can you make yourself indispensable?
Running from the definition in the paragraphs above, is indispensability ever really achievable? In all honesty I’m undecided, but have always leant towards the view that employees sit somewhere on the same spectrum, with ‘extremely difficult to replace’ at one end, and ‘just get a potato in to do it’ at the other. I also think that this is perhaps the wrong question to ask. ‘How do I make myself indispensable?’ just doesn’t seem a sensible motivator or objective to me, and I’ll explain why.
How to really be indispensable
Working within the recruitment industry has given me an interesting perspective on this issue. I’ve both worked alongside people, and dealt with them as either candidates or clients, that would clearly be very, very difficult to replace. I see the work my colleagues do, and also speak to people about referrals or references, and a common theme running through those people who are thought of in high regard by their fellow employees is that they don’t proclaim their own indispensability. Rather, they enjoy their job. Their motivation isn’t to become indispensable, but to do their job to the best of their ability because they derive satisfaction from doing just that. The people that work – and work hard – because they have the fuel of job satisfaction to keep them going often become hugely difficult to replace. They do their job well, and help others do theirs, they accumulate special knowledge, and are happy to share it, they provide real value to a business, and they help or facilitate the ability of others to do the same, they know when – and are able – to say no, which means they aren’t taken advantage of. The satisfaction they get from doing their job well is ultimately what makes them difficult to replace, because no-one else enjoys doing their job like they do.
If your motivator is different to this – a drive towards indispensability, say – you simply won’t have the right mind-set to be one of these people. This mix of motivation and competency means that your employer won’t want you going anywhere, but for the employee this should be a welcome but secondary side-product.
By Jonathan Coxon