Will your job be quickly replaced if you resign now?

Resign? The boss doesn’t want to let go, the conditions are tempting.

Replacing me quickly? What a joke! Multi-billion projects are a dime a dozen.

If I resign now, believe it or not, the boss will cry, throw a tantrum, and even hang himself, clinging to my legs, saying, “Mr. Jiang, don’t leave, what am I going to do if you leave?”

Seeing the greasy, balding middle-aged boss in his fifties crying like this, how can I have the heart to say “resign”?

I’m so important!

Without me, multi-billion projects would all go up in smoke. Without me, how will the boss change cars and get women by the end of the year?

Do you know who I am?

I have even been featured in Time magazine as the person of the year.

I have also received the Special Award for Touching China in 2008. Do you understand what a special award is? I am so special, so stylish, so classy, and so sophisticated.

You ask me what I did to receive such a prestigious award?

Let me tell you, I didn’t have to do anything. My very existence is so brilliant, so unique, so special.

With someone like me, you actually ask if my job can easily be filled if I resign?

Believe it or not, if I mention resignation, the boss will be on his knees in a minute, saying to me, “Mr. Jiang, is it that you’re not satisfied with the working environment? Or the compensation? Or someone not listening to you? Everything can be resolved.”

“If it’s the working environment, we’ll have someone renovate your office tomorrow.”

“If it’s the compensation, can we double it? Can we give you some company stocks?”

“For anyone who doesn’t listen, we can just fire them. We don’t care about n+1, as long as you’re willing to stay…”

Ah, what am I supposed to say about a boss like this?

If I still disagree, this old man might shatter a glass and cut his wrist. It’s too terrifying…

Being too outstanding is such a trouble!

The Brutality of Workplace Competition

Our group’s CEO was replaced in less than three months;

Our business unit’s VP was replaced in less than a month;

Our department manager was replaced in just two weeks;

One of the R&D directors in our department was replaced in just one week.

In fact, any of these leaders can be kicked out by the boss in a matter of minutes. Anyone who thinks they won’t be quickly replaced is just talking nonsense.

Even the founder of OpenAI was swiftly eliminated.

As for someone like me, a low-ranking employee, that goes without saying. I am always a replaceable cog.

The larger the company you are in, the easier it is for you to be replaced. The higher your position, the easier it is for you to be replaced, unless you become the boss yourself and no one can control you.

Don’t talk to me about your irreplaceability. How much value have you created for the company? How important are you to the company, to the department, to the leaders? How crucial is your position…

To the boss, all of these things mean nothing!

When you have some value, the boss can’t be bothered to look at you twice. But as soon as you lose that value, the boss immediately tells you to pack up and leave.

You think you’re someone important in the company, strutting around in front of your subordinates, but in front of the boss, you’re just a bootlicker like everyone else.

If you really are irreplaceable, why do you have to suck up to the boss?

Isn’t the reason you suck up because you know you can be replaced? If you truly cannot be replaced, would you grovel before the boss?

The favorite topic of conversation for employees is increasing their own irreplaceability, but to be honest, is there really such a thing as an irreplaceable employee?

It’s just a matter of how the boss feels!

The so-called irreplaceability, the so-called self-worth…is just a way for employees to comfort themselves.

Think about it for a moment, are you truly irreplaceable? Are your colleagues around you truly irreplaceable?

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I am , a professional with nine years of work experience, focusing on the workplace, programming, and autonomous driving.

Here’s a word of encouragement for you: making yourself stronger is the key to solving all problems.

Hard to recruit, prioritizing production.

It is difficult to quickly replace someone, after all, most positions in my industry require a certain level of expertise.

It is similar to my major in college, which requires a long period of systematic and extensive learning.

There may be many job seekers who are proficient in my field, but being proficient in my position while also having the necessary industry knowledge is rare.

Therefore, if someone resigns, it may still take some time for the company to hire a replacement.

This is why ever since our community’s girl left after her probation period, the department leader has been constantly complaining about the difficulty of recruiting.

The current situation is different now, compared to the past, as companies clearly prioritize production when hiring.

For example, when hiring someone, is it necessary to train them for a period of time or can they quickly adapt?

1. Transitioning to another industry

From a production perspective, job seekers transitioning to another industry generally do not have high salary expectations in the early stages.

After all, for the company, these employees cannot quickly adapt after joining and require time to learn the industry-specific knowledge.

During this time, they not only do not create value, but the company also has to pay their salary.

Moreover, for employees transitioning to another industry, there is also the risk that, assuming they do not meet expectations after expending resources on training, they might leave during the probation period, and the company would have to hire again.

Therefore, nowadays many companies prefer job seekers with relevant industry backgrounds to avoid a lot of effort.

As for people transitioning to another industry, to be honest, it would be considered good if their salary matches their previous job; it is quite difficult to achieve a significant increase.

Of course, if it is a talented individual and the position is less related to their major, then it is a different story.

2. Transitioning within the same industry

Although companies prefer job seekers with relevant industry backgrounds, from a production perspective, these job seekers usually demand higher salaries, possibly far exceeding what the company is willing to offer for the position.

So, in essence, it involves salary negotiation during the interview process.

For the company, if they really want the candidate to join, how can they combine the company’s existing benefits and try to persuade the job seeker to not focus only on the base salary, but consider the overall annual income?

And how can you prove that the benefits mentioned are real and not just empty promises?

You should know that job seekers now are savvy and also use the internet, so they are certainly familiar with common interview tactics.

If you try to convince them with well-known tactics, the result will be a total failure.

In fact, the reason why companies often cannot find employees who meet their expectations is because the interviewers focus too much on production and lack flexibility.

From the job seeker’s perspective, encountering a company without sincerity makes job hunting difficult.

And from the company’s standpoint, job seekers nowadays have high expectations, so it is really difficult to find someone within the budget.

In fact, finding a job is a process of mutual selection. Companies want to hire employees with high cost-effectiveness, and job seekers naturally want to join companies that offer higher salaries. I think this viewpoint is reasonable.

So where does the problem lie?

I think it lies in expectations, which is also the reason why I don’t think my job will be easily replaced.

Because I know how much the company is willing to invest in recruiting for my position, I also know that this budget will not attract anyone better than me. Therefore, unless they are willing to pay a high price to hire, if I resign or face downsizing, my job will definitely not be quickly taken over.

Awakening of Employees

Are You Dreaming? “Workers”

Each worker is irreplaceable. At worst, the product will be redesigned, and the company will not be threatened by a consumable.

Every business tries to create a platform that minimizes the influence of its employees. As long as they meet the competency model for their positions, anyone can do the job.

I never consider who can replace me. I realize that the value I create is not proportionate to the rewards the company gives me. It’s not about someone replacing me; it’s about me firing the boss. The company no longer accommodates me, and it severely hinders my development, becoming an impediment.

Individual Capability Is Greater Than Team Strength

The above is an excerpt from the author:

In the past, individuals were insignificant and insignificant in the face of the collective, and an individual’s resignation had little impact on the enterprise. Many companies are leaning towards creating a platform that minimizes the influence of individual employees. Times have changed. This is an era of rapid change. Even traditional industries are constantly changing. If a company does not progress, it means it is regressing.

Modern companies place more emphasis on individual capabilities. A competent employee can determine the fate of a company, the success or failure of a product line, and the gains and losses of a market area.

The strong relationship between the company and the employees is being broken.

Recently, I saw a boss complaining online. He said he hired a 95s salesperson who did a good job after negotiating salary and commission and was responsible for e-commerce product selection. Suddenly, one day, he discovered that the employee had business dealings with several competitors in the same industry. So the boss called him into the office to talk.

The boss thought he would be nervous, admit his mistake, and promise not to repeat it next time, just like the old employees did in the past. Unexpectedly, the employee was eloquent. Firstly, the market is so big that one company cannot do it all. Secondly, doing business with other companies does not harm our company’s interests. Finally, if the company cannot accept it, they can fire him at any time. At this point, the boss was in a dilemma. Dismissing him would result in huge losses for the company, and it would be difficult to find a replacement in the short term.

Have you realized that the development of management science is lagging behind and cannot keep up with the times? Management science is still stuck in managing organizational forms, which can no longer meet the needs of current enterprise management.

In the past, companies were dominant, and employees were passive. Employees had to adhere to any rules and regulations set by the company. Nowadays, the relationship between companies and employees is a two-way choice, and both sides are equal. As mentioned earlier, the salesperson controls the selection channel and has their own logic for product selection. With these two skills, they can free themselves from the company’s control and become dominant even as an employee. Although cooperating with competitors may involve illegal activities, faced with the temptation of interests, they will still choose to “do it” after going through a game.

The root of the contradiction is that employees are well aware of their own value and the value they can create for the company, but the company cannot provide them with equivalent value exchange. The final result will definitely be the resignation of the employee and the establishment of a company specializing in product selection services.

The Awakening of Employees

Let me give you an example. Do you still watch TV? Why is the quality of news commentary and financial commentary programs getting worse?

These programs are a department in TV stations composed of a group of people: lighting technicians, photographers, sound engineers, makeup artists, video editors, subtitlers, presenters, writers, reviewers, etc. In the past, this was a good job, and the team consisted of top performers from various industries.

Writers would write a speech every day (like an old workhorse), and presenters would read it out through a teleprompter (the presenter knows nothing except having a good figure and looking pretty, she doesn’t even understand what she is reading). This practice has continued for nearly 20 years because there was only one official media channel, and if you wanted to have a voice and be on screen, you had to work in this field while receiving a salary unchanged for a century.

After working in a TV station for a long time, people become more and more aware of their own value, which far exceeds that of the TV station. Some positions are not allowed to have side jobs, such as news presenters who have political labels and cannot engage in socio-economic activities. But once they leave the TV station, they have nothing.

After the appearance of self-media, it gave all media professionals a chance. Anyone can become a self-media creator. Talented individuals who are unwilling to be buried have started to try their hand at it. They have quit their jobs at TV stations and joined the army of self-media entrepreneurs. With just a smartphone and a laptop, they can write, produce, and present their work themselves, stepping from behind the scenes onto the stage. Self-media has given them a second chance in life.

Nowadays, more and more employees realize that the value they create far exceeds the salary provided by the company. They are becoming aware that working for someone else only exchanges their time and physical health for meager income, and it is not as good as going solo and trading their own value for wages on social media platforms.

From 0 to 1 Is More Important Than From 1 to 100

The value created by an idea, a plan, a proposal, or an idea may be something that a team cannot achieve even after ten or twenty years of work.

Individual influence is constantly expanding. In the past, it was mostly upper management, but now even middle and lower-level managers can influence the destiny of a company.

In the rapid growth and lightning expansion of a company, an individual’s contribution is more significant than that of the team, and the team may be insignificant. In the past, we had a saying, “An army of a thousand is easy to get, one general is hard to find.” Now, we need to change that to “A general is hard to get, an army of a thousand is easy to get.” There can be no soldiers without a general; there can be no flying birds without a head. If the team is not good enough, it can be replaced.

What individuals do is from 0 to 1, while what teams do is from 1 to 100. Without the beginning from 0 to 1, there can be no subsequent progress from 1 to 100.

From Serving the Team to the Team Serving an Individual

In the past, employees were just cogs in the team, serving the team and implementing the high-level strategic plans.

Now things are very different. Sometimes, it could be a whole team serving an individual, like in the live-streaming and self-media fields.

Is the Boss’s Vision Greater Than That of Employees?

Why do many companies struggle and only make a meager profit? In my opinion, most bosses are not necessarily more visionary than their employees, given the different roles they play in the knowledge society.

This is also the reason why many companies cannot grow to a larger scale:

1. They don’t understand the concept of sharing.
2. They hesitate when hiring.
3. They emphasize cost-effectiveness when hiring talent.
4. They only talk about what employees should give.
5. They pursue overtime work.
6. They cannot retain talent.

When employees leave, it often means that the boss didn’t handle the relationship between them well. For example, if the boss still has a platform-oriented mindset and is unaware of the tide of the times, when an employee has already had an impact on the company’s business and determines its life or death, the boss is still talking about feelings and drawing big plans.

It may not be a competitor who takes away your outstanding employees; it could also be a venture capital firm. Back when Lei Jun was an angel investor, he spent half a month continuously having dinner with a world top 500 executive to convince him to join Xiaomi. Your employees going to a competitor may result in a doubling of their salary at most, and it is difficult for a competitor to offer such high remuneration. But building a Xiaomi Empire with Lei Jun is an attractive proposition that is hard to refuse. Google’s founders openly stated that their competitors are not Microsoft, but NASA, because the dream of exploring the stars has attracted many brilliant scientists around the world. Therefore, NASA is their biggest competitor.

The Platform Is Dead; Employees Are Partners

If you keep emphasizing the creation of a platform, it means you are outdated. If you don’t change your mindset, you will eventually be eliminated by the times.

Many bosses often complain about their employees' “worker mentality and attitude,” but in fact, if you treat them as employees, they will treat you as a boss. In this employer-employee relationship, you are asking for too much. The best way to make employees contribute more and perform better is to make them partners.

Many outstanding employees choose to leave and start their own businesses. This may be due to limitations on their development caused by the platform, but more importantly, it is because the value they create does not match the rewards they receive from the company. This situation may have been reasonable before 2010 when employees and companies were in an employer-employee relationship, and the value created by the employees was supposed to belong entirely to the company, while the company provided employees with certain rewards.

With the entry of venture capital into China, after many years of deep cultivation in the investment banking sector, the field had become very mature by 2010. Even if employees realized that the value they create does not match their rewards, they used to dismiss the idea of going solo because of the high barriers to entry in entrepreneurship. But now, as long as you have a reasonable idea that can be easily explained and can be proven in the short term, it is relatively easy to obtain angel investment.

Even if employees don’t start their own businesses and work for other companies, the outcome is often a lose-lose situation. I have witnessed several cases around me. Let me give you an example.

Company A refuses to give Employee B a raise, so B switches to Company C, which offers B double the salary. In the short term, B seems to have won.

But at Company C, B doesn’t have a platform that allows him to showcase his capabilities to the fullest. B hardly makes any progress, although his performance is growing rapidly, it’s not exponential growth.

Company A loses Employee B, resulting in a loss of performance. The company eventually recovers after some time, but the subsequent growth is very slow. In the long run, Company A loses.

If Company A had kept Employee B and realized that the value B would bring to their company is immeasurable, it would have been a win-win situation.

This is the “game” in the workplace and also the workplace version of the “prisoner’s dilemma.”

The above is an excerpt from

Finding the Right Job and Lifestyle

Whether it’s easy to be replaced or not, it’s best to believe that you are replaceable.

This prevents us from becoming arrogant.

Having this mindset means that we don’t place our value solely on having a job that is hard to replace.

In fact, this is quite absurd.

I believe I have value because I clean up garbage on the moon, a job that no one else does. Therefore, my job is irreplaceable.

What does that even mean?!

Our value should be placed on how to find a job and lifestyle that suits us.

For example, if I am well-suited to be an engineer, then doing engineering work would fulfill me.

After a year, if I realize being an internet celebrity suits me better, then I will quit and become one.

This is what a meaningful life is about.

Whether I cannot find someone to replace my job as an engineer after a year, or if I find 1000 people to replace me within a second, it doesn’t matter at all.

Team Stability and Replacement Speed

The speed of replacement is equivalent to the difference in value. One of the most important aspects of managing a technical team as a leader is to ensure the stability of core team members. Core team members are usually the leader’s confidants. Other team members should frequently rotate roles to collaboratively ensure that the team does not depend on just one person to handle a project. Once a team undergoes a leadership change, the new leader typically undergoes a complete overhaul of the team, preventing themselves from being marginalized and losing control.

Deep Imprint of Work, Boss’s Appreciation

My work may be quickly replaceable, but the deep imprint I have left in my boss’s heart cannot be filled or replaced by anyone.

I joined this company in August 2001, and it has been twenty-two years since then. I still remember vividly when I was struggling whether to quit my job in 2006. Taking advantage of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, I asked for annual leave from the department director and went back to my hometown to rest and assess the situation.

At that time, there was no WeChat or smartphones. In the early days, it was fine since it was a national holiday, but when work resumed, my subordinate, Old Liu, called me on the phone: “Director Xiao, the boss scolded the director today, asking why he approved your leave without reporting to him, and asked when you will be back to work…”.

Although I was thinking about resigning at the time, I had not made a final decision yet, nor had I found another company to move to. I didn’t want to create conflicts with my boss either, as he had always treated me well (except in terms of salary). After five years of working together, I knew very well that he would definitely call me directly within a day. Since there was nothing urgent in my hometown, I turned off my phone all day. Every night at 11:00, I would turn on my phone to check any messages:

Received a message from Old Liu: “The boss lost his temper again today…”

Received a message from my boss: “Xiao Yang, is everything fine at home? Have a good rest and spend time with your parents.”

I didn’t know how to reply to my boss, so I quickly turned off my phone.

Many years have passed, and I don’t remember how many days it had been, but one night, just as I turned on my phone, my boss’s call came in directly. It was really coincidental. I didn’t know what to say on the phone, so I quickly turned off my phone again.

After a few more days, I returned to Beijing. Just as I arrived at the company, the front desk manager greeted me with a smile on her face and quickly brought me into the office, while wearing a gossipy expression. She spoke rapidly: “Hey, Director Xiao, you have no idea. The company has been in chaos these days. The boss said he couldn’t reach you on the phone and scolded the director every day. He also asked the HR department to check the phone number of your family in Tongzhou, Beijing, which you didn’t register. He even wanted to check your home address and knock on your door, but no one responded.”

At this moment, the front desk supervisor came in with the tea, wearing a gossipy expression: “The funniest thing is that one night during overtime, the boss said your phone was unexpectedly on, so he told everyone to call you.”

Hearing this, at that time, I really felt both amused and moved. I slowly put away the idea of leaving the job and became more deeply aware of my importance.

At this time, the boss rushed in, grabbed me, and took me to his office to have tea.

When I completed 18 years with this company, in 2099, I was really exhausted. I handed in my resignation letter, and the boss used both hard and soft tactics to persuade me, eventually granting me an extended vacation. I could come back to work whenever I felt rested enough.

I went around Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and other places, and suddenly realized that vacation wasn’t as good as I had imagined. So I came back to work steadfastly. I felt particularly sentimental at that time and posted a moment on my WeChat (see the picture below):

Now I am 50 years old, at the age of realizing the fate of life, and I have been working at this company for 22 years. I no longer have the idea of changing jobs. The boss is also 60 years old. Yesterday, during dinner, he even said, “Except you and me, anyone else in the company can be replaced!"

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