Layoff-proof your job... by writing yourself out of a job

In a time of layoffs, why the smartest thing you can do is writing exactly how to do your job

Author

Regina Gerbeaux
March 23, 2025 • Reading Time: 12 minutes

Hi! Welcome to another issue of Force Multipliers, your weekly briefing from Regina Gerbeaux, where Silicon Valley's behind-the-scenes operators get battle-tested frameworks for their toughest challenges, from putting out chaotic fires to managing strong personalities.

Layoff-proof your job... by writing yourself out of a job

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that layoffs have been sweeping across all sectors, verticals, and industries.

It doesn’t matter how big or small your company is, whether you’re a new-ish grad or someone who’s been in the workforce for decades: you or someone you know has likely heard, “We’re restructuring, and your job has been impacted.”

This is especially true for operators, where our roles are less well-defined, and measurements of success are a little more ambiguous. While our contributions are vital, they aren’t always easily quantifiable.

So, what's the best way to protect your position as an Operator? Counterintuitively, the answer lies in doing something that might seem career-suicidal: writing yourself out of a job.

That is the Paradox of Job Security. Why would you want to document exactly how to do your job? Wouldn't that make you easily replaceable?

Actually, the opposite is true. By methodically documenting your processes and responsibilities, you demonstrate strategic thinking and leadership potential that makes you more valuable, not less.

Today’s Playbook is dedicated to layoff-proofing your job.

The Playbook to Layoff-Proofing Your Operator Role

1. Do work around the work 💡 

The first step in securing your position is mastering the art of communicating your value. This means not just doing your job well, but ensuring that your contributions are visible and understood.

I wrote pretty extensively about this in Issue #1 of Force Multipliers, The Operators Who Make the Machine Run, so I won’t rehash everything out here. But the TL;DRs you need to follow:

2. Chart your career path 💡 

One of the most important elements of job security is having a clear career trajectory, and that that opportunity exists at your current company.

If you don’t, you’ll write yourself out of a job, and then find you have no job to turn to. Know what you want to do next, or at least have a few ideas on what might interest you!

If you don’t have clarity here, please hire a career coach to help you think this one through. I highly recommend engaging with Rob Collier, for example, who has helped many of his clients successfully navigate career pivots and growth opportunities. Just a few month’s of coaching can yield wildly beneficial results.

Once you have this clarity, make it super obvious where and how you want to grow with the company to the right stakeholders. You are far less likely to be impacted by a layoff if leaders can imagine what role you’d fill in a leaner version of the company, or if they can visualize your growth with the company into the future.

Story Time ✍️

Recently, I helped a unicorn company figure out who to cut in a round of layoffs that impacted 25% of their workforce.

As we went through the list, the top two reasons people were impacted by layoffs were because:

1. Leadership had a hard time visualizing where the teammate would grow with the company, and

2. The teammate wasn’t contributing to the company’s mission-critical areas in any obvious or meaningful way.

The takeaway: make sure it’s clear they can visualize your growth, by making it obvious where you want to grow with the company and why you’re the right person to fill that role!

3. Master the Art of Likability

One constantly-overlooked superpower is the art of being super likable.Obviously, you need to be good at your job to keep your job. But it is hard to let go of someone who is likable, competent, and on a continual growth trajectory that aligns with that of the company’s.

Being highly likable while maintaining professional excellence creates a powerful combination that makes you incredibly valuable to any organization.

Remember: It's exponentially harder to let go of someone who is competent, likable, and consistently demonstrates growth potential.

To practice likability, ask yourself what the people on your team value. What is the company culture? There have been plenty of books written on the Art of Likability, most notably How to Win Friends and Influence People, so I won’t rehash it here. But some general key points to remember:

  • Communicate your accomplishments in a way that showcases your work without coming across as arrogance.

  • Support your teammates and contribute to whatever company culture has been defined.

  • Show that you are loyal to your company’s success through not only words, but actions.

Learn how to do this, and it’s unlikely you will find yourself on the chopping block of layoffs.

4. The Power of Documentation: Write yourself out of your current job 📝 

This is simultaneously the most controversial and most powerful strategy to layoff-proofing yourself: write yourself out of your current role.

This means creating comprehensive and meticulous Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for literally everything repeatable that you do.

HERE IS YOUR BIGGEST TAKEAWAY: When you document your processes thoroughly, you're not making yourself replaceable - you're making yourself promotable.

The main pushback I get when telling Operators to write themselves out of a job is a story of fear. Most people are worried that somehow, management will think anyone can replace you with those sexy, sexy SOPs you written. Then, you’ll be let go.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. In actuality, by writing how to do your job, you are:

  • Proving you can think strategically and operationally

  • Capable of thinking at a systems level, not just a task level

  • Instantly freed up to do more mission-critical work with responsibilities that are more valuable to the company

  • Positioned as someone who can train and lead others

Think back to Point #3 above: Charting your career path. By documenting yourself out of your current role, you now free yourself up time-wise to do things that actually interest and excite you. Your managers and leaders will want to give you even bigger ownership around mission-critical pieces.

💡 REALITY CHECK MOMENT:

No one likes this, but we have to say it. The higher ranks you rise, the less likely you are to get laid off. Why? Because instead of being laid off, you’ll be involved with planning the layoffs themselves.

Remember the Banking Crisis of 2008? Remember The Lehman Brothers? In the end, who went to jail? Not the bigwigs, I’ll tell you that much. It was the small-time bankers that became the fall guys so banks could point to someone and say, “See? That guy went to jail. Justice was served!”

It isn’t fair, but it’s reality. The higher up you go, the more power you have. The more power you have, the more control you have over your role and your destiny. This is the game that exists, and you would be wise to learn to play it.

Layoff-proofing yourself as an IC: focusing on mission-critical work

A lot of what I’ve written above seems more appropriate if your ultimate career path is one that goes into upper level management. But what about those of you who love being ICs? Is it impossible to layoff-proof an IC role?

The answer is no - you can totally layoff-proof an IC role too - but it is very hard. Your job has to include responsibilities where your work is mission-critical, and it cannot be automated or outsourced to someone who will do your work for cheaper.

When it comes to layoff-proofing your work as an IC, ask yourself what is truly mission-critical for your company. Here are three questions you can ask yourself to answer this prompt:

  • What makes my company money today? Can I define my role in such a way that it directly impacts the bottom line or top line/revenue?

  • How could I define my role so that the company’s ability to make money would be impaired if I wasn’t here? What would make my boss say, “We need X; without them, we would stop making money and the company would fall apart!” (Don’t do this maliciously; that would make you an asshole. BUT! Do take on responsibilities that make you indispensable.)

  • Am I solving real problems that are, at the end of the day, critical to business operations? (This has to be easily answered as yes or no. If your answer is: Well, sort of, I think it is, but it’s hard to say…, then the answer is no.)

    To define this better, think about the people on your team for a second. If I said, “Who is one person on your team right now where, if that person left, the company would be utterly screwed?” A person came to mind! That person’s role is mission-critical.

    Now, point it back at yourself. Can you say your role is as important as this person’s? Can you do anything to make it more important, like this person’s? (The answer is almost always: yes.)

  • Is there an opportunity for me to leverage my context-heavy knowledge? One of the best things IC Operators have going for them is valuable context-based knowledge.

    For example, if you’re a Chief of Staff or an EA, how well do you know the personalities on your executive leadership team? How well do you know everyone on the team? Are you good at the interpersonal stuff?

    These are all incredibly valuable things. Showcase them to your leaders. Even if you aren’t doing something super tangible like shipping code, if you’re seen as the “people whisperer” or a true confidante to the rest of the team, this makes you indispensable.

The Metamorphosis Principle: Be a Butterfly

In summary - think of writing yourself out of a job as a form of professional metamorphosis.

Like a caterpillar entering its chrysalis, the process might feel vulnerable and counterintuitive. You might worry that by documenting your processes, you're making yourself redundant.

But just as the caterpillar must enter the chrysalis to become a butterfly, you must be willing to transform your role to reach new professional heights. You cannot become a butterfly, ready to fly, if you are afraid of entering the darkness and unknown of the chrysalis.

The very act of making yourself replaceable at your current level is what makes you irreplaceable at the next level up.

Until next time,

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About Regina Gerbeaux

Regina Gerbeaux was the first Chief of Staff to an executive coach who worked with Silicon Valley’s most successful entrepreneurs, including Brian Armstrong (Coinbase), Naval Ravikant (AngelList), Sam Altman (OpenAI / Y Combinator), and Alexandr Wang (Scale).

Shortly after her role as Chief of Staff, then COO, she opened her own coaching practice, Coaching Founder, and has worked with outrageously talented operators on teams like Delphi AI, dYdX, Astronomer, Fanatics Live, and many more companies backed by funds like Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz.

Her open-sourced write-ups on Operational Excellence and how to run a scaling company can be found here and her templates can be found here.

She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her partner Lucas and dog Leia, and can be found frequenting 6:00AM Orangetheory classes or hiking trails nearby.

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