RE: dreaded part of the job

["Jane Carnall" <jane -dot- carnall -at- digitalbridges -dot- com>]

>Speaking of most dreaded parts of the job, does anyone have a demeaning
>administrative task that they've been asked to
>perform?

I agree with Dick Margulis, more or less: It's not demeaning unless the
person asking intends it to be demeaning (or rather, more likely, thinks
it's not demeaning because it's the kind of thing you were hired to do).

Sending a fax, making four mugs of tea for the others at the meeting instead
of just one for just me, wiping up the coffee someone else spilt on the
kitchen counter, photocopying a document, collecting papers from the
printer, answering the phone, passing on a message, none of these things are
what I was hired to do and I would be offended if anyone assumed that I did
them because it was part of my job (or worse "because you're a girl"). But
I've done them all as and when, and the only point that really matters is
that my co-workers - whether senior or junior to me in the tree - should be
equally prepared to do them for me. (This is why the only one in that list
that I actually complain about is the spilled coffee. For some reason 95% of
the men in my office do not appear to realise that if you spill instant
coffee granules and sugar on the counter, you can actually make the counter
clean again by promptly wiping them up.)

It becomes demeaning/annoying not when someone asks you politely to do
whateveritis as a favour because you're going that way anyway, but when
people complain that you haven't done whateveritis because it's your job,
not theirs: in their eyes they're too important for such trivial tasks, but
you're not.

Kathy Li wrote:
>>Speaking of most dreaded parts of the job, does anyone have a demeaning
administrative task that they've been asked to perform? my manager asked me
once to fill out the hours he clocked for various customers.....I was
stunned.>>

I would have been, too. Just Say No...

As for comments about "Wow, this looks really professional!" it's all in the
tone of voice... It's not much of a compliment if they sound surprised
instead of admiring.

Jane Carnall
Platon: modo fac.


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