“That’s not my job!”
This is quite a common phrase heard in the workplace. There may be many reasons why someone feels this way. Let’s look at some potential causes and what to do.
“That’s not my job!” declares a flustered colleague…
…how many times have you heard a variation of this at an organisation you’ve worked at? Often it’s an inhibitor to working together. It’s prevalent enough that it’s relatively common to see companies declare in their job ads that “not my job” is not accepted in their culture.
A classic example, to pick on my own job history as a software engineer, is for an engineer to be pushing back on invitations to collaborate. “Come back to me when the spec is perfect” is another response which I’ve heard many times uttered to Product Managers, QA or Designers. What is behind this attitude?
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Why someone might say this and what to do about it
There’s a variety of scenarios that can lead to someone feeling this way — here are a few I have experienced and actions you could take to try to address it:
- It’s truly not their job — what is being suggested is too much of a stretch and needs expertise they don’t possess.
- What to do:
Your org may be spreading people too thin — what is acceptable will differ for different types of organisations e.g. startup vs enterprise. - The person is overworked.
- What to do:
They need help to clear their plate before being engaged, especially in areas they are less familiar with. - The person is in a situation where responsibilities have not been clarified and high ambiguity and assumptions may lead them to presumption.
- What to do:
Work with the team on clarifying roles and responsibilities and how you expect the dynamic to work. - They draw comfort from being able to focus on something very narrow and have others deal with all the complexity outside of that.
- What to do:
This may be unfair to the rest of the team who tend to pick up all the glue work that they deem “Not my job!” - They feel more effective when leaning primarily on their expertise.
- What to do:
This is natural, there will be a feeling of being at first less effective — you need to support with time, space and safety to adapt. - They have never worked any other way.
- What to do:
Create opportunities that are low stakes initially to build some familiarity and comfort. Educate on what benefits you expect and over what timeframe. - Assume that the most effective use of time is to maximise the utilisation of their primary skillset.
- What to do:
Educate on why optimising for value is more efficient. - They are avoiding responsibility — it’s hard to fail if the only requirement is to complete tasks.
- What to do:
Coaching is required to help build awareness of these sub-conscious choices.
In my next post, I cover another common scenario when you might hear “That’s not my job!” and deep dive into how this relates to working with different degrees of context and why that matters in:
Originally published at https://wioota.substack.com on June 21, 2022.
