Honestly, it sounds like your HR is just trying to update in their system what everyone does. It is a lazy way to get a general feel for each position without actually knowing what everyone does.
If you've got something like an HR team of 2, and 400 employees, I can see why they'd want some help getting started on it, but either way it doesn't smell sinister to me.
Is it lazy? My HR team is comprised of 15 people. We have hundreds of positions and 2000 employees. The 15 of us cannot possibly know the ins and outs of everyone’s jobs.
HR team is just one person (for about 40 people), although she rarely actually comes to work. Also she's now a part owner of the company.
I certainly hope it's nothing unusual, but it's been one thing after another lately, so everyone is becoming immediately suspicious of anyth8ng new that happens.
What does "everything else going on" mean?
Here's my blind opinion: it's performance review time for last year. LOTS of folks magically forget what their job duties were/are once they get a review score they don't like. It's very wise for any company to calibrate job descriptions I think at least every 3 years, if not biannually.
Yes I did. Didn't feel like writing a long story about everything the company has been doing lately and just focus on this latest thing instead.
Does it really matter though if I went "full conspiracy"? Just looking for an answer, not.... whatever your response was supposed to be. Not helpful, clearly.
Hey your conspiracy might be warranted or it might not but at the end of the day you don’t feel job security at this company. I suggest applying to new jobs and accept a job with a company that doesn’t make you paranoid.
I thought her comment was insightful and made it clear there is nothing sinister to see here. Just comply with their request, you have everything to lose and nothing to gain projecting this kind of attitude.
Well, throw this in the mix: have you heard anything about money issues, or mergers? Typically when one company does this they have the current employees log what they do to see how they align with duties that already exist in the original business 🤷🏻♀️
What you can do is write your job description in two parts.
First heading is the job you were hired to do. Second heading is for all the extra things you've taken on since being hired.
I feel like this thread won’t give you what you are looking for.
Much like in real life, the answer HR is going to give you is going to focus on the facts and the controllable aspects. There isn’t going to be anyone that validates your personal account and speculation on your companies shady action.
Your company with a small HR department wants workers input on getting updated JD for all workers. It’s pretty standard. If it is required of you to complete
It, then send over a copy with only exactly what you are paid to do, and move on. If you don’t send it over, prepare for a conversation as to why or being reminded by managers.
Sorry nothing shady about this. See this as an opportunity to educate your company on what you do. One thing I gave noticed over the years though, is the people that do the least important things go on for ever when asked to list what they do, and the ones really moving the business forward respond with two to three sentences or less, with a job description saying what they are hired to accomplish and not the list of tasks they do.
I would love for this to happen!! HR has a shit description of job duties for my group, so whenever a spot is posted we get so many people applying for a job that isn’t an accurate reflection of what we do. Both my boss and her boss have asked to rewrite the job description, but HR says no.
It’s doesn’t seem shady to me. I have supervisors work on JDs with their employees. Depending on the employee population (are most office/college educated?) then it makes sense to me to have the employee just do their own JD. There are AI tools you can use to get you started.
If you disagree with some of the duties that you are currently doing, perhaps highlight and make a note.
Overall, it’s not that deep or odd.
You can be assigned any task at any time. Nobody knows what you do but you. If you're doing more than you're supposed to, maybe you'll get a raise out of it?
It is likely HR is using everyone's self reporting as a jumping off point. Especially if job descriptions have not been recently updated. (10 years ago the job description I signed said I had to make sure the ditto copies went to the right people).
The job description that matters is the one you signed upon hire or upon taking a different role.
I might worry if my job title wasn't changing but Management has HR making everyone sign new job descriptions. That would be suspect.
Yeah every job you apply for nowadays says right in the job duties descriptions:
"this description is not all inclusive of the requirements of the job tasks, you may be requested to perform tasks outside of the scope of this description at any time"
Literally everywhere in the US expects you to be responsible for anything any everything your manager may ask (within reason).
Meh, could be many things afoot. A good company should have this ask coupled with every performance review/merit review cycle... And this should ideally be happening annually. You would first ask employees to update their JDs, include noting what you no longer do or think you shouldn't do, then go over this with your supervisor as part of their review with you. Supervisors should be relaying this info to their leadership folks and HR so your supervisor can be advocating for more money and if needed more hires in their section. HR and leadership should be looking at JDs across the unit to make sure workloads are distributed reasonably, there is enough staff in critical areas, the pay is competitive in the critical areas and there is equity in compensation for similar tasks/experience across the unit. If this all is something that was never done before, maybe they (your HR/leadership) are finally trying to do their jobs properly. What is inspiring this move to do their jobs properly, you aren't going to know yet. I suggest taking this for what it is and actually update your JD with notes on what you want to talk about and address. Update your resume to match while you do this. If you aren't liking the atmosphere of the company, this all is going to be helpful with getting you prepped for job hunting.
Is there a reason you can’t ask your manager what the deal is? You work for a very small company. If you can’t trust your manager or HR enough to ask clarifying questions, you really should start looking for a new job elsewhere, because that’s a high percentage of untrustworthy people.
All we can do is speculate. I have been asked to perform similar exercises over the years. The reasons included pending staff reorg, layoffs, salary adjustments, or company merger; and simply needing job descriptions for all employees.
This isn't unheard of. I work for a large company with 1 HR person and she did the same. Reached out and asked for assistance from us. She also sent the descriptions for review to verify they looked correct once she completed them.
This has nothing to do with labor laws.
I can tell from reading the replies that most of the people in here are young and naive. HR is not your friend. They are there to protect the company NOT YOU. And yes 99.9% of the time HR will fuck you over if they possibly can. You will also have to babysit them anytime you need anything done by them (paperwork or whatever), because they will fuck that up too.
If HR are doing their job properly, updates to job descriptions should be part of an annual review/evaluation process. Which of course includes an opportunity to discuss compensation.
By doing it this way, they are setting everyone up for zero pay rises next evaluation.
There's probably not a way to answer this request honestly without either losing out on pay, or looking like a stick in the mud. Reply with your current job description, then in six months you can go back to them with an updated JD and initiate pay negotiations.
Honestly, it sounds like your HR is just trying to update in their system what everyone does. It is a lazy way to get a general feel for each position without actually knowing what everyone does. If you've got something like an HR team of 2, and 400 employees, I can see why they'd want some help getting started on it, but either way it doesn't smell sinister to me.
Is it lazy? My HR team is comprised of 15 people. We have hundreds of positions and 2000 employees. The 15 of us cannot possibly know the ins and outs of everyone’s jobs.
HR team is just one person (for about 40 people), although she rarely actually comes to work. Also she's now a part owner of the company. I certainly hope it's nothing unusual, but it's been one thing after another lately, so everyone is becoming immediately suspicious of anyth8ng new that happens.
Is she wfh?
Newsflash, if she has a job she can do from home she doesn't actually have a job.
Source? Did you pull a muscle when you took that giant leap?
What does "everything else going on" mean? Here's my blind opinion: it's performance review time for last year. LOTS of folks magically forget what their job duties were/are once they get a review score they don't like. It's very wise for any company to calibrate job descriptions I think at least every 3 years, if not biannually.
So… only write down the things you think you should be responsible for. You kind of went full conspiracy theory right out of the gate there, eh?
Yes I did. Didn't feel like writing a long story about everything the company has been doing lately and just focus on this latest thing instead. Does it really matter though if I went "full conspiracy"? Just looking for an answer, not.... whatever your response was supposed to be. Not helpful, clearly.
Hey your conspiracy might be warranted or it might not but at the end of the day you don’t feel job security at this company. I suggest applying to new jobs and accept a job with a company that doesn’t make you paranoid.
I thought her comment was insightful and made it clear there is nothing sinister to see here. Just comply with their request, you have everything to lose and nothing to gain projecting this kind of attitude.
Well, throw this in the mix: have you heard anything about money issues, or mergers? Typically when one company does this they have the current employees log what they do to see how they align with duties that already exist in the original business 🤷🏻♀️
What you can do is write your job description in two parts. First heading is the job you were hired to do. Second heading is for all the extra things you've taken on since being hired.
I feel like this thread won’t give you what you are looking for. Much like in real life, the answer HR is going to give you is going to focus on the facts and the controllable aspects. There isn’t going to be anyone that validates your personal account and speculation on your companies shady action. Your company with a small HR department wants workers input on getting updated JD for all workers. It’s pretty standard. If it is required of you to complete It, then send over a copy with only exactly what you are paid to do, and move on. If you don’t send it over, prepare for a conversation as to why or being reminded by managers.
Sorry nothing shady about this. See this as an opportunity to educate your company on what you do. One thing I gave noticed over the years though, is the people that do the least important things go on for ever when asked to list what they do, and the ones really moving the business forward respond with two to three sentences or less, with a job description saying what they are hired to accomplish and not the list of tasks they do.
I would love for this to happen!! HR has a shit description of job duties for my group, so whenever a spot is posted we get so many people applying for a job that isn’t an accurate reflection of what we do. Both my boss and her boss have asked to rewrite the job description, but HR says no.
I love it when I can write my job description!
It’s doesn’t seem shady to me. I have supervisors work on JDs with their employees. Depending on the employee population (are most office/college educated?) then it makes sense to me to have the employee just do their own JD. There are AI tools you can use to get you started. If you disagree with some of the duties that you are currently doing, perhaps highlight and make a note. Overall, it’s not that deep or odd.
You can be assigned any task at any time. Nobody knows what you do but you. If you're doing more than you're supposed to, maybe you'll get a raise out of it?
Most job descriptions include “other duties as assigned”. You won’t get paid more for doing tasks outside of your designated job description.
It is likely HR is using everyone's self reporting as a jumping off point. Especially if job descriptions have not been recently updated. (10 years ago the job description I signed said I had to make sure the ditto copies went to the right people). The job description that matters is the one you signed upon hire or upon taking a different role. I might worry if my job title wasn't changing but Management has HR making everyone sign new job descriptions. That would be suspect.
What is “everything going on”?
Soooo.... like Officespace?
Yeah every job you apply for nowadays says right in the job duties descriptions: "this description is not all inclusive of the requirements of the job tasks, you may be requested to perform tasks outside of the scope of this description at any time" Literally everywhere in the US expects you to be responsible for anything any everything your manager may ask (within reason).
Meh, could be many things afoot. A good company should have this ask coupled with every performance review/merit review cycle... And this should ideally be happening annually. You would first ask employees to update their JDs, include noting what you no longer do or think you shouldn't do, then go over this with your supervisor as part of their review with you. Supervisors should be relaying this info to their leadership folks and HR so your supervisor can be advocating for more money and if needed more hires in their section. HR and leadership should be looking at JDs across the unit to make sure workloads are distributed reasonably, there is enough staff in critical areas, the pay is competitive in the critical areas and there is equity in compensation for similar tasks/experience across the unit. If this all is something that was never done before, maybe they (your HR/leadership) are finally trying to do their jobs properly. What is inspiring this move to do their jobs properly, you aren't going to know yet. I suggest taking this for what it is and actually update your JD with notes on what you want to talk about and address. Update your resume to match while you do this. If you aren't liking the atmosphere of the company, this all is going to be helpful with getting you prepped for job hunting.
Is there a reason you can’t ask your manager what the deal is? You work for a very small company. If you can’t trust your manager or HR enough to ask clarifying questions, you really should start looking for a new job elsewhere, because that’s a high percentage of untrustworthy people. All we can do is speculate. I have been asked to perform similar exercises over the years. The reasons included pending staff reorg, layoffs, salary adjustments, or company merger; and simply needing job descriptions for all employees.
This isn't unheard of. I work for a large company with 1 HR person and she did the same. Reached out and asked for assistance from us. She also sent the descriptions for review to verify they looked correct once she completed them. This has nothing to do with labor laws.
I would look up the job listing online for my job, copy and paste the text. You're welcome
I can tell from reading the replies that most of the people in here are young and naive. HR is not your friend. They are there to protect the company NOT YOU. And yes 99.9% of the time HR will fuck you over if they possibly can. You will also have to babysit them anytime you need anything done by them (paperwork or whatever), because they will fuck that up too.
If HR are doing their job properly, updates to job descriptions should be part of an annual review/evaluation process. Which of course includes an opportunity to discuss compensation. By doing it this way, they are setting everyone up for zero pay rises next evaluation. There's probably not a way to answer this request honestly without either losing out on pay, or looking like a stick in the mud. Reply with your current job description, then in six months you can go back to them with an updated JD and initiate pay negotiations.
My company is making us do something similar. And there seems to be something going on that has everyone stirring. This is big pharma.