Thread by @AlexandraErin

See, the thing is... this person's "Taking PTO Is Disloyal" tweet, the predicate for it is that you're screwing over your coworkers by bottlenecking team functioning.

But this kind of attitude here is way more corrosive to teamwork and efficiency. Making yourself a bottleneck?

https://twitter.com/privilegelog/status/1390526863970340867

And the thing is, they distinguish between front line workers who should be replaceable, like cashiers and delivery people, and professionals, who should be indispensable, and not only is this is classist but it manages to get basically everything wrong.

The people who manage (or at least, approve payroll for) minimum wage "unskilled" workers don't want to pay for more people than the absolute minimum needed to cover all hours if nothing goes wrong, which is why their workers can't take time off without screwing someone over.

But it it still! Bad! Management! To staff your office with Skilled And Credentialed Business Professionals to meet your minimum needs (and/or to have your minimum needs constantly expand to fill the available staff), for the exact same reason.

This person might say, "Well, that's pie in the sky fantasy thinking. There's not a law office in the world that functions that way."

Yeah, and their replies are full of lawyers "joking" in that kill-me-now way about how they never get to use their time off.

But to go back to their advice that making oneself indispensable is something to be proud of: nah. Heck nah. That is how you screw over your manager, screw over your coworkers, and screw over your company. If you have loyalty to anyone in that list, don't become indispensable.

First and most obviously, if you are already concerned with how you might screw over your team every time you absent yourself from personal reasons... I mean, if you have that as a concern, why do I need to explain why becoming a bottleneck is bad?

I have seen so many organizations be poisoned by an individual or individual who made themselves indispensable, the only person who Knows The System, the only person who Has The Contacts, the person with the files or the keys or whatever tangible or intangible thing is needed.

It poisons the organization because it sets the limit on growth at what The One Person can handle. It poisons the organization because The One Person who is irreplaceable is now unaccountable. It poisons the organization by choking off opportunities for others.

I just bristle a bit at their repeated snarks at people who are "replaceable". We've seen what happens people -- mostly men -- are seen as irreplaceable. We've seen what irreplaceable men will do that gets excused.

But even ignoring that, even ignoring abuses of power and position and just assuming everybody is doing their job... if you have made yourself into the bottleneck that All TPS Repots Must Go Through or whatever, you are creating the PTO scenario this person dreaded every day.

Every time you're not at your desk, every time there's a question that arises that Only You Can Answer and you're at lunch, or answering somebody else's question that Only You Can Answer, your carefully cultivated aura of indispensability is hurting your teammates.