AKiCiF: Job descriptions

[rolanni]

I know we have a couple of HR-types reading here. I'm coming away from one of the most surreal conversations I have ever had with an HR person and I need a...triple-check, it would be, on current usage.

Suppose one has a Job Description. It goes like this:

Job Title: Secretary, Ministry of Silly Walks

Function: To provide secretarial support to the chairman of the Ministry of Silly Walks

Duties:
1. Sort the mail
2. Answer public inquiries regarding the nature and history of MoSW
3. Produce and distribute posters advertising MoSW functions
4. Walk silly
5. Monitor office supply levels and order as necessary
6. Other duties as assigned

My question lies with Number 6. I've only been working off and on in a clerical capacity since 1968, so my understanding may be flawed, but what I take Number 6 to mean is that if my boss, the Minister of MoSW, should decide that the Ministry needs, oh, a webpage and assigns me to build and maintain it, that's an "other duty" -- which is to say, a new task not anticipated when the core list of duties was compiled by whoever compiled the original job description.

Does Number 6, in current HR philosophy, also mean that the Prime Minister may append the Ministry of Funny Mustaches to the above job description as "other duties" stipulating that the MoFM is its own power, equal in the org chart to the MoSW?

Inquiring minds...

Comments

[moon-happy.livejournal.com]

Yes, he can do that. It can be useful to keep detailed track of the new duties for him to determine how much of your time new guy's duties occupy and how they differ from the duties you are already performing for the old guy. It may (or may not) be useful in negotiating relief or help or a raise. Good luck.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

All righty, then. I would accept more easily that he could do that if the job description said:

Job Title: Secretary, Ministry of Silly Walks and whateverthehellelse we decide to add on, whenever.

The placement of "other duties" seems specific to the job outlined in the title and to the function. Using it as the rationale for adding on whole 'nother ministries in addition seems like bait-and-switch. I hope I don't wake up one morning and find I don't work for either MoSW or MoFM, but have been arbitrarily reassigned to the Ministry of Frivolous Explosions.

Though, yanno...

It may (or may not) be useful in negotiating relief or help or a raise.

At a guess -- may not. I remember a time when a raise of a certain level was a subtle warning that it was time to look for another job; you weren't living up to expectations. Nowadays, they give you a raise less than the former insult level and tell you it proves how much they love you.

Good luck.

Thanks. I figure I'm going to wind up living under a bridge one way or the other. I just have to figure out which way I'd rather go broke.

[herbmcsidhe.livejournal.com]

Nowadays, they give you a raise less than the former insult level and tell you it proves how much they love you.

That's because nowadays, kissing you is a prosecutable offence in the workplace.