Your work is valuable. Your skills are important.  But still, your company doesn’t need you.  Employees have been the backbone of the modern world of work since the industrial revolution, but modern technology is causing rapid changes that are destabilizing the importance of each and every employee.

While the traditional employer-employee structure has worked well to drive capitalism since the late 1700s, the future of work is one where employees will make up only a small subset of every company’s workforce, starting now in the modern 2000s and beyond.  In the coming years, a major shift will take place where most companies will migrate from having predominantly full-time employed workers, into a structure where only a small number of critical leadership roles will continue to be performed by employees.

In the future of work, the vast majority of non-leadership positions will be held by a flexible workforce composed of independent contractors and gig workers.

“I’ve worked with the company for the past 9 years and there’s nobody who knows how to do these things better than I do.”

“No, I’m not fully happy with the work I do, but I know things will fall apart if I stop.  I can’t leave my company just like that.”

Sadly, many employees are yet to realize that their company is likely planning for their exit. During the time when I did 1-on-1 career consulting with professionals who were looking for a change, I heard different variations of “they\ company really needs me” at least once every couple of weeks.  Most employees feel that their role is vital for the work that their company is doing.  Some people feel guilty simply considering leaving their job because they believe nobody would be able to sustain the juggling act they’ve been performing—balancing a million balls in the air all for the benefit of their employer.

The truth is: your company would be perfectly fine without you.

Your company doesn’t need you.

And, in all likelihood, your company is definitely making plans to replace you.

Nearly everyone in the workforce is aware of the impact that technology adoption is having on the type and amount of work available. On one hand, automation, big data, and artificial intelligence are replacing many of the routine tasks that have formerly been performed by people.  Much in the same way that ATMs replaced bank tellers, self-driving cars positioned to replace drivers are just one example of the multiple routine jobs that will be displaced by technology.

On the other hand, those very same disruptive technologies are requiring new tasks to be performed and creating new roles for workforce professionals to enter.  Experts have estimated that 65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately engage in completely new job and work types that don’t even exist yet. 

If we assess the impact of technology from a company perspective, we see two opposite but complimentary actions employers are likely to take:

1. Reduce the number of long-term workers they have on payroll.  Since it is clear that advances in technology are replacing the routine tasks performed by people, companies can reduce their cost of doing business by significantly cutting down payroll expenses.
2. Increase the number of short-term workers to create a flexible workforce.  Tasks that can’t be replaced by technology will still need people to perform them.  However, these tasks can be structured as projects, and performed by teams of flexible contract workers.

To many, this gig and independent worker based structure of the future of work may still seem far away.  To those paying attention to workforce trends, these changes are clearly taking place right now.  In the World Economic Forum’s The Future of Jobs Report 2020, 43% of businesses surveyed indicated that they aim to “reduce their workforce due to technology integration, 41% plan to expand their use of contractors for task-specialized work, and 34% plan to expand their workforce due to technology integration.” 

When looking at the data, it’s evident that employers are preparing to reduce their employee base and create or expand their pool of flexible contractors.  What is not clear is whether or not the broader working age population of professionals is preparing for this shift.

I often talk about these trends shaping the future of work, and I’m usually met with some level of shock, acceptance, and dismay from people who work at large companies.  They understand immediately how these changes will directly impact them and their livelihood in the coming years.   Surprisingly, employees of small and mid-sized firms often express indifference and general lack of concern.

“It’s mostly really big companies that are shifting to contractors and gig workers. Smaller companies don’t operatelike that. They need their employees.”

Unfortunately, this is merely wishful thinking.

While it’s true that the dynamics affecting large companies are different from those of smaller organizations, it’s usually a matter of when—not if—those same changes will trickle down across all company sizes and industries. Though only a relatively small portion of the world’s 3 billion person workforce is employed at large corporations, Fortune 500 companies and their ilk act as influencers of business and employment decision-making for all.  The direction set by large firms often drive the employment transformations for national and local labor markets.  As the big companies prepare to reduce their long-term employees and expand short-term contract workers, medium and small-sized firms will subsequently follow to do the same.

So, going back to the title of the article, yes– your company doesn’t need you.  The company needs workers, but it not a must that those workers be in the form of employees.  Right now, while companies are just beginning to prepare for the future of work where independent contractors form the majority of the population, it’s in every working age person’s best interest to prepare their working style for this future:

Most importantly, start aggressively developing your skills and building your own platform now.  Not only will you be more prepared to thrive in the coming future of work than most current employees, you’ll also be better positioned to create high financial value for yourself on your path to success as an independent.