Are you replaceable on the job market?
Published
In 2008 I read The Business Week article entitled "Management by the Numbers," in which they report on how IBM created mathematical models of its own employees to improve productivity and automate management. I'll leave it to you to read it and draw your own conclusions, but I've found this article to still be relevant today.
After reading this article so many years ago, I learned a new workplace term used at IBM. “Fungible” is a word that describes workers who are “virtually indistinguishable from others” in terms of the value of their contributions in the workplace.
The IBM study allows them to distinguish the best employees from the average ones, the latter being fungible - and I assume that also means expendable. At a time when layoffs continue to make headlines, management teams across the country are sitting down and asking themselves, "Who's expendable on the payroll right now?"
Okay, they probably don't use the term, but they are having this discussion, I assure you.
How to Become Indispensable (Not Perishable).
Employees need to stay on the ball and do two things if they want to keep their jobs:
- Produce quantifiable results that are linked to the company's financial success
- marketing their success to those who determine whether they are defensible
So if you've been on autopilot when assessing your professional strengths, building your professional identity, and marketing your personal brand (if you're not familiar with the professional development terms I just used, suffice it to say , that you were on autopilot), then I encourage you to get started.
Nowadays, it takes a lot more to get and keep a good job, and there's a whole new way to build your career. If you need help learning how to make yourself indispensable in your career, keep an eye out for our blogs.
