Saying “This is Not Part of My Job”

Running the business efficiently to assure clients or customers are well taken care of, is an important key to the success or failure of a business. If there is no business, there is no job.

It is imperative that everyone “pulls together” to get the job done. To say “this is not part of my job” only removes you from the team and makes you a less valuable employee. Other employees may then have to do the work you refuse to do, making them resentful and causing them to be unwilling to help when you need it.

Especially with the economy as it is today, excellent customer service is a must. And with many jobs hard to find, it is important that you are seen as a valuable team player. When the situation arises, as an employer I suggest you consider the following

Why do I not want to do this? Is it because:

• It will keep me from getting my own work done on time.
• I am concerned that I don’t know how to do it, because I have not done it in a long time or I need additional training.

If this is the case, explain it that way and work with them on a solution. It would be helpful for you to have suggestions on how they can help you make this work.

Or is it because

• You don’t like that type of work
• You just don’t want to do it

If this is the case, talk about other things you can do to help lighten the load for someone else that is interested in doing the work requested. Otherwise, you need to decide how important this job is to you, if you can do the work required of you or you need to look for other work.