[00:00:00] Intro music
[00:00:10] Introduction and Podcast Schedule
Kayla: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Routine Drama. It is still very early days. We're only in episode three right now, but we are chugging along and I'm really enjoying recording these episodes. So it's been really easy for me to kind of keep getting these out.
I just [00:00:30] record them on my lunch break and then I can usually get them like edited and figure out how I want to write up the episode descriptions and all that by the end of the day.
So it looks like it's going to be pretty easy for me to stick to a consistent schedule with these. So I am going to be publishing new episodes every single week on Monday mornings. And I'm going to do that quite early. So each episode will go live around 6:00 AM. And I chose that [00:01:00] because I like to have new shows to listen to when I'm getting ready for work.
So 6:00 AM on Mondays, tune in, subscribe, and yeah, I'll have something new for you every week.
[00:01:10] Career and Workplace Drama Topics
Kayla: So in this episode, we're getting into career and workplace drama topics. And obviously our jobs are a huge part of our lives. So there's all kinds of things that I'll probably get into related to working and careers in the future.
[00:01:31] Handling Tasks Outside Your Job Description
Kayla: But for today, we're going to talk aboutwhen you're assigned tasks at work that are not in your job description. Things that not only are maybe not within your wheelhouse, but also just that you have no idea how to do, and someone's telling you, “Hey, you know, you're responsible for this now because I said, so.” Right?
[00:01:52] Personal Experiences and Industry Differences
Kayla: I have worked at several companies over the years and for the most part, I would say I've [00:02:00] worked in the tech industry. I have always served on like the marketing teams and had more of a marketing function, but I started off at a search engine optimization and like digital marketing firm and from the skills I developed in that, went on to work at a couple startups that were in the tech space and like B2B tech space. And did marketing for them there.
I now work for a law firm actually, so made a little bit of a [00:02:30] career transition, but I think in every job I've been in and probably in every job you will ever be in, you’ll always be asked to do things that aren't necessarily your job.
And I don't think that's always a bad thing. But there are some times where those requests can be a little bit unreasonable.
So I wanted to talk about how to navigate some of those situations and even look at [00:03:00] when that can sometimes be a good thing, and when you really need to try to like put your foot down and how to do that professionally, in a way that doesn't get you fired or like, cause major issues in your working life in the future.
To get started, I think there are a couple of different levels of requests that we might get from our supervisors or bosses where the request might be more or less [00:03:30] reasonable than others.
So the lowest tier, I think, you have probably be asked to do things that are like related to your job, but it's not quite your wheelhouse. I say, go ahead and just do those things. It's not going to hurt you. And it will just kind of make you a team player and, you know, get that project done faster and make it so that you can do your job and move on to doing other things that is more like within your role.
And [00:04:00] then there are some kind of requests where it's going to be a little more difficult for you to knock that task out. Maybe it's just like completely not something you've ever done before or, you know, it's usually given to someone else on your team and they're not available for whatever reason. So you're being asked to cover down and do this.
I also say, you know, go ahead and do that. Take the time to maybe lightly make it known that you're not [00:04:30] super comfortable with this, but you're willing to do it and willing to put in that effort.
And I think a good way to do this is to just go ahead and do your best to complete a draft of that project and then send it to the person or pull someone else in who would be able to like help you finish it and say like, “Hey. I was told to do this. Here's what I've done with like the knowledge I have of this so far. [00:05:00] Does this look okay to you? Or how would you improve it for the way we usually do it?”
And I think that that, one: it's efficient because you're not waiting around for like, “Oh, well, how do I do this? Can someone explain it to me?” Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You are just kind of jumping in, doing it, doing it the best you can with the understanding that it's not your fault. It's not going to be perfect because this is not your job.
But it also like shows a positive [00:05:30] attitude, shows you're, not like bending over backwards to suck up to your boss or anything, you're just being a good employee, which ultimately, will give you more job security. So I don't think it's really a bad thing to do that.
And, then based on the feedback you get, you know, improve that and get it to where it needs to be for it to be considered complete. And then hopefully [00:06:00] you have learned something in that process and you can just kind of move on with your normal work.
I think both of those previous examples, it's worth it to go ahead and just do them and to try not to spend too much time complaining or like being bothered that like, “Oh, this isn't my work. This isn't what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm supposed to be doing this other thing.”
It can be [00:06:30] frustrating when, you know, you feel you're assigned to like a specific bucket or role, and then other people are pulling you into things. But try to look at it as maybe not a compliment, but a sign that your employer has some faith in you or your manager has some faith in you.
And they're confident that you can do this thing because you are a reliable employee, you're a reliable person, you're smart enough to figure it out. So [00:07:00] try to just get it done and then move on.
[00:07:06] Navigating Unreasonable Requests
Kayla: The other level of being asked to do things that are outside of your job description, where things get a little more unreasonable, is when you're asked to do something that is highly specialized. Or maybe requires a certain degree that you don't have, things like that.
I have definitely been in [00:07:30] positions where I have been expected to complete work that I essentially cannot do on my own. Like I do not have the foundational knowledge or the years of schooling that it would take to be able to even understand the subject matter that I was meant to be working on, let alone work on that project and complete it efficiently and complete it [00:08:00] in any kind of like high-quality way.
And that can be really frustrating. Especially when you have a manager or boss who either just doesn't understand like the level of experience that is required to work on something like that, or they maybe just don't care.
It can feel a bit gaslighty in a way. If you have a boss who's like, “You need to do this. Why are you doing this?” Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you're trying to explain, “Well, I don't [00:08:30] understand the terminology, I have no idea like what the process for this is, trying to even just find a place to start, I don't know what I'm doing, I need to like consult with someone else.” Those kinds of things.
It's probably actually not worth your time to try to just do whatever you can to get it done because you're going to be so out of your wheelhouse and whatever you’re able to come up with is probably so far left field of what the project actually [00:09:00] requires.
I think you're better off trying to explain to your boss or manager first, like, this is a little bit of an unreasonable request. Now, how to go about doing that in a professional way can be very delicate, especially if you happen to have a boss who maybe doesn't have a lot of emotional intelligence, or they're also so busy and stressed out with their own projects they just don't really have time or maybe the [00:09:30] mental bandwidth to listen.
But I would say, try to explain it to them. Ask for a quick meeting but to make sure that you do some of that explaining in writing. Whether it's on Slack or Teams or in an email.
Make sure you get that in writing so that if it ever comes up in a performance review or general conversation that you can show like, “Hey, I [00:10:00] tried to express to my higher-ups you know, these are the things limiting me from being the appropriate person to handle this. It's not that I wasn't willing to try, or I was trying to slack off. You know, these are the reasons that I clearly outlined to them why I can't do this. And, you know, they didn't care. We didn't have the appropriate team member to handle it.” Whatever.
So definitely get it in writing just so that you kind of have that proof if it becomes an HR issue in the [00:10:30] future. But then do make an effort to have a call with the manager, supervisor. Do a Zoom, have a phone call, whatever. Just so you can have that communication in real-time and explain to them like, you know, “I cannot do this. I do not know how, or how to start. Here is what would help us accomplish this.”
And it might just be like giving it to a different department or [00:11:00] whatever, but just having that talk with them. And when you're having those kinds of conversations, they can be really easy to feel like, definitely very vulnerable, feel like you're stepping out of line, or you are, you know, you're going to be seen as like whiny or complaining.
But I think it's just really important to keep in mind that like, this [00:11:30] is not a personal thing. It's professional. And you are a professional at certain tasks, but you can't be an expert or even a functioning employee at everything.
Like you can only do so much. So just give yourself that bit of grace and understanding, even if your boss can't. Unfortunately, there are some bosses out there who don't care, who will go as far as to like, belittle [00:12:00] employees or you know even yell at them.
I have certainly been communicated with very harshly by some previous managers where they would literally like threaten to fire me every week, or tell me that you know, this is my job, I'm not doing my job, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
But at the end of the day, if you've made it clear, like “I don't have these skillsets, I either need to be trained on how to get them to be able to complete this—and if you're not [00:12:30] willing to do that, okay, then we need to have that discussion—or this needs to go to someone else and I can help in any way I can with them, but it can't be me.
And I think there are probably some different feelings around handling these kinds of situations across different employee generations. Like I am a millennial. And I know we can be a little bit people-pleasing and, you know, we care a lot about job security.[00:13:00] But I think a lot of people across demographics are that way as well.
On the other hand, other generations might feel a lot more comfortable standing up to their boss and like asserting themselves and saying, you know, “This isn't my job. Like I'm not going to feel bad because you thought you could assign me something that I have no experience in.”
I wish I could be more like that, but it's definitely like a conscious effort for me to stand up for myself in the workplace.
But [00:13:30] yeah, across the board, I think it is always a good rule of thumb to not specifically say, “I'm not doing this,” or “This is it in my job description. This isn't my job. This isn't what I was hired to do.”
You can communicate that in ways without actually saying those words but I think actually making statements like that, as true as they may be and as valid as that may be, it's probably going to trigger something unpleasant in your boss [00:14:00] or make you seem like, you're uncooperative.
Which again, that may not be valid, but the problem in working for someone else is if they have an idea about you, whether it's false or not, it is going to impact your career growth and the opportunities that you have for advancement, promotions, things like that.
And I don't know about you, but I want all the career advancement opportunities I can get.
[00:14:27] Considerations for Blue Collar Jobs
Kayla: Now I haven't always worked in [00:14:30] white collar, you know, office jobs. I grew up in a very blue collar family. I worked blue collar jobs, you know, janitorial/custodial jobs when I was younger, as well as working in fast food, food service, things like that.
So I do understand, like the dynamics are a little bit different. A lot of what I just said mainly applies to office work like computer work, white collar jobs, where you're managing [00:15:00] tasks on a computer or something like that.
When you're working in the service industry or a more blue collar field, the interactions can be a little bit different and everything is a little bit more real-time, I think, because you don't have that buffer of a screen, an email platform, a chat platform, to kind of mediate your communications.
So if you are being asked to do things that are just [00:15:30] well outside of your job in a more blue collar role, there are a couple of different ways you can handle that.
I think probably your options are either to just do the task, or try to do it, and you know you might be completely awful at it, but you were told to do it. You tried. If you completely suck at it chances are you are not going to be asked to do it again. So that kind of solves a little bit of the problem.
[00:16:00] If you're decent at it, you can get better and better at it. And then maybe your employer will see you as more valuable, reliable, whatever, and again it can create a little bit more job security.
The other option is, you know, maybe you do tell them like, “I'm not going to do that. This is going to be really bad if I attempt it.” Especially if you're in an industry where injuries are possible when people are doing things that they don't know how to do.
That's [00:16:30] not so much a problem if you work online or in an office, but if you work at a restaurant or something injuries are possible. You could cut yourself, you could burn yourself. And I think that like personal safety becomes more of a consideration in those roles.
You are around just like a lot of different components that can get you injured. Whether you're working on an assembly line in a factory or on a construction site or something like that, working on something [00:17:00] that you don't have training on and that you are unfamiliar with how to execute correctly… that can become really dangerous. And I think you do have a right to consider what potential harm could come to you.
On the other hand, if you're working somewhere like, say, a fast food restaurant… and this is directly an example that I experienced. I worked at a popular fast food chain when I was in high school and early college. [00:17:30] And we would get a really busy lunch rush. And so one of the stations that would be assigned to employees was the fry station.
So you'd be there, you'd have baskets of fries, drop them in hot oil. And there is a limited number of frying stations, one person would manage all of these, and you have to get into a pattern of like pulling them out and putting new ones in and pulling them out and putting new ones in.
And all of this had to be done super, super quickly so that you wouldn't run out of fries because it would hold [00:18:00] up everything else in the kitchen. And we were being timed on how long each customer was waiting for their food.
So I got put on that one day because the person who usually was assigned there wasn't there. It was very stressful, and hot and sweaty, but I did it. And it wasn't perfect, but I did okay enough that my boss was like, “Oh, okay. Like, here's another person that we can use for this in the future. Let's put her on this for lunch rush the [00:18:30] rest of the week.”
And it wasn't fun. It was annoying. I hated it. But that incentivized the scheduling manager to give me more hours, and inevitably helped me earn more money, which then allowed me to pay for my university books and things like that, which are very, very expensive.
So while yeah, I could have stood there and been like, “This isn't my job,” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. [00:19:00] You know, I felt pretty confident that I wasn't going to completely burn myself doing this; it didn't detract from my work experience there any more than I already felt. (I mean, it was working in fast food. It wasn't glamorous.)
But it's just sometimes worth it to do the job that isn't yours and it can benefit you. But I think it does come down to individual circumstances and what you're comfortable doing and how you feel [00:19:30] you're being treated by the management. It's going to depend on every person's assessment of that situation.
I think I'm pretty fortunate right now in that, I do things that are maybe not like directly aligned with my job all the time, but nothing is putting me in harm. I work remotely so that's not an issue.
And none of them are crazy difficult or awful to work on. They're just different. So what's the worst that can happen? I maybe [00:20:00] learn a new skill, learn how to do something better? That makes me a more valuable employee. Nothing wrong with that.
[00:20:05] Conclusion and Contact Information
Kayla: So those are my thoughts on handling tasks that are outside of your job description. If you have experienced this at work in a way that, you know, you found particularly frustrating or that has maybe really helped your career, I would love to know about it.
You can comment on YouTube—if you are listening to this only, know that these are available on YouTube—you can go there, leave a comment. Or you can also [00:20:30] comment or message on Instagram.
My Instagram handle is @routinedramapod. And, you can always email routinedramapod@gmail.com as well.
So, episode three in the books. I will start thinking about what I want to do for episode four.
But thank you for watching and I will see you next time.
[00:20:50] Outro music