Additional duties

murphmm

Hi,

I was hauled up by my boss the other day and told that I wasn't fulfilling the complete duties of my job. This despite the fact that I have been doing this job for four years and my reviews have always been good and this has not been mentioned before.

I suspect that they are trying to get rid of me as I'm more expensive than some of my colleagues.

(i) Can they do this and can I refuse.
(ii) What options do I have
(ii) Should I hire a solicitor?

Thanks

Mr. Loverman

I know this will probably sound like a weird answer, but it is probably less stressful to smile, say "OK no problem, this appears to have just been a communication problem, I'm happy to also do these duties" and get on with it.

People who become managers tend to be more aggressive and more dishonest than the average employee, so fighting your manager(s) may be a horrible experience. (There are some brilliant managers out there; I am not saying all managers are aggressive and dishonest).

I know you feel like you should fight it, but I think you should pick the easy option. The easy option is to continue getting paid for the same amount of hours of work.

mikemac1

It's bad management to begin with

If you're getting good appraisals for years they can't just turn around and say you're not doing your job.
An employee should always know where they stand but managers can be lazy and try to avoid conflict by just telling everyone they're doing well. In some companies almost everyone gets the same appraisal score.

Ask the boss for a full list of your duties.
Phrase it nicely, "I'm concerned that you feel I'm not doing my job, can you provide a full list?"
And go through it line by line
If you agree it then next appraisal time you can wave it in their face and say you in management set the job spec so you cannot say I'm not doing my job

So ask for the job spec, the boss either won't bother doing it or it'll take a few days so you think about it.

Irish_Elect_Eng

Hi,

The first thing that I would ask you is

"Do you want to keep the job and have a career with the company?"

It you do then you need to share the responsibility for the issue with youor boss and work with him to resolve the problem. Perhaps he has not been doing a good job goal setting or perhaps you have been slacking off, I don't know. But it is pretty much irrelevant if you want to move forward with the company.

Can you give us an example of the duties that he had issue with, where they core duties, secondary duties or additional duties recently assigned.

You mention that you are more expensive than some of your colleagues, are your colleagues in a similar role?, if so what extra work do you do that justifies your extra pay, what extra skills or benefits do you provide to the team? Are you good value for money? Perhaps his issues is that you are preforming the same as your colleagues when he has come to expect more for his money?

(i) Can they do this and can I refuse.

Check your contract, what does it say.
Depends on your contract, most contracts allow for both extra duties and duties outside of role to be assigned, "he who pays the piper calls the tune"
In the private sector: Of course your boss can ask you to do additional duties, in fact that is the normal route to promotion.
In the public sector: I am not sure, depends on your role I guess.

(ii) What options do I have

(a) Work with your boss to resolve the issue.
(b) Leave, get a new job somewhere else.

(ii) Should I hire a solicitor?

Only hire a solicitor for advice, If the company finds out that you are going this far then, for example a solicitor letter etc. your career is over with this company and you won't be getting a reference.