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How do you respond?
Life in Workforce Management
How do you respond?
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Our nonprofit agency for all employees and management functions are based on teamwork support. All job descriptions state other duties as assigned.
An employee in another dept has just been delegat
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Forums » Topic Forums » Life in Workforce Management » How do you respond?
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How do you respond?
posted at 5/14/2003 5:34 AM EDT
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Posts: 1
First: 5/14/2003 Last: 5/14/2003 |
Our nonprofit agency for all employees and management functions are based on teamwork support. All job descriptions state other duties as assigned.
An employee in another dept has just been delegated a basic task from a Sr. Manager of type a short memo and to distribute it to all managers and supervisors. The employee's response is: That is not in my job description. Or This is not part of my job. As an HR Manager or Director how would you respond to this? |
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How do you respond?
posted at 5/14/2003 8:25 AM EDT
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Posts: 18
First: 1/8/2003 Last: 7/8/2003 |
I would respond that job descriptions are flexible and that a manager has asked you to complete a task. Unless their is a viable business reason for not completing the task(ie. something more pressing/mission critical that is being worked on right now), then you are required to complete this task. Failure to do so will be considered insubordinate and may lead to disciplinary action. Might sound harsh, but in most organizations today, there is not enough people for the "not my job" attitude. |
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How do you respond?
posted at 5/15/2003 7:40 PM EDT
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Posts: 495
First: 9/30/2000 Last: 8/19/2011 |
I agree with the clause that says "other duties", as long as it is within a reasonable realm of the job. You say it is a "basic task", but what tasks were identified upon hire?
You mentioned "team work". How much of a team are you? Has this person been with your organization long enough to feel comfortable sending a memo to managers? Would this be a normal expectation or was this person hired as an assistant? Not all individuals feel comfortable sending messages from lower to higher grounds. |
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How do you respond?
posted at 6/22/2003 10:48 AM EDT
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Posts: 30
First: 6/22/2003 Last: 12/14/2004 |
I'm reminded of an approach advocated by Stephen Covey. Seek first to understand and then be understood.
I would want to try to understand why this employee decided to take the stance they did. Certainly I have no problem with the "other duties as directed" as we call it, but there is an opportunity here to engage the employee in an open conversation about this situation. It would be a shame to miss this opportunity, which is what would happen if you discipline first. Carol |
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How do you respond?
posted at 7/10/2003 8:26 AM EDT
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Posts: 6
First: 7/9/2003 Last: 7/10/2003 |
This is a fantastic response, Carol, and you are absolutely right. There may very well be some other issues going on between employee and manager that would solicit that kind of a response, and those are the things that can be worth discovering. By some of the responses posted, it's no wonder that we HR people have a bad rap. |
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