In the longer term that is usually a good thing. If they’re the only person who fixes things, that also implies the correct knowledge sharing isn’t happening.
We strive to remove any single point of failure from a hardware point of view, and for me, people are no different
The only exception to this is sales, it’s usually your top biller who you can’t promote - because you want them out there selling. Luckily sales people usually respond to money rather than titles so it’s important to reward those efforts. It’s why some sales people earn more than their managers and 6 figures+ is the norm for good sales people.
This seems to me like a real failure of late stage capitalism. Similar to how factories in the soviet union were overstaffed with middle managers who barely lifted a finger.
I might be wrong but this just seems almost like a ponzi scheme of some sort - keep moving up the middle management chain and getting somebody else to replace you. No offense to darrenwestall, I'm hating the game not the player.
This quote might be relevant:
“I divide my officers into four groups. There are clever, diligent, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. Some are clever and diligent — their place is the General Staff. The next lot are stupid and lazy — they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties. Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the intellectual clarity and the composure necessary for difficult decisions. One must beware of anyone who is stupid and diligent — he must not be entrusted with any responsibility because he will always cause only mischief.”
— General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord