Job security is all about providing value. Let’s examine:
- Sales guy sells products to customers | achieves quota
- Exec assistant optimizes processes | saves resources
- CEO forwards company vision | increases profits for shareholders
But here’s where it gets interesting.
A valuable employee is scary. He is dangerous. A valuable employee has leverage. Things like relationships and trade secrets become toxic information if a competitor convinces a valuable employee to part ways. And employers don’t want that.
Employers want employees to be replaceable. Duplicable. Monkeys.
So here’s the paradox:
Employee –
make yourself valuable with skills that aren’t easily duplicable.
Employer –
make employee replaceable by documenting skills into processes.
I’ve been on both ends of the spectrum, and now I sit in the middle.
On one hand I’m part of something bigger than myself and I want to see it to fruition. On the other hand I’m collecting paychecks and trying to establish a career in marketing/technology.
Somehow I have to draw my own line in the sand.