Other duties as assigned

God, the Great PT Barnum of the Universe, laid down the modus operandi of all creation: "There's a sucker born every minute" . Look throughout the jungle that he has set up. It's dog eat dog: those who are exploited and those who exploit. A hungry predator is a greedy predator indeed. Thou shalt steal, lie and cheat. Love thy neighbour? Another one of God's deceits.

Look around you as all the minions in his great big freak show are at work and play. Pity them. Life, liberty, and the pursuit happiness? That's another joke. There's no European Court of Human Rights in Heaven, no Hague Tribunal. True Justice is more Sicilian in nature, the vendetta being the method.

Our Father who art in Heaven
Give us Hell today on Earth.
Give us today our daily flogging.
Lead us not into thinking about who or what we are.
Watch our backs lest we are stabbed
Thy Will be done.
Omen

My Experience is that where Union activity is weak and the workers are disparate rather than united,the employer can and will exploit the employee.I strongly advise you to contact a union.

I don't have a job specification. I don't have a job description. I am not even allowed to know what job grade I am on, nor the logic of its pay levels. I have a relatively meaningless job title, and an even longer email address. Nonetheless they have expectations and I am measured on those expectations. I usually don't measure up so I have had no pay rises for 5 years.

It's also a useful cop out for employers that want to avoid constructive dismissal cases too. If you dump all the grunt work onto an employee whose face doesn't fit, and can't fire for any justifiable reason without shelling out compensation in an employment tribunal, they will leave soon enough. Who can blame them?

Other duties as assigned, is not meant to be abused. It's a recognition that if you are employed by another organisation you fulfill a job, comprising certain tasks and duties, that belong to the owner. That means you use your skill set to perform work listed in your job specification or maybe take on some overload during a crisis. It doesn't mean that you should fill a vacuum that can be abused to dump all the crap work onto you - that takes up most of your day - perhaps every day.

You might not be, Mike, but some of us are! It's a phrase which has featured on almost every job description I've had, and it's often abused as I mentioned previously.

Job jipped,I did not know this site was available in the u.s.a.here in the uk we have what is called a "job description".We are not familiar with the term other duties as assigned.

Avast there me hearty. Git back up there in de crow's nest you unspeakable deck swab. Think you were taken on by the common 'venture as navigator? You signed for the duration.. The voyage ain't over yet. One more peep outta you and I'll drown you in the scupper.

Job Jipped

Your new employer has stretched the concept of 'other duties' far beyond what anyone with any common sense would consider reasonable. The proposition that undertaking maintenance jobs is within the normal duties of a graphic design manager is not tenable, you should not be expected to fill in simply because the company does not hire the correct personnel or contractors.

Even more worrying, you say you have no training or experience in repairing mechanical or electrical equipment and yet the employer is putting you and others at risk of injury if you fail to complete the jobs in a safe manner due to your lack of knowledge and experience.

The management at your firm are foolish indeed.

Richard - it's not a case of being 'above other duties', at least not in many cases. It's more a matter of the boss asking you to do his work for him to the detriment of your own work, just so he can take off early or have a long lunch. I've no objections to taking on extra work if the boss is swamped, provided my own duties are either reduced accordingly or able to be postphoned; I just object to being used in this way by a lazy boss. I'm sure you would object to that too.

No trust me you wouldn't want to be self-employed, you should see some of the things I have to assign myself to do. I work in Landscape Gardening and I have to do menial tasks such as lawn mowing, weeding and bush trimming. I would like to employ some monkey to do this for me whilst I can go and watch the tennis.

So an employer who pays you, whilst likely struggling themselves, can't ask you to perform other roles, because simply you're above those roles? If you don't like it, become self-employed like me.

I agree. Employers can get away with treating their staff like cr*p simply by adding the line 'other duties as required' or some such cliche. That line features in my own job description and it's basically used as a cop-out when the boss can't be bothered doing a task himself, preferring to pile his work onto me instead.