The job you accidentally invented

Every growing business ends up with at least one role that no outside labour market can replace, and it usually isn't the one on the org chart you'd expect.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for The job you accidentally invented

Someone resigns. Not a director, not a rainmaker: the person who runs the office, or schedules the engineers, or handles the one client who needs handling. Three months later the business is still absorbing the gap, and the replacement hire hasn’t worked out. The post-mortem usually lands on the individual: they were exceptional, hard to replace, we were unlucky with the successor. That explanation is comfortable and almost always wrong. The problem is rarely the person. It is that the role they held did not exist anywhere else in the…

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Important: General information only. Rialto Bridge articles describe patterns and considerations that may apply to a business; they are not financial, legal, tax or accounting advice, and they take no account of your particular circumstances. Consider your own situation and seek advice from a qualified professional before acting.

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