People who are indispensable know it.
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Live and let live. Any one person's salary is nowhere near what is spent on daily customer dinners and trips to sports games.
Compared to unjust and undeserved c-level comp, we are all just dust in the wind.
Nobody works 40hrs a day….. except Chuck Norris
I know of one guy who is huge in terms of blogging, thinks he is mr vmware and is on a salary people can only dream of. I never had the ba--s to ask what the fu-k he is actually doing all day - tangible that is - for the company ... To be a lot of people just have, like you say, huge egos because people 'know them', but at the end of the day, they are expensive door stops.
I don't know the context here, but it's likely you're judging someone by different standards. I have worked with these people here and elsewhere. Blogging and "thought leadership" is a marketing-driven role, even if the person is under R&D or PM or PS. It does have a tangible effect. We have tracked customer deals that have closed due to blog posts released on the website. They may not have closed a ticket to improve a widget, but it doesn't mean they are useless.
Live and let live. Any one person's salary is nowhere near what is spent on daily customer dinners and trips to sports games.
If you have to ask, you will be cut
I have lived through 3 acquisitions and 4 layoffs and one formular was always easy to follow.
Are you utilised the time you get paid for. Say you get paid for 40hrs a day. Do you actually work 40hrs a day without a chance to look at personal mail or youtube or facebook ?
Is your job important enough that revenue would suffer if you and / or your department were to get cut ?
Are you directly attached to revenue and reach your target, or better still, exceed it constantly ?
If any of those is 'no' you may as well make sure your resume is up to date. Not saying it is a sure way to be made redundant, but why keep you around if epidta needs to be doubled within 3 years and your role does not participate on the same.
including the huge egos and laughable blowhards.
I know of one guy who is huge in terms of blogging, thinks he is mr vmware and is on a salary people can only dream of. I never had the ba--s to ask what the fu-k he is actually doing all day - tangible that is - for the company ... To be a lot of people just have, like you say, huge egos because people 'know them', but at the end of the day, they are expensive door stops.
People who are indispensable know it.
I could name a good dozen, if not more, that THINK they are indispensable ...
If you have to ask, you will be cut
People who are indispensable know it.
After some 30+ years of experience in the ICT field, many of those years having worked for or with several software vendors, I don't find that to have ever been the case, especially during M&A events. Having said that, nobody is ever invaluable or irreplaceable and the same can be said about an employer, and have lived with that understanding for most of my career. One's employment is a two way contract and so long as both the employer and employee see value in continuing with that mutually beneficial agreement, things don't generally change. However, during an M&A event, 70-90% of which fail to accomplish their stated goals (https://hbr.org/2020/03/dont-make-this-common-ma-mistake#:~:text=According%20to%20most%20studies%2C%20between,integrating%20the%20two%20parties%20involved.), those agreements tend to get seriously tested and all too often contribute to why those acquisitions fail in the end.
Fine. Not only do I know for a fact I am indispensable, I'm quite sure I deserve a massive raise.
To date, Hock apparently hasn't met a single person at VMW who is indispensable. From the top down, the upcoming headcount cuts will erase complete departments. Nobody will be protected - including the huge egos and laughable blowhards. You're pitiful.
As useful as a chocolate teapot innit?
very useful post