Need to vent!

scottorr

I have had a very busy & hectic week. On Tuesday I was told by my VP that she will need 58 job description by Friday. I asked her when she knew she needed these and she said she knew two month ago but forgot to tell me. We only have 10 of them on file, the rest need to be created. Thanks for letting vent, time to get back to the descriptions.

Brad Forrister

Does this mean you're responsible for writing all the job descriptions? Yikes!

We recently got more organized about our job descriptions and ended up re-doing all of them throughout the company. In most areas, including all of the people in my division, we let the persons in the job take the first crack at the job descriptions. Managers edited and improved, directors edited and improved, then HR edited and improved - mostly for ADA compliance and the like.

How do the rest of you handle job descriptions?

Brad Forrister
Director of Publishing
M. Lee Smith Publishers

safety

In our non-union environment we do not have these, thank goodness.

Leslie

We just went through the process for about 45 positions. Set up a task force and we met every other week. Took us about three months. Would never have hit your deadline Scott!

sonny

No job descriptions?

Parabeagle1

Oh, no! Careful, this thread is departing from the general silliness of the past few days and degenerating into USEFUL INFORMATION!!!!! x:o

Rockie

Now, that is ridiculous for someone to expect you to have these in a week after they knew about it for two months! What is you just conveniently "forget" to do them? Yeah, I know, we don't have that option.

When I came to my present job about 3 1/2 years ago, all the job descriptions were awful - years old and not ADA compliant. I just bit the bullet and redid them all myself with input from supervisors. Most of them now know how to update them when needed.

We probably won't hear from you the rest of the week! Good luck.

System

Scott, I'll help you write the VP's job description. x}>

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

System

Hey, what is this about no job descriptions in a non union? We are non union but I have been trying to update our JD's for a long time and create them when management goes about inventing new jobs. I don't have to do this? Please say it's true!

POPEYE

>Hey, what is this about no job descriptions in a non union? We are non
>union but I have been trying to update our JD's for a long time and
>create them when management goes about inventing new jobs. I don't
>have to do this? Please say it's true!

As far as I know this is one area of employment that there is no law or regulation written stating you have to have JDs. BUT why would you not want to have them? I would think it would be very difficult to administer any type of disciplinary action concerning performance if the EE had no clue what the essential duties of the job were. We are in the processing of revising all of ours for the new ISO certification and as Brad stated in his post, we are requiring our department supervisors to submit the first draft. Then our quality department will tweek them.

sonny

I agree with Pop. .union or no. .I would not want to work in a place where there are no job descriptions!!

safety

OK, I'll come clean; while we do not formally have job descriptions we define duties with an extended SOP system. Within this system is a built in contingency plan that allows for all employees to be cross-trained on other jobs.

When was the last time you heard the statement "That's not my job” In our non-union, non-job description environment we never hear this from ee's because of that all encompassing statement in the SOP's of "other duties as assigned."

System

Sigh. Popeye is right. I was just dreaming for a moment there.But I will definitely include the other duties as assigned. Hokay, back to reality

POPEYE

Deez - Sorry I busted your dream bubble!!

scottorr

I'm back. I managed to get the list down to 33 description and finished on Friday at 6:00pm, just in time for my anniversary trip to ME. I didn't eat drink or sleep the entire week and thought I might have to cancel my trip. Our company is only 5 years old so there wasn't even a scrap of paper to start from. My boss insisted that we do them all in-house (HR only input). Luckily a few managers and directors helped me out. She needed them for succession planning purposes and my boss was concerned that non-management ees might find out that they were not being considered for promotion at this time. At least now I have a head start.

Don D

At least you're writing job descriptions and not looking for another job! After all, you're the one who, when given the assignment by a VP, asked, "Just when did you realize you needed these job descriptions?"

Safety is correct in that there is no federally or state mandate for job descriptions. There are tons of reasons to have them but salutations to one who chooses not to. I recall Paul or somebody in some idyllic job setting a year ago saying they don't have them and don't have job titles or discipline. Any of you guys recall that? Maybe it was Gillian.

ray a

Congratulations, Scott. Sounds like a big job. Our job descriptions are very short with just basic, general information about the job and experience/education requirements. Whenever we come up with a new title, I just find a title that is close and use that description for a template. Usually, it becomes my responsibility, because if I wait for a manager, it won't get done. But, I make them sign off on them.

What I find humorous is we have been on an education kick. That college degree is becoming the focal point of determining qualification. Our site QA Director must have a BS degree, the next level up, Corporate Director of QA only needs an Associates degree. The corporate director is a long time employee and her description was written to grandfather her in.