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May 20, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Dealing with undesirable responsibilities
Dear Bob ...My wife works at a plant nursery, the boss often has tea with friends. The boss now tells my wife that part of her job is to clean the kitchen after the private tea. My wife feels that an adult should clean up after herself instead of sometimes leaving a mess for 2 days until my wife comes back to work after her days off. Can she be forced to clean the office kitchen?
- Advocate
Dear Advocate ...
Can she be forced to clean the kitchen? No. Is it within her employer's rights to redefine her position to include cleaning the kitchen? Probably.
You don't say what your wife's job title is. If she's Director of IS, I'd say this is quite inappropriate and she'd be better off finding another position. If, on the other hand, she's an administrative assistant, then this sort of thing isn't uncommon, although I'd agree that adults ought to be able to wash out a cup as a better choice than letting things sit in the sink for several days.
Regardless, if your wife doesn't like having this responsibility, her choices are simple and I'd advise her to pick one of them. She can: (1) Suffer in silence; (2) tell her employer about her dissatisfaction, living with whatever results; (3) tell her employer she isn't willing to accept this responsibility, living with whatever results; or (4) don't bother telling her employer and just leave.
Actually, there is a (5): Glower and grumble without saying anything, but since you introduced the notion of adulthood into the conversation, I'd say that's out of the question.
- Bob
Posted by Bob Lewis on May 20, 2006 11:00 AM
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Of course one question seems left out. Is this in any way reducing or interfering with the woman's ability to do her officially assigned job. I can think of one job where in addition to being a senior engineer I was also functionally the janitor for part of the facility. It just cost to much to get someone cleared to enter that area just to have this person vacuum and haul out the trash. I did notice that a number of the people who worked with me thought that this was below their dignity level. Now I had no problem with this until my manager decided on a performance review that on Fridays (cleaning day) I was not up to "snuff productively".
Posted by: Ray Stevens at May 22, 2006 08:08 AM|
Three books. Three ways to change the world, your life, or at least Bob Lewis' bank account. Leading IT: The Toughest Job in the World distills the world of IT leadership into eight learnable skills and gives you concrete, practical techniques for each one of them. Bare Bones Project Management: What you can't not do makes project management manageable, even for first-time project managers with no formal training in the discipline. ManagementSpeak: What managers say/What they mean … well, it won't help your career, and won't make you a better manager. Mostly, it will make you chuckle, guffaw, and maybe even chortle. Make friends - it's the perfect gift for anyone who has ever suffered through one of those meetings. Order your copies today! |
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