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It's not my job: A self-fulfilling prophecy

I started out as an IT Intern for a small building and remodeling company.

I was happy as hell just to have a job. Soon I was asked to make coffee for a meeting the owner of the company was holding. So I did it.

I was next getting office supplies. Soon the boss was calling me at home to do personal errands. I bought him a beer keg for his wife's birthday party, at 4 in the morning I brought him bait for fishing trip. I was called to the office because I was told it was an emergency it turned out he needed me to pick him up a pizza and a veal parmesan.

More and more I was taken away from working on servers and fixing workstations to handle other duties.

When I resigned my job title was officially changed to the owners personal assistant I was pushing and filling the mountain of paper that kept coming out of his fax machine since he would never ask me for a document and just had it re-faxed.

I know this is an extreme case, but I keep thinking that there had to be a place so say no.

Your old boss is a jerk. You're right--that is the flip side of this situation--occasionally you'll run across a boss who doesn't deserve your respect and flexibility. Glad you're out of there.

Investigate fully the job description of any post. In one post I was promoted to my bosses' job, he became uber manager. I was left with the task of sorting out all his bloody awful mistakes and achieving miracles on a substantially smaller budget than his already problematic one. I only took the job so that I could pay my way through college, but it was beginning to eat into all of my study hours, so I let them go.

Later, when I qualified, I took on a research post; the quality of IT was dire, the instruments the IT monitored were also second rate, the proprietary software that ran the setup and collected the data was of a poor quality, the boss apparently had no theory and thus no hypothesis, had not applied for ethical approval and thus had not recruited a sample population, the security software was almost non existent, and I constantly found myself distracted by the need to blow the rest of the department's nose for IT and security problems (one consultant used to bring viruses in via sneakernet, there was no TSR AV, and I was reduced to bringing in my own bootable AV floppy to cleanup; these days it'd be a bootable CD-ROM) that had nothing to do with my work and hard won qualifications in neuroscience, in fact the whole thing was an expensive ruddy mess, for which pain my only compensation was an exhorbitant salary. When I left they lost both tape backups of all of my work, which they discovered after the department was burgled and all of the IT was taken. I nearly cried. I won't even be a footnote for all of my hard work there.

I could have avoided this and taken the next job if I had cross questioned my future boss more fully at interview. As it was she was impressed with all of my qualifications and knowledge and evidently could not wait to hire me and have me sort out the mess made by buying second rate equipment and software, the support for which was so bad that the supplier neglected to provide updates, thereby making a difficult job even more difficult.

Since then I've tended to police my interviews carefully, demonstrating the wisdom from occupational psychology that interviews are bi directional.

The gist of the article is to not become too "welded" to your job description.
But here's a cautionary tale.

Beware taking on everything you're handed. I've done everything I've been given, including lots of work that actually fits in other people's job description.

And now, I'm actually doing three different jobs, and they are not ones that can be easily filled by any single person, because the skill set is different for each one.

So I'm essentially unpromotable. Raises have been excellent, but who wants to remain in one place forever?

Perhaps now is the time for a chat with your supervisor on exactly that topic. If the supervisor has been properly trained about their role, they will be looking to see if you are worth retaining and, if this is the case, how you can be kept happy. Questions about prospects and CPD should flow through their considerations. If not, well it may be time to leave.

I just haven't made it too far. I don't think it ever made it past my supervisor.

Fortunately for me, I'm at the point where I can retire. My retirement plan makes for a full retirement after 35 years, and I'm almost there.

So it's rapidly becoming not my problem.

Some tasks are just inherently problematic. Despite how much your boss or his boss might want to do these things, they simply may be unwise to take on. Before you ever promise anything, you need to be sure that you can deliver. You may end up making yourself responsible for delivering the impossible and that will certainly not help your prospects for advancement.

Besides, what's with this 50's approach to corporate life? Who still thinks that your path to advancement is within the same company anyways?

I feel your pain. When I realized wearing so many hats (multi-tasking) gave me an impressive
resume, my view became "what should I concentrate on in my resume?"

Hang in there. When the economy improves, you'll be ready for anything you wish.

You're in a place an awful lot of people would call job heaven. Clearly the organization recognizes your value to it ("Raises have been excellent") and the job is challenging ("the skill set is different for each one").

Anyone not eaten with ambition to climb some sort of ladder would be quite happy to be where you are. Pity you're not.

He is!
His boss made a joke of him and what's worst he accepted!
One have to have respect of one self, i just sorry for the guy...

a VP thought nothing of attempting to have me take time out off my free weekends to go and stay at his house so as I can look after is system / set up something early Monday elsewhere for him...as if it was some great opportunity and he was doing ME a favour.

Let's just say I was glad it was just a placement, made it easy to tell him - NO THANKS BOZO.

I like it.
Alot.

For the missing comma. Despite that, I liked it a lot, too.

,

comma's - you don't put another comma after "lot," typical for a grammar nazi to have no concept of grammar, you missed the two spelling mistakes and the other missed comma. Show a little more tolerance next time eh?

As for the main post, yes I agree, "ain't my job" is not something you want to hear and thankfully, so far, I've not been exposed to that.

Another flipside is when you have a manager or someone senior to you "muck in" when they clearly know they don't have to. I had that many years ago from a manager in a different department do that for me, that kind of work attitude of "we're all going in the same direction" stayed with me and is something I try to emulate. It promotes a better working relationship and often will induce an employee to "squeeze out" that little extra when they otherwise might not have.

Are????

"time out off my" is of, one "f".
"look after is system" I assume is His

my comment was not a criticism of your post, moreover an observation of santee being critical of a comma, whilst missing the very obvious other mistakes whilst making an obvious one of his/ her own. In my extensive experience grammar or spelling nazis are usually the least qualified to comment on either.

"alot" is a spelling mistake, as is your use of an apostrophe in the pluralized form of comma.

Well my use of 'off' was quite correct as the reference was in respect to time given 'off' is an adverb. My I suggest you look the correct usage up on the Internet.

The other was just a simple typo.

Hey - your last post was correct about the spelling / grammar idiots!

How does the conjoining of Nazi and grammarian make a better point? I'm getting pretty tired of seeing that term constantly applied when somebody criticises someone else's point of view.

That you are a "Nazi" Nazi.

So there.

I'm not familiar with your suggestions, I'm from UK and not having your political system in US, I guess it's simply whatever common colloquialism is used to indicate someone with an extreme viewpoint of what is accurate, or "right" or similar.

Everyone, no matter their nationality, is familiar with the concept that the nazis view (yes present tense) themselves as "right" whilst all others who do not follow their doctrine as "wrong". The term has become synonymous with those who are so inflexible or intolerant of others, they feel it their right to comment and often insult.

The same applies for people who pick up on others poor spelling/ or grammar without considering factors such as; not their first language, dyslexia or the like.

I did not intend for my original comment to escalate as it has, but the post I first commented on pushed my buttons, I see a lot of intolerance on the net regarding that particular situation, yet I'll hazard most are unable to speak a single word of the native language of the person whom they feel compelled to correct.

Lastly, I merely commented on santee being overly critical, and asked for a little more tolerance, and in return for this simple request for harmony I in turn am vilified, never a truer indication of the state of the human psyche right now...to use the americanism "go figure"....

They are who strut: "In my extensive experience..."

You would like Teabagger.

I'm quite sure.

I believe the response was toungue in cheek (misspelling deliberate). Never was good with Latin names for body pots

In my previous job in Higher Education, I was one of those workers who almost always accepted any responsibility thrown my direction. One of my co-workers who was on a separate team took on the 'not my job' attitude over the last several years. Coincidentally, he was the highest paid non-management person in IT.

Over a period of eight years, I went from being responsible for backup and recovery to having ultimate responsibilty for every critical server on campus. This included Linux and Windows servers, a Storage Area Network, VMware Infrastructure, Active Directory, DHCP, DNS, MS Exchange, and numerous other smaller jobs. I was also the guy who everyone came to with questions when they couldn't solve an issue. Meanwhile the other guy started this time frame as an Oracle DBA and programmer on the student information system. Within a six year span, he had absolved himself from any day-to-day responsibilities. He did very little programming and basically just maintained one Oracle database. He had plenty of time to play Farmville on Facebook while I was struggling to find time to get everything done. My project timelines were always expected to be short, but I met them without fail. He was able to put off major upgrades or updates at his own discretion.

I was simply overwhelmed and being paid about $20K less per year than the other guy. The troubling issue for me wasn't the pay or necessarily the expectations placed on me. The real problem was the poor morale the situation generated on that other team. Most of the team members were working very hard every day while this guy glided along. Eventually another person on the team noticed him getting away with the behavior and started his own abuse of the system. Eventually a new employee joined the team and used those two as a role model. To say productivity and morale were affected would be an understatement.

The ultimate lesson for me was that I needed to establish clearer boundaries with my own managers' expectations to protect myself. I, however, also learned that you can carry things too far and hurt everyone else on the team. At the same time, management has a responsibility to each employee to not overwhelm them while giving others a free ride. There will always be inequity in responsibilty and pay in most workplaces, but there is a balance to be found that is best for everyone involved.

As an aside, I have been on my new job for 3 months and am responsible just for backup and recovery. In many ways this is a fresh start, and I don't intend on repeating the mistake of taking on too much again.

....and we've drawn the same conclusions.

Here's the cold, hard facts that I didn't realize until I was older.

If you have a boss and/or coworkers who give a flip whether you go insane, or even have health problems or drop dead because of expectations, count yourself lucky.

Our parents didn't tell us the truth. They talked a lot about hard work, study, getting yourself qualified, etc. etc. as ways to become successful. That only happens in the fairy tale of idealism.

The reality is if you GIVE your efforts away, there's no shortage of people who'll just take them...and come to expect them. I worked for years as an employee and even when I started my own business I was a little too prone to give my efforts away. I've put the skids on that just recently. I've had some push-back from it too and it's been a bit painful but I'm not going back.

Of course, that is a bit simpler for me since it is my business.

It's possible the slacker you referenced was a good worker at one time but burned out from the same thing you did. While it is most definitely incompetent management at fault, we have to realize competent management is not really the norm.

The best thing I can say, based on my own experience, is nobody is going to look out for you but you. And nobody can make your decisions for you.

A senior member of the team I joined in my first employment had these wise words for me, "If you close the tap once because it is dripping even though it is someone else's job, you will be sought for next time when it drips and also chided for not attending to it in time. So never exceed your brief. Stick to your job description."

I found many colleagues not heeding this advice and end up as perennially exploited suckers.

After being in IT for 20 years, and getting involved with everything from large scale network design to Active Directory to home-made software to any hardware you can name, I have become the "swiss Army Knife" of IT, and I can fill many job roles... I'm grateful to say that in that really hard time last year, when people were out of work and struggling to find a job, I landed a peach... and had my pick of good opportunities.

I've learned a lot from everything I've done. And I DO know how to say... "I'd like to help, but I have a priority..."

Wow, I thought I was the only one! I am in the exact same position and now after company downsizing things have gotten worse. Thanks for sharing your experiences, am definitely going to "push back" after reading these posts!!!

In my last company, we had a guy who would never turn anything down. He'd run round accepting everything he could.

He'd then run round the office telling everyone how busy he was and that he didn't have time to do the job he'd been employed for because he'd been given all these other tasks. Not volunteered for, but "given".

But he would never produce any work except PowerPoints that clearly detailed how busy he was. With multiple fancy graphs detailing the same statistics over 5 pages. Senior Management loved these. they ate them up with a spoon.

That went on for years. I remember being in one meeting when the PM asked him to do some work, and this little fella made a huge play of how he'd have to work through the night to achieve, but don't worry he'd do it for the company. He then spent the day running round the office telling everyone who would listen how'd he'd have to work through the night to complete what was, in all fairness, a couple of hours work. But he never admitted that, this piece of work was huge!

He then came in the next day and told the PM and me he didn't complete the work as something had come up, but spent the day rushing round the office telling Senior Management and everyone who would listen how he'd worked through the night to produce a document and that he was so tired, but he'd come in anyway. Now I know, he didn't really complete the work as he'd been watching Big Brother on TV and couldn't be bothered.

The PM left and the guy got promoted to Associate Director. So there is a middle way. A lesson to learned here:

Accept as much responsibility as possible, don't deliver but pretend to deliver. Toady up to Senior Management, and, as long as your convincing Senior Management you're delivering, don't worry, you'll get promoted.

I remember well the 3 years I worked in an environment like you describe. Your last paragraph described the IT Director perfectly. Smoke and mirrors along with some golf and charter fishing trips with top management. We had 2 network managers that always had 2 options .. agree with the IT Directors assessment and look like idiots to the rest of the IT team or contradict the IT Director with the facts or best practices and then have to work with him on those projects.
I didn't fit in very well there. I appreciate good work ethics, project management, open discussion especially during R&D phases and most of all accountability on both sides. If you can be trusted by your co-workers and you trust others on your team you will produce excellent results. To bad that is the exception and not the norm.
I have worked for a smaller, non-profit organization for the past 6 years and because they allow me to do my job and understand accountability is a collaborative effort I have one of those rare 40-44 hours a week IT jobs. Home for dinner every night. Now that would be awesome if that was the norm!

Backup and recovery is usually the junior postion. With experience you got, you probably could have held out for a better job.

That might be true if I were working in an urban market. As it turned out, the new job offer came to me with 23% more pay and a dramatically reduced scope of responsiblity. It also included a move to a more populous location where there will be additional options in the future. There were a bunch of intangibles involved, but the ultimate result is that I am much happier right now. Eventually I will be asked to do more things with my new company, and my background will allow me to do that with minimal learning curve.

I regularly get phone calls on my days off from my boss for a variety of work-related reasons. Outside the fact that what she wants to know requires I have access to my work files, it's my day off. I turn off my phones, now. Too bad, so sad.

In our field, we frequently have to value ourselves enough to be able to hold up a stop sign when we are requested to do too many things on our own time. I have worked with a number of people who would bend over backwards to get the job done AND they would also sacrifice their own free time and personal life when any nonurgent requests were made of them as well, taking advantage of their giving natures. I always will work 110% when I am on the clock, do overtime, volunteer to work someone else's shift or holidays when needed, learn additional skills and do many side projects to help anyone who needs it, but when it is vacation time, lunch or break, that time belongs to me and I make it very clear that I will be unavailable until I return - because I respect myself enough to value my own free time and not give it away willy-nilly.

Some may find this unreasonable, I say it is a part of a good work-life balance. Be confident in yourself enough to care about your needs, too.

Staked out, distinct, and set apart, are you -- unique and self-loved?

My first reaction is no, of course we're all workers of a sort, of course we all have the same pressures. People in project management will put in crazy hours, personal assistants will be booking flights and checking hotels at all hours of the day, account managers will be fielding sales issues as they arise. I've found emails in my company inbox sent out-of-hours from people in all departments, including our director's PA.

But. I will say, IT is one field in particular that is treated slightly, subtly distinctly from others. For one thing, if a salesman works out of hours it's usually on their own back - they're trying to get ahead as Toni described. But a member of IT will often be expected to work late by *other people* - mainly because IT support is nothing in and of itself, rather it's a means to an end, which makes other departments dependent on it. Put short, if *anyone* works late, they may expect or demand the support of IT. No other worker has that constraint of dependency.

For another thing, as Toni also hinted at in her article, no other field has quite the potential for an individual's duties to creep beyond initial scope. A lateral move may see your old responsibilities continue to haunt you. New responsibilities will magically attach themselves to you if they are in any way technical. You'd never hear someone ask a colleague, "Hey, Bob, you're in sales - I'm trying to sell my old camera on eBay, can you help me out?". Yet it's perfectly common to be asked to dole out advice on people's personal IT needs, such as how to clean the malware from their PC or print across a home network.

What makes this more acceptable to people? My instinct is that because technology is such an impenetrable fog to those who don't understand it, they begin to attach magical abilities to those who do appear to grok what those enigmatic glowing boxes actually do. Once they've done that, they automatically devalue what you do. And why not? It's magic. It takes no time or effort, merely a wave of a wand (or a wiggle of your nose if you're an IT lady).

To make matters worse, another factor that stands IT apart from the business crowd is that all IT staff are automatically assumed to do what they do out of a love for technology. This isn't helped by the fact that it's mostly true. I love computers and digital devices; I work with them out of a personal interest. Unfortunately, this means that the wage slaves who hate their jobs will have no problem in assuming you'd be delighted to help out with their technical woes. Why not spend your weekend configuring a home network? It's only what you'd be doing at home, right?

I think the bottom line of what I'm getting at is that the issue with working in IT is that it's commonly perceived by all non-IT workers as (i) a personal interest, which makes you approachable on anything within the massive gamut of 'technology', and (ii) magic, which renders them incapable of truly understanding the scale of what they're asking you to do. These two factors, combined, result in a habitual undervaluing of both the time and efforts of the typical IT worker. I can relate to this through my personal observation and the experience of friends and colleagues in the field.

The best response, for me, comes from the Joker in The Dark Knight (the best role of Heath Ledger's life, a truly captivating performance), when asked why he hasn't killed the Batman if it's 'so easy', and he replies, "If you're good at something, never do it for free."

Ps. your post was almost a haiku

That is exactly the heart of the problem.

Another part of the problem is the perception or reality of lack of cross-training. When people are their individual islands, of course they are going to be pestered when they are out of the office due to their very specialized skills. If someone expects to have a proper vacation or any time off to themselves, they need to take it upon themselves (and a good manager will ensure) to at least leave the coworkers with some clue as to how to do a number of transferable chores so they will only need to be contacted in case of a true emergency. There is no reason to contact the BES administrator while on vacation to reset someone's Active Directory password or set up a new Blackberry on the system when such things can be easily handled by the other supporting staffers in his absence.

That was good. That was thoroughgoingly good.

Hereon out, I look to you.

[bows graciously]

I completely agree with your statement. A very good observation.

A break is a BREAK, if necessary leave the building, premises etc and turn off your mobile. BUT be sure to be at your post at the appointed time, so no comment can be made. Same goes for vacations, same boss as described below called me whilst I was on holiday in europe to get me to call a client to fix a mess that he had all the paperwork for in front of him.

My last job's lunch breaks started out as the usual one hour break, whereby I would leave to go get something, later once my partner and I became a one income family I started to take sandwiches in, but still go out for the remainder of the break, after a while my boss noticed I was still in the office, and started to get me to continue with my duties, I won't bore you with the progressions suffice to say by the end of seven years I had to practically beg to leave the office to attend to my own errands outside and there would be some weeks when I never left the building for any break at all.

If you allow these small steps into invading the time they DON'T PAY YOU FOR, it will get worse and as mentioned elsewhere become expected. If I met the boss from "the devil wears prada" now, my language would be extensive and profane.

I once heard someone say "if you keep doing as you did, expect to get what you got" never were truer words said.

and your middle paragraph is lacking in structure considering the lack of full stops around.

irony?

You said 'Do I smell'.
At least you didn't put the question mark after smell.

Heh-heh! Heh-heh! Heh-heh!

Would you kids *stop* w-hackin' off in my damn camper...?!

Because then, European. (You're a peein'.)