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Especially small companies, have to have a person doing 2 to 5 different duties. There is not enough work to give a person, if they only do one job. There certainly is not enough work, for 3 people to have full time jobs. Some of the jobs such as receptionist, may take up less than one hour a day total. No company can afford to pay a person to sit there doing nothing 7 hours a day, 5 days a week.
True. Also most companies now have automated phone systems, and it is also typical for all employees to be able to electronically buzz/use sensor keys to let themselves in. So as a receptionist, answering just calls eluding the automated system, and letting outside guests in, is a minimal job at best. For that reason, generally receptionists take on clerical tasks, in some corps, customer service, in others, accounting or some other clerical support role. That makes perfect sense, and this is NOT doing 2 jobs. It is doing one, where the job title, receptionist, at most merits about .1 of a FTE employee in terms of time consumption.
This is certainly happening in some fields but it's not new, it can happen any time a business gets in financial trouble. My father was employed as a metallurgical supervisor in a steel mill in the 1980s. He had worked in various capacities in that that mill since the 1950s. Management laid off a person who worked with Dad, doing a completely different job. They gave all his assignments to my Dad who was stressed out and overworked to the max in no time. A little later, someone who had the same responsibilities as Dad quit his job. They wanted to give those responsibilities to Dad, too. (You know what they say ... if you want something done right, give it to the busiest person.) My mother was worried for Dad's health (which was totally justified) and put her foot down. She insisted he take early retirement. A couple of years after Dad retired, the mill went belly-up, as many did at that time.
Today, it's the same story. Businesses in financial trouble try this as a way to ease their economic instability. I've had two not-for-profits offer me jobs since the economic downturn. Jobs I didn't even apply for, but I am a known commodity in the community. I don't even want a full-time job anymore, but in both cases I went in to talk with them out of courtesy. In both cases, I listened to their spiel and told them NO ONE could do the job they were describing. They virtually made a list of everything they needed to have done in the way of grant-writing, special events, publicity, capital and temporary projects fund-raising, and community outreach and put it into one position description. In both cases, it was enough work for three dedicated people, if they wanted to have it done right, and they weren't even in a position to pay a good salary. The jobs were in no way 9-to-5 either; it would have required many nights and weekends at work to manage the special events. I said thanks but no thanks. Even if I were in a position to work full-time, these were no-win situations. The jobs as defined were un-doable. These worthy organizations are foundering and it's no wonder.
It's a vicious cycle, especially for non-profits. The people who normally contribute to them are feeling financially unstable, so they donate less, or not at all. The non-profits can't hire proper staff to fund-raise if they have no funds. And no fundraising activities lead to less stable finances. But there's only so much one person can do without ruining their mental and physical health.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jukesgrrl
In both cases, I listened to their spiel and told them NO ONE could do the job they were describing. They virtually made a list of everything they needed to have done in the way of grant-writing, special events, publicity, capital and temporary projects fund-raising, and community outreach and put it into one position description. In both cases, it was enough work for three dedicated people, if they wanted to have it done right, and they weren't even in a position to pay a good salary. The jobs were in no way 9-to-5 either; it would have required many nights and weekends at work to manage the special events.
I see this a lot with non profits in the development area. Everything from wanting someone proficient in Raisers Edge, to doing the thank you letters, to writing grants to cover their own salary and then major gifts (new connections) at the same time. It's nuts and a good way to not raise money. I don't understand why NPs don't treat development staff more like a marketing and sales team. The successful ones do.
I once (unintentionally!) interviewed for a job that was 50% bike messenger (in the city) and 50% receptionist, and for the receptionist part I would have needed to dress nice!
This is certainly happening in some fields but it's not new, it can happen any time a business gets in financial trouble.
I wish this statement was true, but it's not. It may be sort of true for small businesses, but corporations have whole departments/teams/people assigned to lowering costs. And one of the easiest ways to lower costs is by changing/removing human resources.
I've heard of people working at call centers that were in one of 4 departments when a customer called in.
1- Customer service
2- retention
3- technical
4- sales
So back in the day the employee would just be in one of those roles for 12 bucks an hour.
Today, an employee does all 4 of those roles for 12.50 an hour.
That's the best example right there. You are correct. For a CSR, they used to answer the phone and take orders (whatever it is, clothes, hardware, cruises, whatever), and that takes up a lot of time as it is. Now they want that same CSR to take on taking the orders, doing the billing, calling customers back who have canceled or are on their way to canceling, troubleshooting products, (in depth technical support), and yes, sales. Those used to be different jobs, and some of those people got paid much more than the CSR taking orders. In fact, most sales people got bonuses. Well, there are no bonuses anymore for landed sales, and you get paid the same, or darn near the same, for the work of four people.
I'm so glad I am not a CSR anymore. It was already a crap job, but to insult people by making them do all of that other work, and only add on 10 cents an hour, is inexcusable. Having said that, that's what we get when we implement the regulations/laws and other such sundries on business owners. They are in it to make money, and you are just a number. How we vote has consequences.
I once (unintentionally!) interviewed for a job that was 50% bike messenger (in the city) and 50% receptionist, and for the receptionist part I would have needed to dress nice!
I hope they didn't exist you to do both at the same time...
While I said earlier on that this is a nee tend, it isn't entirely however it has gotten much more prevalent in the last few years whether it is small business or larger one.
This has been my exp too. This also corresponds with my thread about dysfunctional workplaces. There was no tech that improved efficiency, hell at 1 F100 we didn't even get access to the tech, because our unit was it's own PNL and we had a cheapstake AVP, we were supposed selling, think about that? How can I persuade you when I can't even give a concrete example of how it improved my work day WTF? So I did as I was told nastily by my former SM, lied and used the marketing collateral from the mfgr.
Then after about 3 weeks my job description now included 2 other jobs we never discussed, project management and provisioning. Hello McFly, sales people do what they do well, sell. What bean counter thought it was smart to put people, many of which have ADD in sales, in a position that requires attention to detail for hours on and end, and expect a success with that formula. What happened, in the above example, the people like me that did everything couldn't hit quota not enough hours to do 3 jobs and meet quota, or you had those that meet quota and left the customers high and dry with empty promises unfulfilled.
But hey I get a paycheck for so much fun yeah right!
This has been my exp too. This also corresponds with my thread about dysfunctional workplaces. There was no tech that improved efficiency, hell at 1 F100 we didn't even get access to the tech, because our unit was it's own PNL and we had a cheapstake AVP, we were supposed selling, think about that? How can I persuade you when I can't even give a concrete example of how it improved my work day WTF? So I did as I was told nastily by my former SM, lied and used the marketing collateral from the mfgr.
Then after about 3 weeks my job description now included 2 other jobs we never discussed, project management and provisioning. Hello McFly, sales people do what they do well, sell. What bean counter thought it was smart to put people, many of which have ADD in sales, in a position that requires attention to detail for hours on and end, and expect a success with that formula. What happened, in the above example, the people like me that did everything couldn't hit quota not enough hours to do 3 jobs and meet quota, or you had those that meet quota and left the customers high and dry with empty promises unfulfilled.
But hey I get a paycheck for so much fun yeah right!
I cannot believe companies can do that where they give people job descriptions way different than their functional abilities and wonder why desired results weren't accomplished.
Short-term it cuts costs but long-term it creates bad culture for employees and customers because as you mentioned, you left customers high and dry to accomplish other duties in your job titles.
Now yes, I know people on C-D want you to just eat the sh*t sandwich we are given but seriously people, there is a difference between ticket takers at a movie theater who doubles as custodians cleaning up bathrooms and theaters between movies or gas station attendants doing all they do, and the examples Teckeeee made because they are working SPECIALIZED work rather than genralized work anyone could theoretically do.
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