I am fortunate enough to have a job where my creativity
is rewarded and my ideas put into practice. The act of getting ready for work
does not fill me with dread, nor does it make me wish I was doing anything but.
I am paid well and get along with my co-workers, and have built a substantial
network of professionals that I can call on to provide me with solutions when I
need them. So what am I complaining about?
I don’t have a job description. There, I said it. I know
that I should have insisted on having one prior to accepting my present
position but I thought that I would be able to get one after. I am too trusting
and once again, it has bitten me in the ass.
Not having a job description is terrible for a number of
reasons. The biggest drawback for me right now is that my boss keeps changing
my job; I was hired for what I thought was a very straightforward role in his
company. I have a strong marketing and social media background and am published
internationally. During our discussions, he told me he would want me to do sales
and I balked at that. I explained that I am not interested in a sales position,
he agreed, and we negotiated my job: marketing-oriented with copy-writing and
some design as needed. I took this job thinking that’s what I would be doing.
I have done a substantial amount of media work as well as
copy-writing during my time here and for that I am ecstatic. What I don’t like
is the consistent manner in which my boss changes his mind. Preparing new marketing
materials to be released only to be told at the time of final sign-off that he’s
decided to go another route is both frustrating and demoralizing. Why bother
working hard on developing fresh concepts when he will just axe it at the end
and do the same thing he’s done every year for the past 20 years?
Today, he sent me out on a sales call. I have no clue as
to what I am doing as I am not in sales, and I hope that he did this because he
was at an appointment and could not go himself. There used to be an employee
here who did precisely what I did today and since she’s moved on, my fear is
that my boss wants me to assume those responsibilities and adding them to my
growing list of things I do.
Let me make this perfectly clear: I am not a salesperson
nor do I have any desire to be one.
I have already spoken to a few of my co-workers who also
need job descriptions and we have decided to write them ourselves and present
them, as a group, to the owner. We all feel that without job descriptions, he will
continue to change our roles within the company as he sees fit. It is a small
company and while I understand the necessity of being able to utilize as much
as you can from your employees, I am not sure that completely changing their
focus work-wise on a daily basis is the way to do it.
Bottom line is simple: Job description. Get one or don’t
accept the job.
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