Use to audit your own role: is there anything I do that would still need doing if it made no one look important? Use when restructuring an org chart — a flunky is an unnecessary subordinate (the opposite pole from a taskmaster); cut the role, not the person, if the role is only status.

Recognize it in the wild: the job has no real function, but eliminating it would make someone look LESS important. Receptionists are a 'Badge of Seriousness'; other flunkies are 'Badges of Importance.' The tell is that the work is trivial (wind a clock, fill a candy dish) or pure theater (stand by the door looking regal) — the person is there to be a prop for someone else's status.