When Helen handed in her resignation, her manager read it twice.
Then he looked up.
“You’re leaving?”
Helen nodded.
“But why?”
She had expected the question.
She had worked at the National Enterprise Support Authority for seven years. Over that time, she had become the person her department relied on for almost everything. If a stakeholder report needed to go out, she knew where to find the numbers. When a new employee joined, she was often the one asked to show them how things worked.
Her manager used to joke that the department would fall apart without her.
Helen always laughed. This time, she didn’t.
She had accepted an offer from another company. The position came with a better salary, more responsibility and a closer alignment to where she wanted her career to go.
Her manager wasn’t prepared for it.
“Is there anything we can do?”
Helen hesitated.
“I’ve been thinking about this for a while.”
“Can we discuss a counteroffer?”
She shook her head.
The manager looked disappointed.
For years, he had considered Helen one of his most valuable employees. He had trusted her with important work because he knew she would get it right.
What he hadn’t noticed was that every time a new responsibility came up, he gave it to Helen without considering what her career plans were.
Whenever the team needed to meet tough targets, Helen was asked to lead the strategy.
Whenever a difficult partner needed attention, Nadia handled it.
She had become indispensable. But she had also become stuck.
When her manager spoke to the department about her resignation, the reaction was immediate.
“Who is going to handle the stakeholders?”
“Who knows how to prepare that report?”
“Has anyone else been trained on this?”
The questions weren’t about why Helen was leaving.
They were about what would happen after she left.
Helen completed her notice period and handed over everything she could.
On her last day, her manager thanked her for everything she had done for the department.
He meant it. But as he watched her walk out, he couldn’t help thinking about how different things might have been if he had asked the right questions earlier.
He had spent years making sure the company could not do without her.
He had never stopped to consider whether she could do without the company.
Lessons for Leaders
Don’t let an employee’s value become a reason to hold them back. The more capable an employee becomes, the more important it is to create opportunities that match their growth.
Being indispensable isn’t the same as being fulfilled. An employee can be critical to a team and still feel that their career is going nowhere.
Train beyond the role. When one employee becomes the person everyone depends on, don’t let their knowledge remain with them. Cross-train other team members and create opportunities for them to take on parts of the work. This protects the team when that employee is away or eventually moves on.
