Being indispensable can cost you a seat at the table

Being indispensable does not give you a voice in decisions. It makes you the resource people call when something is on fire, not the person they sit down with to prevent the fire.

A **Friday in September** at **10:41 pm**, someone saves a delivery. They have spent **three hours** trying to keep it from going wrong. The client writes: "I knew I could count on you." On Monday they are applauded: "Without you it wouldn't have gone out." That phrase sounds like recognition and like a label.

## The fires you put out define you
**Two weeks later**, they are not invited to decide the project's future. They find out through an email with decisions already made and another urgency due before **Thursday**. You are needed so much to put out fires that they stop seeing you as someone who could prevent them.

Work well done in an emergency does not buy you a voice at the table where decisions are made. Putting out fires buys no voice in decisions. It buys another emergency.

## The meeting you are not invited to
Doing well what you are asked does not guarantee you will be heard when it matters. Sometimes it only guarantees you will be asked for more of the same. **Reglasnoescritas** (Unwritten Rules) addresses these unwritten rules of work.

The next time someone says "I don't know what we'd do without you," it is worth telling two readings apart. One is power: they count on you to make decisions. The other is supply: they need you to keep doing exactly what you do. **Being indispensable** does not give you a voice in decisions. The fix is putting a price on urgency, documenting what you prevent, and asking to get in before the fire exists. It sounds less heroic. It also sounds more expensive for someone who only wanted a firefighter.