“That Isn’t My Job”: How to get ahead by seeing the big picture
Wow how I hate those words! I have very little authority and they still bug me. I was scanning and processing some deliverables today at work preparing them for a client (not in my job description) when I overhead one of the support staff workers complaining about exceeding her job description. Evidently our company released new job descriptions for our support staff (processors, assistants, secretaries, receptionist etc…). Hers changed to “Duplication and Mail Processing”. Irate about this, she goes on a rant saying, that is all I’m going to do! Duplicate and mail! One manager asks her to process some returns, she replies, “sorry, that isn’t my job, you’ll have to go to Susan.” But Susan is sick, guess now a manager has to do this and charge his client ungodly amounts of money to photocopy, staple, stamp, and collate. This got me thinking.
Why don’t some people see the big picture? It isn’t what you do for the office or for a specific manager. Its what you do for the company and for the clients that really matters, that is what makes the money. In a service industry like accounting (0r any industry for that matter), it is all about the deliverable. You need to be fairly priced and provide a great product, and it takes a team, and people filling in when needed to accomplish the goal. It is everyone’s responsibility to bring this to the client. Here is an article by Rick Darci and his opinion on job descriptions:
When everyone understands and embraces the big picture, when managers let employees function out of the box, good things happen. People realize it is their job and gladly go about doing it.
Its a good article. You can’t go up in many organizations without going beyond your job description. I know most of you don’t need this but I encourage all of you to look at your descriptions, then look at the responsibilities of the people above you, and begin trying out their job. Don’t step on toes, tread carefully, but begin preparing yourself for new roles, reaching beyond your comfort zone and job description. In many instances the people above you would welcome the extra help and initiative on your part. Avoid being “retired in place.”
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Tags: Career Development, Management, Productivity, Young Professionals
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February 5th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I appreciate this post and its sentiment. As someone who entered my workplace as an intern (a.k.a. generalist) I was able to fill the position as the bottom-line. My first year I was okay with that. I loved it, actually. I filled all sorts of shoes doing what others considered small work, and picked up some experience in tasks all through the office in things both mundane and important.
THings have changed; all one has to do is build a niche. To this day I can appreciate the fact that since no one in our office holds the “document collation, binding and sending/filing” position, it gets shuffled depending on which department could do with the extra billable work. In the end, the branch manager simply costs too much for that work!