"Mission critical" vs "linchpin"

     I did not realize how important my little "assistant admin/ executive assistant" job was until we all had to work from home. I do a lot of jobs, most of which boil down into organizing, communication, and research. Which are all things that anyone can do, right? 

     Apparently not. Gonna keep it vague, but there's a payment system in place that, to people not in my department (and apparently everyone but me in my department), looks like this:

1. Contractor sends in a bunch of files asking for payment. 
2. I save them, put the info into a spreadsheet for easier comparison, send to John (not real name).
3. John reviews it to be sure they're only getting paid for work done, sends to Accounting. 
4. Accounting enters it into the system, sends it to Greg (not real name - my and John's boss, head of our department) for approval. 
5. Greg approves it, Accounting cuts the check, Contractor gets paid, yay!

 Seems pretty simple, right? Here's a bit more detail:

1. Contractor sends in a bunch of files asking for payment. 
2. I:
1. Save them and the email they came in on;
2. Name them appropriately;
3. Ensure each file is rotated correctly, legible, signed, notarized, and matches what's being requested on the main payment request;
4. Put the requested amounts and who requested what into a spreadsheet for easier tracking;
5. Make sure we have signed agreements for everyone asking for payment;
6. Make sure their lien waivers (receipts) for the last payment add up to what we paid them;
7. Save the lien waivers in their own folder, separate from the pay requests;
8. Check any change orders requested to make sure they're signed and the numbers match;
9. Reply back to the Contractor with any discrepancies or questions;
10. Combine all the files in a specific order and save with a specific naming convention in a specific place. Once everything is proper, I then
11. Send to John.
3. John reviews it to be sure they're only getting paid for work done, and signs it. I then:
1. Save appropriately, 
2. Update file names to reflect this level of approval, and
3. Send it to Accounting, letting them know all the supporting files are in their proper places so they can find the files on their own without bugging me. 
4. Accounting enters it into the system, sends it to Greg (not real name - my and John's boss, head of our department) for approval. (There's probably more in these next steps I don't know about, but that's not the point of this post.)
5. Greg approves it, Accounting cuts the check, Contractor gets paid, yay!

Apparently, in the one hour that I was on lunch break one day this week, Greg asked John what the status of the pay application was, and John decided he could take care of that real fast. The resulting 20+ emails I came back to when John missed several all of my steps and no one thought to look at original emails or other backup processes was informative, to say the least. Thankfully, it took me only 2 emails to the various panicking parties to assure them that everything was fine, just premature and not properly prepared. 

     In light of the current pandemic, I am certainly not saying that my position is urgent, required, emergency, etc - nothing compared to the people keeping society actually running right now. But I don't think I'll ever say "my job is not important" again, because obviously it is.