Job Description - Outdated but still valid?

LornaToon

My job description is 11 years old and was never updated at the time of a restructure many years ago. In the description it states 'supervise junior staff'. I have never had to do this since the job description was created. I'm not against taking on supervision if I have to but as I now do umpteen other tasks not in the written description I'm overloaded with work as it is. With only 10 months to go until retirement I'm not looking for any skills to add to my CV. Can my employer impose this requirement on me, or is there any loophole I could use around it not being a requirement of my role for 11 years?

The root cause of this issue is that managers are wanting to off load line management responsibilities they have down to someone else to take on. Thanks for any advice you can give.

gozaimasu

Ask for voluntary redundancy? Do you really need these extra 10 months work before being able to retire?

The "umpteen other tasks" may well be covered in the contract by "other reasonable activities as required by the business" or something like that.

General_Grant

LornaToon said:

My job description is 11 years old and was never updated at the time of a restructure many years ago. In the description it states 'supervise junior staff'. I have never had to do this since the job description was created. I'm not against taking on supervision if I have to but as I now do umpteen other tasks not in the written description I'm overloaded with work as it is. With only 10 months to go until retirement I'm not looking for any skills to add to my CV. Can my employer impose this requirement on me, or is there any loophole I could use around it not being a requirement of my role for 11 years?

The root cause of this issue is that managers are wanting to off load line management responsibilities they have down to someone else to take on. Thanks for any advice you can give.

Does your employer operate an annual appraisal/review system? 

Was no job evaluation exercise undertaken at the time of the restructure?

theoretica

Even if it weren't in the job description, it would probably be reasonable for your employer to ask you to do some supervising - just as with all the other tasks added.  What is unreasonable is expecting you to do impossible quantities of work. So I think the response is to ask what your managers would like you to drop to give time for the supervision, and maybe point out that as you have not done line management before you expect it will take more of your time until you have developed experience at it.

LornaToon

General_Grant said:

LornaToon said:

My job description is 11 years old and was never updated at the time of a restructure many years ago. In the description it states 'supervise junior staff'. I have never had to do this since the job description was created. I'm not against taking on supervision if I have to but as I now do umpteen other tasks not in the written description I'm overloaded with work as it is. With only 10 months to go until retirement I'm not looking for any skills to add to my CV. Can my employer impose this requirement on me, or is there any loophole I could use around it not being a requirement of my role for 11 years?

The root cause of this issue is that managers are wanting to off load line management responsibilities they have down to someone else to take on. Thanks for any advice you can give.

Does your employer operate an annual appraisal/review system? 

Was no job evaluation exercise undertaken at the time of the restructure?

Hi, it was a long time ago and I can only remember receiving a letter saying my job role was not affected. I have had an annual appraisal every year but this was never raised. The appraisals have mostly concentrated on aims and objectives.

lincroft1710

If you are asked to supervise junior staff, just remind your manager(s) that a) you have no experience in this and b) you will be retiring in 10 (may be 9 or less when they actually ask you) months time.

Undervalued

LornaToon said:

My job description is 11 years old and was never updated at the time of a restructure many years ago. In the description it states 'supervise junior staff'. I have never had to do this since the job description was created. I'm not against taking on supervision if I have to but as I now do umpteen other tasks not in the written description I'm overloaded with work as it is. With only 10 months to go until retirement I'm not looking for any skills to add to my CV. Can my employer impose this requirement on me, or is there any loophole I could use around it not being a requirement of my role for 11 years?

The root cause of this issue is that managers are wanting to off load line management responsibilities they have down to someone else to take on. Thanks for any advice you can give.

Most likely yes. Contracts and job descriptions evolve as business needs change. Virtually all employment contracts say something to the effect of "such other duties as the employer may require". Even if it is not spelt out it could well be argued to be an implied duty.

Brie

What do they mean by management responsibilities??  If it means supervising the moment to moment activity of some spotty newbie then I completely share your revulsion.  If it means helping keep track of holidays and other absences that's not a bad activity if you're ok with spreadsheets and chasing others for info.

But ultimately I would be putting together a list of every single little thing that you do daily, weekly, monthly etc....complete with how long it take for you to do. 

Then ask your manager how you are going to fit in the extras they want to pass to you while you continue to do the zillion things you already are responsible for at the same time as training up your replacement. 

Also remind them that in the next 10 months you are planning on taking X days holiday in months A, B & C so they need to plan their recruitment and the training around those absences.

Hopefully that will scare the bedoggle out of them and they'll go to plan B.

Undervalued

Brie said:

What do they mean by management responsibilities??  If it means supervising the moment to moment activity of some spotty newbie then I completely share your revulsion.  If it means helping keep track of holidays and other absences that's not a bad activity if you're ok with spreadsheets and chasing others for info.

But ultimately I would be putting together a list of every single little thing that you do daily, weekly, monthly etc....complete with how long it take for you to do. 

Then ask your manager how you are going to fit in the extras they want to pass to you while you continue to do the zillion things you already are responsible for at the same time as training up your replacement. 

Also remind them that in the next 10 months you are planning on taking X days holiday in months A, B & C so they need to plan their recruitment and the training around those absences.

Hopefully that will scare the bedoggle out of them and they'll go to plan B.

Remember an employer can totally dictate when an employee can and cannot take their holiday, so the OP has no automatic right to do as you suggest. If they want to be difficult they could refuse all holiday requests in her last year and simply pay her for the holiday after she retires.

So they have no reason to have the bedoggle (or anything else!) scared out of them.

TELLIT01

gozaimasu said:

Ask for voluntary redundancy? Do you really need these extra 10 months work before being able to retire?

The "umpteen other tasks" may well be covered in the contract by "other reasonable activities as required by the business" or something like that.

Redundancy, voluntary or otherwise, is only available if the job ceases to exist.  That certainly doesn't seem to be the situation the OP finds themself in.  As most job descriptions have the 'catch all' along the lines of "...and such other work as may be necessary" I doubt there is any get out.  The best the OP could do is try to stall any additional work/responsibility as long as possible. 

oh_really

OP, be mindful this situation doesn't grow to the point it causes you a stress reaction causing you to be off sick.
Enjoy retirement.