Putting Myself Out of Work

People ask me this from time to time. They wonder if I do my job too well if I'm not putting myself out of work. If all the problems are fixed, who would need me? I rarely worry about this. I work in the hopes that I will make myself obsolete some day. It's the only way I can guarantee I'm doing the job right. There are a couple of reasons I don't sweat the future under this philosophy.

1) New stuff always comes out. Stuff gets old. New problems always crop up. New projects are always around the corner in a company that strives to grow. Therefore I'm always needed. I don't want to work in a stagnant company anyway.

2) Once problems are fixed, staff, management, and technical personnel find other projects to put their new found free-time into. When people don't have to routinely focus on the same set of problems, they find new ways to grow and branch out, leaving me with new challenges.

It's fun working with a small company, especially a non-profit, as it branches out. At my last job, once the basic computer problems were settled and network stability became the norm, the social workers were suddenly more mobile, working from the road, conferences, meetings, branch offices, vacations, and their homes. While I never conducted an analysis, it appeared to me the staff was getting more done with less stress. I felt great about that and never found myself at a loss for work. Maybe I'm in a fantasy land but I can't imagine ever running out of things to do in a company that wants to grow.