Over the last few jobs I have had (over the last 20+ years) I have been one that has taken on as much responsibility as I can. When I got hired on as a full time employee where I work now, my boss, the president of the company, hadn’t had a vacation in about 7 years. My goal was to take enough responsibility away from him so that he would be able to take a vacation without having to worry that something would go wrong while he was gone. My philosophy is, the President of the company should only be doing the things that only he can do. If he is doing something I can do, then I will do it, or get someone else to do it for me. After I worked here for two years, he took a one week cruise. Mission accomplished!
The last few jobs I have had, I have increased in responsibility and pay faster than anyone else in the history of those companies. When you take on more responsibility than you are required to, you make yourself an asset to the company. Essentially, you create job security.
When the recession hit, my company had to reduce the number of employees they had in order to cut costs. Definitely not an unfamiliar action in today’s world. However, since I spent my time taking on responsibility and pushing my comfort zone way out there, I have become indispensable. I would venture to guess that I would be one of the last people to be laid off because I do so much for this company.
People need to realize that they do control their destiny. Things don’t just happen, unless you let them.
I have been working on getting debt free for a while now. You see, while I have a good work ethic, I have shown laxity in my finances. I wish I would have found someone like Dave Ramsey when I was in high school, instead of just a year or so ago. Although what he preaches is common sense, sometimes you just have to be hit upside the head with a 2×4 of common sense before you get it.
Now, making myself indispensable with the company I work for sounds like some really good job security, right? What happens, though, if the company goes out of business? That is the possibility I am facing now. How’s that for a 2×4 of common sense. It doesn’t matter how indispensable you are if the company no longer exists. That’s why you need to be debt free, and have an emergency fund in place. Once you have indispensability, no debt and an emergency fund, then you are “recession proof”.