Career News 24/7: The Cynical Girl: NOT MY JOB!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

The Cynical Girl: NOT MY JOB!

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 03:45 AM PDT

I was contacted by a lovely recruiter who saw me speak about social media and Human Resources during the live stream at TLNT Transform. Cool, huh?

This young woman is 100% dedicated to recruiting but is often involved in employee issues after someone is hired because they see her as a reliable point-of-contact. She fields questions on benefits, compensation and performance management even though it’s not her job.

This sounds so familiar to me. When I worked as a recruiter, I was in the position of forming positive relationships with new employees — because I gave them money and a new job. Fun! Hooray! And when things with HR got complicated or difficult in the new job, as it frequently happens, they would come back to me for help. I had a difficult saying NOT MY JOB.

And this recruiter is having that trouble, too. She wants to say NOT MY JOB but can’t.

My advice? Don’t say it.

When you build a reputation as a ‘problem solver’, you become important to an organization. Companies don’t fire helpful and relevant people. At least, they don’t fire them first. Also, you are improving your own skills and abilities when you say YES and help someone.

I said YES and learned more about Human Resources. When a colleague of mine had a hysterectomy, I was able to step up and say YES to being an interim HR Generalist. That single move helped me more than anything else I did with my career.

So when possible, try to say YES. Although I fully support saying NO when you are too busy and/or when someone else is being lazy. Just remember that NO might not be an option. Sometimes we say NO to responsibilities and actions that are part of our jobs.

For example, I once worked as a Human Resources assistant. I had an HR director ask me to get lunch for the team. I said, “Uh, yeah… uh… you want me to get lunch? Really?”

I was trying to make a statement. I was busy and that didn’t feel like part of my job.

She looked at me and said, “Not only do I want you to get lunch but I want you to do it with a smile on your face.”

Bam. The message was pretty clear.