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#Post#: 13006--------------------------------------------------
Other duties as assigned vs. That's not my job
By: Victoria Date: September 4, 2018, 2:43 pm
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As the most junior member of the department, I had been doing
both my job and the job of an admin assistant to fill a
temporary gap until we hired an admin assistant named Tiffany.
She de facto reports to me because I'm best able to walk her
through how to do certain things, since I spent the most time
doing them an also overhauling our filing/processes.
Additionally, Tiffany's actual supervisor is largely checked out
and doesn't do a lot of supervising, which has resulted in my
realization that we hired someone who's underqualified. This
has resulted in members of my department giving Tiffany work,
promptly realizing that she can't be trusted with it, and then
giving the next thing to me. So in between my normal job duties,
I'm pausing to mail packages, answer the phone, alphabetize, and
set up meetings.
On the one hand, I'm very conscious of being the most junior
person there by a mile. There's a certain expectation that I
"put in my time" and endure the slog, and that I grin and bear
doing the least-substantive tasks. Tiffany also makes my job a
bit easier-so if it were a yes or no question, I would say yes,
we should keep her. On the other hand, we specifically hired
Tiffany to do a lot of the work that I'm still doing, and it's
throwing off my ability to schedule and work if I have to pause
and run to the post office or pause and dig up an old file. My
supervisor has told me that I'm free to delegate to Tiffany if I
trust her, but it would ultimately come back on me if I was
specifically asked to do something and Tiffany screwed it up.
When I'm emailed a request like "Please pull file X from the
archives" I copy Tiffany and the requestor and ask Tiffany to do
the task, but no one's said anything and they don't redirect
work to her.
I've raised this issue with my supervisor before and it's been
met with a shrug and a "Our department head hates turnover more
than inefficiency so we can't really do anything about it." I'm
really just not sure what else to do at this point. Even my
corrections to Tiffany feel empty, since there's no real
authority there. I suppose I'm looking for both perspective and
for ideas on how to approach this again, probably with my
supervisor. Or if I even should. I'm totally open to the idea
that this may be one of those "suck it up and do your job"
situations, but I don't have enough experience to know.
ETA: We're all on salary and not billing to one project or
another.
#Post#: 13009--------------------------------------------------
Re: Other duties as assigned vs. That's not my job
By: Jem Date: September 4, 2018, 2:57 pm
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Since you have already raised this issue, I think you should ask
for clarification of your job duties, phrased so that you can be
certain you are doing what you should be and delegating what you
should be. Based on what you have described, I don't think
people care who does the work, just that it gets done. I can't
tell what your job is? If you are administrative, I think you
likely will need to accept that you will need to do
administrative work.
#Post#: 13012--------------------------------------------------
Re: Other duties as assigned vs. That's not my job
By: Victoria Date: September 4, 2018, 3:05 pm
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[quote author=Jem link=topic=652.msg13009#msg13009
date=1536091071]
Since you have already raised this issue, I think you should ask
for clarification of your job duties, phrased so that you can be
certain you are doing what you should be and delegating what you
should be. Based on what you have described, I don't think
people care who does the work, just that it gets done. I can't
tell what your job is? If you are administrative, I think you
likely will need to accept that you will need to do
administrative work.
[/quote]
Sorry about that. I'm a lawyer in a legal department.
#Post#: 13013--------------------------------------------------
Re: Other duties as assigned vs. That's not my job
By: Jem Date: September 4, 2018, 3:37 pm
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[quote author=Victoria link=topic=652.msg13012#msg13012
date=1536091529]
[quote author=Jem link=topic=652.msg13009#msg13009
date=1536091071]
Since you have already raised this issue, I think you should ask
for clarification of your job duties, phrased so that you can be
certain you are doing what you should be and delegating what you
should be. Based on what you have described, I don't think
people care who does the work, just that it gets done. I can't
tell what your job is? If you are administrative, I think you
likely will need to accept that you will need to do
administrative work.
[/quote]
Sorry about that. I'm a lawyer in a legal department.
[/quote]
Yikes! Then you most definitely should not be doing
administrative tasks for other people, especially if you are
billing time! I would talk to whomever you report to about what
your job requirements are. If you are in-house or with a small
firm without administrative assistants, it could be that you are
expected to do your OWN administrative work. But if other
lawyers are expecting YOU to do THEIR administrative work that
is something to push back on.
#Post#: 13019--------------------------------------------------
Re: Other duties as assigned vs. That's not my job
By: QueenFaninCA Date: September 4, 2018, 4:54 pm
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I would talk to my supervisor how to handle this. But they
should give you permission to bounce admin tasks back with "this
is Tiffany's job, please give it to her".
#Post#: 13021--------------------------------------------------
Re: Other duties as assigned vs. That's not my job
By: Bales Date: September 4, 2018, 5:24 pm
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Your supervisor is really no help since he says it would be on
you if anything you rightfully delegated wasn't done correctly.
I wouldn't even say delegated, but redirected to the correct
resource. However, since they hate turnover, though, why don't
you just tell your coworkers that you're unable to complete
their request and suggest they give it to Tiffany? I mean, if
they won't fire her for not doing her job, are they going to
fire you for not doing someone else's job? Grunt work is doing
the research, writing the briefs, etc. that nobody wants to do -
at least that's they way I see it from my experience (which is
limited to TV and books, so take that with a hefty grain of
salt.) No matter what, though, I can't imagine they want an
attorney doing admin work - and if they do, you need to find a
new job.
#Post#: 13031--------------------------------------------------
Re: Other duties as assigned vs. That's not my job
By: AnnaT Date: September 4, 2018, 8:13 pm
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Your hourly rate is going to be a hell of a lot higher than her
hourly rate (even as a lowly graduate) so yeah - this should
definitely be pushed back to the initiator (at least below
partner level).
Something along the lines of "please pass all admin tasks
through to our Administration Assistant".
You could maybe try having a conversation with your lead partner
(not sure how big your firm is). It would be good to have some
stats - I've done x hours of admin this week. "At my current
charge out rate that is $x,xxx. Could I please have your
support in pushing admin work to our Admin Assistant - I feel
that me doing this work is costing the firm $x,xxx per month..."
Lawyers understand $$ and cost/profit margins - if you lay it
out in figures you should get some support.
#Post#: 13037--------------------------------------------------
Re: Other duties as assigned vs. That's not my job
By: Bada Date: September 4, 2018, 9:22 pm
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Your hourly rate is SO much lower than those with more
experience. So yes, you have to do admin work when there's no
other employee available. (My friend who worked in BigLaw said
they never actually billed clients for the work of first year
attorneys, even! Not sure if you're a first year, but still...)
But now that Tiffany is there, it should be off your plate. If
you're not keeping track of your hours, I agree with those who
say you should start and that you should point out how many
billable (presumably) hours the firm is losing by having an
incompetent employee.
Law jobs are hard to come by these days, but if you could do it
without sounding snarky, you could mention that if they don't
want to lose Tiffany to turnover, they might lose you instead
and that you're going to start to look for a firm where you can
actually practice law. But then again, if you're not working
overtime due to having to do this extra work (and if you're
making an attorney's salary), maybe it's better to stay quiet
and get paid for doing stuff that's beneath you.
#Post#: 13038--------------------------------------------------
Re: Other duties as assigned vs. That's not my job
By: TootsNYC Date: September 4, 2018, 10:19 pm
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[quote]I've raised this issue with my supervisor before and it's
been met with a shrug and a "Our department head hates turnover
more than inefficiency so we can't really do anything about
it."[/quote]
I think it might be time for them to experience that
inefficiency.
Don't do her job. Don't do tasks she should do. Tell people,
"I'm not going to get to it," and then don't. Be very busy with
your REAL job.
I don't know as much about law firms, so I bow to the people who
are talking about whose rates are more important, etc.
But I think you should start tracking your hours for evidence
(and to get used to it).
#Post#: 13043--------------------------------------------------
Re: Other duties as assigned vs. That's not my job
By: browzer11 Date: September 5, 2018, 1:10 am
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"Tell people, "I'm not going to get to it," and then don't.".
Unless you have the backing of your Supervisor and her/his boss,
that's a good way to get fired.
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