Colin makes a good point about some jobs being mobile or portable. Depending on the job, telecommuting can handle some essential functions. It also depends on the nature of the business. A law practice can probably shut down if the courts, cases and everything else are also delayed for a week, get continuances, etc; A hospital can’t do that. I know an RN who accepts her roles as a 1st responder, knows she has to report no matter what when called. FWIW.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by JustinKownacki: Why Aren’t You Essential? http://bit.ly/cO7ehz...

Programmers face this moral problem frequently.

Does one Do It Right, and code something to that it’s maintainable and workable should they disappear? Or Do It Wrong, and code something so complex that it would take man-years to understand it let alone improve upon it?

The Daily WTF posted an article in 2008 called Up or Out: Solving the IT turnover crisis. The article applies to both IT and software developers and designers. I read this article in December 2008 and it was just one of the sources which influenced me to change jobs two months later.

In short, there’s a value apex for skilled workers looking for upward mobility, and there’s a value convergence for skilled workers looking for job security. The apex is the point at which the company generally values the worker more than the worker values the job. The convergence is a point of entanglement; the company and the worker value each other the same and could not be easily separated without causing the other much strife.

Are folks who are essential to a business’s operation looking for career progress? Is that how they measure a successful career? I think that’s up to the individual. Some would define success as working for the same place for 44 years and retiring with a generous pension or other retirement income source other than Social Security. Others would define success as contributing to the product of many companies, while learning something along the way. Others would have different requirements.

Do I want to be essential to my company? Sure. But if I care for the success of the company, I have to do my job in a way that if a PAT bus decides it wants a face-first hug, the company can continue to operate without spinning its wheels trying to figure out code for months. If I don’t care for the company–”It’s just a job”–then why would I want to be essential? I would want to be able to move at a moments notice, and wouldn’t care about leaving the company high and dry. Maybe folks are like that. I’m not. It would be the company’s fault, then, for hiring someone sketchy and not ensuring that they are doing their job correctly. Lesson learned.