I feel like my job in IT is done

I got an interesting email (excerpt):

… so it’s just a matter of time till my job is outsourced or just dismissed.

If you were in my shoes what would you do because I like the place I work at. I just don’t see it lasting.

I hear this from a lot of people. You fall into a job where you happen to be good at a few tasks and your boss piles your plate sky high in the same task until they move on to something else and you cease to serve a purpose.

I often get criticized for writing in a brutal tone that cuts very deep and today will be no exception. I am not trying to sell you anything, I am not your buddy, I am not writing this for the sake of getting you signed up for a seminar or a book tour – I do this as repaying a debt to the community that has made me a very wealthy and successful guy. And this is an important part: I hear this very same “getting stale; I think I’m done” sob story from my MSP partners who are feeling like their days are numbered.

I’m going to say this only once and very slowly, read it as many times as you need to and chant it away until it sinks in.

People hire people.

People buy services.

Got it? Good.

When something doesn’t matter but is necessary for the operation of busines, it is handed off to a temp employee or the cheapest licensed vendor available. It’s temporary, necessary and finite.

When a business is spending money on personnel it’s not looking for a cheapest person barely capable of doing the job. Those jobs are in China now. If you were invited for an interview it was because the company felt you were capable and qualified of doing the job.  If you were offered the job it is because the employer thought you would be a valuable addition to the team and could grow to be more than what they needed right then and there. Why else would they go through the hassle, it’s so much easier to deal with a vendor than to train, manage and motivate an employee.

You are here because you are valuable

Most employees forget that. Most employers and managers forget this over time as well but that’s the truth – we fall into a rut and into a process and the longer we do the same thing the longer we don’t feel we are making progress or a difference.

It is critical for employees, and their managers, to come up with tasks and projects that staff can work on somewhat independently of their core responsibilities (and this is where most people that were gonna forward this to their employees just stopped reading because nobody wants more work) that give some meaning, purpose and independent creativity to an employee.

The best employees see what needs to be done and manage their projects on their own. The ones that just wait for stuff to be handed to them on a platter are sort of missing out because odds are you’re going to be handed stuff you really don’t want to be doing. So take some initiative, talk to your boss, point out stuff that needs to be done.

Remember, people hire people. You got hired for a reason – if you do nothing in the face of becoming obsolete then yes, you will inevitably find yourself without a job. But if you reinforce why you’re there, if you excel at your core responsibilities while proving that you’re worth and capable of more.. They’ll find something to keep you to do.