I’ve hired and managed a lot of people in my career. Every once in a while, I get a highly confident engineer that looks at the series of tasks at-hand and worries out loud to me: “I’m going to work myself out of a job.” They see a list of chronic problems to be solved and a bunch of manual processes to be automated. They see themselves as equal to the task. That’s a good thing, but there’s more to the equation.

When I hear this, my response is always the same: “I dare you. No one has ever worked themselves out of a job while they work for me. Do not underestimate my ability to generate work!”

The crazy assumption

Follow the logic (or illogic) in this order:

1. The job is statically confined to supporting a specific technology when it breaks and completing the various work requests that come into the queue for that same technology.
2. The aforementioned tasks equate to one full time job at approximately 40-50 hours per week.
3. The engineer will invest some additional time and talent into automation and stability.
4. The result is the original scope of work is now 10 hours per week.
5. Because the engineer is twiddling her thumbs, and no longer needed, I fire her.

What’s wrong with this picture?

1. The engineer sees “the job” as support and request fulfillment. This is something perceived as perpetual.
2. The engineer sees automation and stability as a finite project. It will start and it will end.
3. The manager manages by outcome alone.
4. Since the outcome is met, the manager might as well reduce staffing expenses and earn a bonus for creating some efficiency.
5. The manager just killed the goose that was laying golden eggs.
6. The goose was thinking way too small all along.

Where does work come from?

Me. It comes from me. I’m not very good at a lot of things, but I am really good at making work. If you automate one thing for me, I’ll give you 10 more things to automate. Better yet, I’ll ask you to teach 10 other people to do what you did, so they can do likewise.

Engineer: Everything is automated and stable. Is there anything left?

Me: Yes. Refactor everything and pay down the tech debt.

Engineer: Great. The tech debt is gone, now what?

Me: Get busy working on that new business demand that’s the size of Mount Everest. We had to begrudgingly ignore it before, but now we can act.

Engineer: I climbed Mount Everest, came back, and the business is ecstatic. Should I go home now?

Me: No, I need you to tighten our security. The threat landscape changed and our old practices aren’t good enough anymore.

Engineer: Done. We are so secure, I cannot even log in.

Me: Excellent!

Engineer: Am I done yet?

Me: I’ve been meaning to talk to about the code you previously refactored. It needs refactoring again.

Engineer: Zach, remember all of those blog articles you wrote about using your PTO and such?

Me: Oh yeah. I guess you can go do that.

Engineer: Thanks.

Me: So, you still think you’ll ever work yourself out of a job while you are working for me?

Engineer: I had no idea how wrong I could be.

“Work for Zach Hughes, they said. It’ll be fun, they said.”

Working for me is fun, but it’s also a lot of work. My job is to generate work. Not for the sole sake of keeping people gainfully employed and busy, but because I have an insatiable appetite for progress. I have an unlimited vision for what we can become as an organization.

When will we be done? Never, as long as I am here. The very concept of “having arrived” doesn’t even fit into my mental model of possibilities. Whenever we reach maturity in a certain way, I’ll find the catalyst to start us on the next innovation curve.