I am my own employer. I often hate myself but I have never considered firing myself.

12 years at a billion dollar company. I was indispensable to the business unit, but the unit itself wasn't. Entire lot got made redundant.

This is the truth OP is burying their head in the sand to avoid.

Everyone is indispensable until they aren't.

Every business is profitable until they aren't.

And these days, with the insane expenses and revolving credit businesses all rely on, damn near any business can end up insolvent in the blink of an eye.

I went through 2009 as a young programmer. The whole rest of my life has been built around surviving the next recession. I started interviewing when I saw home and rent prices surge half way above average salaries. A couple things I learned from the last one:

- Government adjacent jobs that are needed are good, especially if part of a requirement contract with a publicly traded company

- Geography ultimately determines impact; recessions move like earthquakes. Cities can bounce back quick.

- Cash is king, but be ready to switch back to stock based comp

- You won't get a home deal right away, it takes a bit for people to give up and sell their home. Bankruptcy takes longer.

- Every 5% of unemployment results in 40k suicides, be nice to folks. Everyone's hurting.

To be honest, not sure.

I'm currently working at a FAANG as a vendor and I'm about to apply internally. I'm already seeing a decrease in job postings which mean I'll potentially have to compete against more people but I'm lucky to have several referrals lined up which will help. If it doesn't work, I'll apply elsewhere but in any cases I'll have to surf this wave as a new hire somewhere.

On the other end, I'm lucky to live in a country (Canada) where a good unemployment insurance program exist so if it ever has to come to that, not too bad I guess.

At least I won't have any visa issues as I applied for the citizenship. I can't wait!

We are all replaceable.

During one of my internships, a guy talked about his career and specifically one job he had in the IT department of a big French TV channel. His team had a lot of turnover to the point that only him knew everything about the projects and how to make them work. In this context, he asked his boss for a raise and he said: "Cemeteries are filled with indispensable people".

Not if you own your own company. You’ll always be the founder/president and own your ip even if you have no customers.