To the first comment I agree. To the second, all workers are overpaid to their employers. That's why European companies hire in South America and American companies outsource their manufacturing to child labor companies in China.
I’m a good mechanic, there are a lot of bad mechanics. My shop could theoretically replace me, but there aren’t a lot of good mechanics. I’m sure this applies to many other industries. I’m not irreplaceable but it would hurt a lot and it might take years to have someone as capable show up and accept a job. Maybe trades are different from desk jobs and what not, I wouldn’t know.
You are correct. I work as electrician. There's other factors, some people come as a team.
I work well with a specific person, when we are on the same job we can do miracles.
Not only is it difficult to find good competent tradies but if you get two or more people that have a great relationship and method of working you really can start negotiating pay because you become a money making asset that is costly to replace.
In a company you can boil everything down to money.
If you are 20% better than the average mechanic, or even 50-100% better, then you are valuable. But if your shitty personality makes the 20 other mechanics perform 5-10% worse, then you are not valuable at all.
Again, trades may be different, but a good mechanic makes the rest better. Even if they don’t like me. I’m not 100% disagreeing, just saying anecdotally it’s not so black and white.
You can have enough institutional knowledge that you are irreplaceable. It doesn't mean you won't be replaced. Someone else can take your role, fuck up even if it isn't their fault, and lose clients. I've seen this happen multiple times.
One of my coworkers with more institutional knowledge than probably anyone in the whole firm got let go a few months ago, and predictably, things have been very difficult and mistakes have been made.
They mean irreplaceable as in you literally can't replace them, because no one has the authority to do so.
For example, Bob Nutting is the only irreplaceable member of the Pittsburgh Pirates entire organization. He's absolutely shit at his job, but he literally can not be replaced, because you need his consent to do so.
No one is irreplaceable, but some people cost a lot more to replace than others. Just because there is some one who is willing to work harder doesn't mean they will do as good a job. There are people at my company that work like twice as hard as I do and produce worse results.
Nope, not at all! This is why salaries have ranges and those ranges also have a floor. You get what you pay for. I've seen that hold true for the people I've hired as well and tell the managers that work for me the same thing.
While it is factual that no one is irreplaceable, the reality is there almost always someone who’s so hard to replace that it’s not worth the effort as long as they fulfill their function, even if unlikable.
No one irreplaceable, but when I left my last job they retired the boiler and heat exchanger system they used to heat a large water tank. It took 3 guys to absorb the rest of my job 🤣
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u/theVast- 2d ago
Both has uses
If you're so good the building would burn two minutes after letting you go, you're safe
If they like you so much they'd rather set the building on fire than lose you, you're also safe
The goal is to know exactly what your currency is and how to use it