We tend to exaggerate our importance to our workplaces. The longer someone has been at a job, the more inclined they are to think they’re irreplaceable. In actuality, after I leave my job, and you leave yours, things will be just fine.
I realize that because I’ve been thinking about how many times my co-workers mention the three people who have left for other jobs or retired in the last couple of years. The harsh reality of it is hardly ever. The saying “Gone, but not forgotten,” doesn’t jive with my experience.
Before I retired from my elementary school position, I worried about how my ‘special’ students would fare. I’d worked with them for three years, and we were very important to each other—or so I thought! Life rolled on, and we all survived just fine!
When I stopped coaching at OLY, I was forgotten within a year. C’est la vie!!