Its Not in My Job Description

[Anonymous]

Why are there some people who refuse to do work because it wasn't outlined in a job description? Why do they not pitch in for the good of the company. These people seem to get away with it. Please enlighten me. I don't think this is normal.

[Anonymous]

Is there anyone out there who subscribes to this notion?? Why do you refuse to do work unless it is specifically outlined?? Are you lazy, arrogant....??

[Anonymous]

It's "it's."

[Anonymous]

Well that would depend on the type of extra work you are referring to, share some examples. Pitching in for the company will depend on how well or not the company treats its employees ( benefits and pay etc). Also this will also depend on the type of leadership. I've worked with managers that are great leaders and I will go above and beyond for them. If you are a horrible leader then you are not getting the best work at of your staff.

[Anonymous]

I am an attorney. I would do most anything. Though, if my job all of a sudden became scrubbing toilets, etc for anything other than an emergency, it's not for me. So, if you fire your admin I will pick up some slack (some), but don't think you have a new admin resource for an extended period of time.

[Anonymous]

This is me once I hit my 30s

I cared in my 20s and it got me nowhere. Promotions were pretty random

Also companies lay people off right and left. I don't owe anything to the company and they don't owe anything to me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well that would depend on the type of extra work you are referring to, share some examples. Pitching in for the company will depend on how well or not the company treats its employees ( benefits and pay etc). Also this will also depend on the type of leadership. I've worked with managers that are great leaders and I will go above and beyond for them. If you are a horrible leader then you are not getting the best work at of your staff.

If you are a manager and people are saying this to you, I would examine your own leadership skills and the workload of your staff. It is highly likely that there is something else going on besides pure laziness.

[Anonymous]

Use to do anything and everything. Realized depending of the company structure and management that this doesn't always translate to promotions or raises. Currently work at a place where nothing is appreciated and all of my extra time and effort could be spent on a lot of things so I have pulled back and do what I was hired to do, if there is a gap in tasks then the management should realize they need to hire others or re-work peoples job descriptions and pay structure to reflect the additional work load. I never thought I would come to this place as an employee but you get to a point in your career where sometimes its the only option.

[Anonymous]

Federal government? I hear this a lot. We don't have any admin or secretarial staff and the older lawyers think it's beneath them to file or to purchase their own equipment. For a while, these tasks got assigned to the youngest who also happened to be women. But then when younger guys (with lesser degrees) were hired and they didn't have to ever do any secretarial work, we all rebelled. What is it about being a woman exactly that makes me better at filing? I frequently told people it wasn't in my job description to make copies or file. And people respected that and I got treated more equal.

But yeah we have lots of people who refuse to pitch in on joint programs because it's not in their job description. That's why we go to their bosses first. And all our job descriptions include something called "other activities" which is a catch all so that people can't say things like this.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I stopped giving 125% after no raises for 6 years despite superior ratings. I actually remember the day I decided to start giving only 75%. It was a conscious decision.

[Anonymous]

Well, most job descriptions include a phrase "and other duties as assigned" so that's meant to be the catch-all coverage for future tasks that aren't anticipated at the time of hire.

If you're talking about some one outside of your chain of command, then I suppose you could make an argument that they aren't in a position to assign you other duties - your supervisor will have a lot of say in whether that's accurate or not.

The only tasks I push back on and refuse to do are secretarial tasks that older men think of as woman's work and try to give me when no one else is looking, despite the fact that I'm not a secretary - I'm just a woman in a male dominated field. I'm polite in declining, but I still decline.

[Anonymous]

Because I'm not paid enough to do more than my job description calls for. And its not appreciated.

[Anonymous]

It's also an equity issue. If you're asking me, the female employee, to do things that you don't ask the male employee to do -- answer the phones at the front desk, pick up the cupcakes for the party, etc. -- then yes, I will likely tell you it's not in my job description. It's not in Bob's job description and no one is making him do it, so why would you think it's okay to ask me to do it.

[Anonymous]

Once I asked a job applicant, "Describe a time you were asked to do something that was not your job". Her reply: "No such thing. If you want me to push a broom all day, then that's my job". This was for a mid-level office job.

We hired her and she was awesome. That attitude is invaluable in an employee and it's a quality the true stand outs always have. Whatever it takes.

[Anonymous]

I would talk to your co-workers and find out whether they are having the same experience. If 5 co-workers are devoting an hour a day to perform a task that is outside of their job description, management needs hire someone!