Community Chat

[tarsmom]

My DH brought this up:  A coworker years ago said "take your spoon and stir your coffee - watch the swirling......when it stops, that's how long it takes for "them" to replace/forget about you."

I'm sure he was talking about the workplace - however, I know it's business but there's talk about who's going to replace Alex Trebek.  

I guess the lesson is - we're ALL replaceable!  

DH / I talk about this now and then because we gave our lives to our FT jobs and now that we're not there any longer..........I guess we've been replaced!   

[Spurt]

We were told by a very smart Assistant Manager that if you think you can't be replaced think again---  She said look recently at an employee who unfortunately was killed in an auto accident (considered irreplaceable or so they said at the funeral)....the company sent flowers to the family and moved on without missing a beat.....NO ONE IS IRREPLACEABLE!!! 

As far as Alex's replacement I wonder if they would look at Ken Jennings ----  he is Jeopardy's "Consulting Producer" and also nvolved in the show from the Game Show Network called Masterminds which is a similar knowledge based show....

[tarsmom]

Spurt - I hope it is Ken Jennings instead of a celebrity person.  

Thanks for your post, too!

[Reconnaissant]

@tarsmom 

In your heart and soul you are unique and irreplaceable.

[Maggie Nolia]

Life goes on.

Just because you're replaced doesn't necessarily mean no one remembers you.

[Anonymous032819]

I don't know what people expect businesses to do when a person leaves their position.

Create a shrine to them?

Leave the position vacant forever?

[Annabellethecat66]

@tarsmom  That isn't always true.  My daughter changed jobs over a 3 year time period.  The last one burnt her out so she quit and came to spend 5 months helping me (broken back).

Move forward to 6 months total.  She has been studying to do something pertaining to the job(s) she quit.  

Her old boss from her first job I mentioned had someone from the first  office call her to ask if she'd be interested in coming back (it had been a few years mind you since she'd worked there).

She told the person (she knew her) that she might consider coming back for a short time.

Two days later her old boss called her directly.  He's the CEO of the company.  He said he needed her....the company needed her.

It seems that everyone struggled to try to take her place.  (She'd set the entire program up).

Long story...short.  She went into her old office today to pick up their computer and to try to get back into the program(s) she'd written several years ago.

Similar happened to my late husband.  He and a partner owned a computer company.  He was a systems analyst.

He (and his workers) set up the systems for FAA in Oklahoma something regarding the planes.  I never understood it.

Anyway, I don't know if any of you remember how everyone was so nervous about what the computers were going to do (or not do) when we went from 1999 to 2000.

They wanted my husband to just be available in case the FAA computers crashed.

My late husband said..."That would be no".  He said it would be very difficult for him (and his brain) to get back in to 'try to fix' whatever went wrong.

He was offered a good sum of money to just stand by.  He finally said 'if something happened he would do his best to figure out the problem but because he didn't know if it was possible, he would not accept any money for it.

As we all know nothing happened with most computers when we went from 1999 to 2000.

My husband sighed a relief.  He told me that he was pretty sure nothing would happen and if it did, he didn't know if he could get back into his head to figure out the program(s) he'd written.

I do understand what the OP is saying though.  That's exactly what I kept telling the daughter I mentioned above.  

She would call me from her home in Colorado.  She'd be so upset because she didn't feel like she was doing a good enough job.

I told her she could quit and come back to Virginia for a few months.  This was the last job she was in.  

She had to be reminded that much of the time we all think we aren't replaceable, but we are.  

She found that out at the last job.  She told me they'd hired someone to fill her spot.  She was the manager of 16 people.  

From what she heard all was going well.  So, on one hand most of the time we are replaceable but every now and then we aren't replaceable.

I started working for the government as a GS-2.  No one starts working in the government as a GS-2 these days.  

When I quit I was a GS-6 way down the line.   I never looked back because ..... especially in the government everyone is replaceable.

[tarsmom]

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@Maggie Nolia wrote:

Life goes on.

Just because you're replaced doesn't necessarily mean no one remembers you.

---

@Maggie Nolia 

You're very sweet - thank you!  I hope so - I did my best to make a difference to a lot of young people!  

[deepwaterdotter]

Your post made me think of how I never viewed my job as anything but a job.  I was only a placeholder until I retired, then it was someone else's responsibility.

[Porcelain]

When there is a job to do, often lots of people can do it. We each bring our own quirks and flavor to how we do what we do. And some of us are better at some aspects of a job than others. But with work, the main focus is the end product.

At the same time there is no such thing as replacing anyone. Can't be done. You can bring in another person, but they are just taking over the job. They aren't replacing the previous person because that person's unique combo of characteristics (positive and negative) can never be replicated or replaced.