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“Oh, that’s not my job,” is usually what folks say when they can't do the "shit" that needs to be done. It's what people say when they want to save face and no

by OzzyB 14y ago

“Oh, that’s not my job,” is usually what folks say when they can't do the "shit" that needs to be done. It's what people say when they want to save face and not be labelled as someone who "can't do it". It's a defense mechanism.

rollypolly 14y ago
I think you're right most of the time, but I wonder if there's not also a certain personality type that like that, regardless of their actual competency level, that prefers doing as little as possible. I wish one of my ex-employers had been better at filtering out that type of people.
- mmahemoff 14y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobsworth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobsworth
- andrewflnr 14y ago
  There's also a certain personality type that just really wants things to be done by the right person. That's something I need to consciously overcome: this is not rightfully my job, but I'm going to do it anyway, because that's the most useful thing to do.
garenp 14y ago
I can see that being true, but I've also seen good reasons to push back by saying "not my job": when you have a very talented or skilled person who _can_ do almost anything, it can become very unhealthy and unproductive for them to keep this person constantly context switching and doing work outside their job area. Essentially, they are compensating for the inability of others to do their own jobs. The thing to realize is that just because you _can_ do everything, doesn't mean you _should_. In fact, I've even seen such people go out of the scope of their own work so regularly that they end up appearing to perform lesser than their peers (from the perspective of some idiot PHB of course), again because they're compensating for others elsewhere. In that way, it will actually hurt you to think of the companies interest first and not your own.
- lightthievesall 14y ago
  Right on. In my experience sometimes you need to assert yourself and say "it's not my job" to the people using you as a crutch so they can learn to do their jobs and you can go back to doing yours.
aaronblohowiak 14y ago
It may also be respecting a territorial boundary, real or perceived, of the person whose job it is.
- gaius 14y ago
  http://lexicon.ft.com/Term?term=demarcation-dispute http://lexicon.ft.com/Term?term=demarcation-dispute
gaius 14y ago
That was endemic at the last company I worked for. Someone would come to you and say, can you do X. Well no, because (for example) we don't have the kit and there's a lead time of 3 months on ordering it and the budget's not been approved. You would explain this, and then the person would go to your manager and say "he refused to help me". So yeah, someone else can deal with that.

by OzzyB 14y ago

rollypolly 14y ago

I think you're right most of the time, but I wonder if there's not also a certain personality type that like that, regardless of their actual competency level, that prefers doing as little as possible. I wish one of my ex-employers had been better at filtering out that type of people.

mmahemoff 14y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobsworth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobsworth
andrewflnr 14y ago
There's also a certain personality type that just really wants things to be done by the right person. That's something I need to consciously overcome: this is not rightfully my job, but I'm going to do it anyway, because that's the most useful thing to do.

garenp 14y ago

I can see that being true, but I've also seen good reasons to push back by saying "not my job": when you have a very talented or skilled person who _can_ do almost anything, it can become very unhealthy and unproductive for them to keep this person constantly context switching and doing work outside their job area. Essentially, they are compensating for the inability of others to do their own jobs. The thing to realize is that just because you _can_ do everything, doesn't mean you _should_. In fact, I've even seen such people go out of the scope of their own work so regularly that they end up appearing to perform lesser than their peers (from the perspective of some idiot PHB of course), again because they're compensating for others elsewhere. In that way, it will actually hurt you to think of the companies interest first and not your own.

lightthievesall 14y ago
Right on. In my experience sometimes you need to assert yourself and say "it's not my job" to the people using you as a crutch so they can learn to do their jobs and you can go back to doing yours.

aaronblohowiak 14y ago

It may also be respecting a territorial boundary, real or perceived, of the person whose job it is.

gaius 14y ago
http://lexicon.ft.com/Term?term=demarcation-dispute http://lexicon.ft.com/Term?term=demarcation-dispute

gaius 14y ago

That was endemic at the last company I worked for. Someone would come to you and say, can you do X. Well no, because (for example) we don't have the kit and there's a lead time of 3 months on ordering it and the budget's not been approved. You would explain this, and then the person would go to your manager and say "he refused to help me". So yeah, someone else can deal with that.