Sure they can. No one is irreplaceable. They’ll hire in replacements, and if things go south, they’ll blame a lack of training.
I’ve worked in IT for 25+ years. EVERYONE is replaceable.
IT is a commodity workforce at the level provisioning equipment, networks, security and backups. The end users of that equipment are not commodities. US Gov is about to learn that in a very painful way.
In many business they can function with the replacements.
However, over time the quality of the product and service can begin to degrade.
At some point the executives stare at all the red ink on their accounting statements and wonder what happened.
Small businesses have less margin for error.
I know the feeling.
The guy who hired me retired and it took a while to get a handle on things. When the network guy was gone, same but my little group has adapted and moved on.
An old ship’s chief engineer once told me the test to see if you are irreplaceable. Stick your hand in a bucket of water. When you pull out your hand and the water stays in the form of your hand, you are irreplaceable.
Despite 25 years of experience, countless classes and exams, 4 different state exam and review board licenses and continuing education class requirements. yep, you can be replaced by a guy they hired off the street with zero experience, as long as there’s one guy with a valid license willing to sign his name to the nubs paperwork... Ive read about power plants melting down because no one knew what they were actually doing or had the training required to recognize when the sht was about to hit the fan.
True, but one might ask Mr. Alec Baldwin about hiring a qualified armorer on his movie set. He killed someone because he didn't have the right talent. He's lucky it wasn't 'Russian roulette' scene. (although he'd likely have checked the weapon).
I worked for a multi-billion dollar company whose executives extolled the philosophy that no one was replaceable, but did nothing to gain the replacements. They failed their way into bankruptcy; not a buyout, not a merger, but a complete shutdown.
No one is thought to be irreplaceable until the company finds out too late. Think of how many firms disappeared after their founders died.
Not where I worked. 10 control room operators, all unvaxxed, all under a union contract that defines the line of progression. They can’t just stick someone in the 10 positions outlined in the contract. They don’t have management people qualified to run the control rooms, and the contract doesn’t allow it even if they did.
Biden is F’ing up a lot of companies with the mandate.
Many managers certainly believe that. But there are very real costs for thinking of software developers as "plug and play."
“I’ve worked in IT for 25+ years. EVERYONE is replaceable.”
Probably true for IT when they can just crack to doors open a little wider on certain classes of foreign worker visas for needed technical skills. Probably not true for airline pilots in the short or medium term. The supply of skilled nurses, EMT’s & police officers is also pretty inelastic in the short-run. Throw union contracts into the mix and this is where the mandates start to unravel.