Making oneself indispensable at work was once the ticket to success, but recent white collar layoffs have disproven that adage, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

As those who have witnessed or experienced job cuts were interviewed by the Journal, the wisdom of pursuing indispensability differed among generations.

Fifty-two-year-old Beth McLaughlin McDonald endured three layoffs over the years but still believed she could be untouchable in a remote recruiting job in 2022. After being promoted quickly, “I truly thought I was indispensable,” she told the Journal.

She wasn’t. Her company downsized last year and her department was slashed from 13 employees to three, with each affected person given notice in a five-minute video call. McDonald now thinks nobody is ever safe, so she works several part-time jobs, hedging against losing any one of them.

As many workers are dismissed in this manner, they wonder whether they were truly valued in the first place. Managers, on the other hand, told the Journal that workers’ job hopping in recent years, compels them to minimize a business’s dependence on individuals.

Debbie Boone managed veterinary clinics in the Carolinas for two decades before becoming an independent consultant. She told the Journal that she sometimes dismissed talented employees who hoarded knowledge to make themselves more valuable. She said that employees shouldn’t try to be indispensable, as it can lead to selfishness and dismissal by a boss who prefers team players.

Shannon Howard, 31, a content-marketing director at a software company, urged college students to resist the “act your wage” sentiment to withhold extra effort. She understood why, knowing that at-will employees can get axed at any time, despite their efforts.

Still, “I’ve seen times when being the person who does their best, with a good attitude, saves someone’s neck,” she told the Journal. “At minimum, it builds a positive reputation and can help get another job.”

Jim Moechnig, 46, was laid off by a data-storage company in November after 17 years. After devoting nearly his entire tenure to a single software line, he told the Journal that he came to be seen as one-dimensional, rather than irreplaceable. When sales of his software slowed, his role was eliminated and job prospects for his narrow specialty were limited.

His team was full of smart, hardworking people, but the business needed to cut costs, he said, and ability provided no protection.

“If they were going to cut somebody, they were going to cut somebody good,” he said.