None Of Us Are Indispensable At Work

This is the story of Andrew, an extraordinarily talented accountant. Andrew was a brilliant and ambitious young man who wanted to be successful and indispensable in his job. He finished high school with good grades, so his professors put a good word for him in a prestigious company. He started working there as an assistant.

Andrew was always the first to come and the last to leave work. He wanted to dive into everything that the company did. His goal was to know everything and be so efficient that the company would consider him indispensable. Therefore, he gave everything he had every day.

Andrew’s work was really high quality and he felt indispensable. Therefore, the boss decided to give him a promotion. Just as he did in his previous position, Andrew excelled in every way. This time he worked even harder. When he was not working, he read about his profession or tried out new strategies to become even more effective. His colleagues respected him, and he did very well.

A new responsibility

The story goes that everyone talked about what a nice employed young Andrew was. After only two years, the board decided to make him CFO. There was no one better than Andrew to fill this role.

When Andrew started in his new leadership role, he became even more obsessed with perfection. He started working 12 hours a day, not eight. He began to have inexplicable fears. For some reason, he thought everyone else wanted his job. After all, the salary was high and the position was really prestigious. Andrew began to distrust everyone.

As director, he had to manage other employees. But the story goes that Andrew became very suspicious. He was not a good leader, he did not give much guidance and did not give good instructions. In fact, he gave as little instruction as possible. He thought that if he gave too much information to his employees, one of them could end up knowing as much as he did and try to take the job. It was not long before no one asked him anything at all.

Being indispensable – an unexpected change

The story goes that everything went well for Andrew for a few years. One day, however, the president of the company asked to train John. John was another young man whom the company hired to be Andrew’s right hand man. They thought Andrew needed help because he seemed overwhelmed with the workload. Andrew, of course, was not happy about it.

Andrew did the same with John as he did with all his other staff: gave him very little instruction. John noticed it but did not pick it up. Instead, he sat down to figure things out on his own. He decided to learn from people in other departments. He asked around and was able to gather enough information to fill in the gaps in the training.

After five years, the board announced that they were looking for a new CEO. Andrew, who was responsible for many important things and felt indispensable, believed that his great moments had finally come. The board decided on two potential candidates: Andrew and John.

The lesson of the story of being indispensable

To everyone’s surprise, the board elected John as the new CEO. Andrew could not believe it. No other employee was as efficient as he was. He did not understand how he had failed. The board explained that he was irreplaceable as CFO. No one could do that job better than he did, so he should stay in that position.

A while later, the finance group was invited to a course. Andrew wanted to leave, but he could not do so due to his heavy workload.

Unfortunately for Andrew, the employees learned to use the company’s new computer programs during the course. Since he did not attend the course, he did not know how to use the programs, and his ignorance quickly became apparent. He could not adapt to the changes.

In addition, the new software took care of many of the things Andrew had specialized in. Andrew’s skills had become obsolete. Due to his many years in service, the board transferred Andrew to another position, but they did not resign.

Andrew’s story teaches us that obsessions can blind you and often turn your worst fears into reality.