No one’s indispensable — and that’s a good thing

Recently in passing, I heard someone mention how their organization had a small backlog of purchase orders building up because the employee who handled that was on vacation.

Well, it’s certainly not a problem that the employee went on vacation — everyone needs vacations. They’re good for mental health and help people come back to their jobs refreshed and more productive.

But what is an issue is that no one else was equipped to take over that person’s duties while they took a well-deserved break.

That’s why you’ll find cross-training is a best practice followed by highly successful workplaces, evidenced by the fact that roughly 68% of the 141 companies in this year’s Best Places to Work in Virginia cohort implement cross-training and/or job shadowing programs. (See our April 2026 cover story for the full list of our 2026 Best Places to Work.)

Cross-training makes sense for a variety of reasons — people take new jobs, get promoted or retire. They get sick, go on vacation or take maternity leave. Sadly, sometimes people even die unexpectedly. For these and other reasons, at least one other person should be trained enough that they could pitch in and take over as needed, no matter the task.

That’s certainly not to say that someone helping out in an ad hoc capacity should be expected to demonstrate the same level of proficiency as the person who does that task regularly. But at least operations don’t have to grind to a halt or be put on hold while the regular person is out of the office temporarily.

Cross-training can create synergies between workers and departments, breaking down silos and building greater internal respect for each other’s responsibilities. It can expose people to new career possibilities they hadn’t considered and result in a workforce that is more engaged. And of course, it preserves institutional knowledge and ensures continuity of operations.

For morale, organizations should be deliberate and transparent when introducing and implementing cross-training. If brought forward in a positive way, most workers will easily buy into the commonsense need for more than one person to know how to perform mission-essential duties. But implemented incorrectly, it can induce fears of layoffs or replacement.

And by all means, don’t do what this company did: In February, a viral news story started trending after a 58-year-old North Carolina woman posted a TikTok video recounting how she parted ways with her employer after she was passed over for a promotion in favor of a less-qualified, less-experienced (and presumably less-expensive) 25-year-old employee — who the older worker was then asked to train. Yikes. Not a good look. (Not to mention possible grounds for an age discrimination suit.)

We all like to think we are essential. And we all bring unique strengths and insights to our positions, but at the end of the day, we will one day, one way or another, leave these jobs. So, it would be better to make sure others are equipped to build on and learn from our successes and hard-won expertise, even if it’s just while we sip margaritas for a couple weeks on a Caribbean beach.