Work yourself out of a job
We often seek becoming a “necessary” employee because that means “job security”.
There’s also pride in being asked to attend every meeting, comment on every email thread, or when our feedback is sought out.
It must mean “we’re important”. It must mean “we’re powerful”
But at what cost?
Being “needed” means you’re a bottleneck. No decision or direction can be made without you.
Which means the company / team / project is inherently inefficient.
And at a certain point you become a security blanket to other people. They’ll drag you around from meeting to meeting, they’ll seek your “approval” of any initiative, just to cover themselves if anything goes wrong (and it will!)
So forgo your pride.
Train others. Enable them to make decisions in your place. Let them own the outcomes. Automate and document your work.
Oddly enough —that is actually the best path to job security, because everyone will see how much better you make everything around you.
And without being in meetings all day you can free yourself to work on the tasks that actually matter to you.
