Other Duties as Assigned
The other day I had the opportunity to sit in on a couple sessions of Perry’s coaching network. During one of the sessions, he had a few of the NewSpring staffers speak. Three of them shared their stories from the early days at NewSpring. Jake was one of the folks who shared.
During his comments, Jake referred to that line that’s commonplace in just about every job description. It’s the line after all the specific responsibilities of the role that indicates you are also responsible for “other duties as assigned.” Jake asked the question, “When you see that in your job description, does it fire you up or piss you off?”
I hope it fires you up. If it does, it’s an indication that you absolutely love the mission and vision of your organization. It means you have complete trust for your leaders. It means you know sometimes you get to do something that’s outside the ordinary that’s going to add value to your team.
On the other hand if that part of your job description pisses you off, you should do yourself and your organization a favor and resign. If you can’t do whatever may be required to fulfill the mission and vision of your organization and love it, you’re probably in the wrong organization. We can argue about whose fault it is, but it really doesn’t matter. You don’t belong there. Move on. Find a place where you can fully commit and fully engage.
Here’s the reality, if you’re that person who challenges the “other duties as assigned” part of your job, your teammates are already feeling the impact of it. And, likely, your boss is already mulling over your exit strategy. Your attitude including your passion for completing the “dirty work” part of your job really matters.
So, how about you? What’s your reaction to the other duties as assigned?
Sorry Tony, with all due respect to you and NewSpring. I think you are dead wrong. At the end of the day, no matter how much you are excited about your job… even if it’s a mission you greatly believe in… if you’re going to have staff there for the long haul you had better create a culture that respects staff. As I talk to person after person who has bounced out of ministry it is almost always the same story… the church had unrealistic expectations for staff.
I’m all for pitching in, I’m all for helping one another out. But asking your creative people to set-up and tear down, or your musicians to stuff envelopes, on and on… but the concept that you always have to be available for “other duties as assigned just not respectful of those people. Moreover, the people in your church will disrespect the leadership for abusing its staff. “What’s next, washing Perry’s car?”
I read this post and instantly thought, “Spoken like an executive pastor.” I’d be curious to hear how lower level employees at the church feel about your post when you aren’t around!
I have to agree with Adam on this. I firmly believe that there are occassions where I need to say no to a project that I am asked to work on because it is outside of my ministry area, outside of my gift areas, and taking away an opportunity for the rest of the body to serve. Many weaker church leaders take this approach to managing staff and it leads to total burnout of the staff members. Now, with all that said, I wouldn’t want anyone on my team that is not looking for ways to jump in and support other ministry areas. I want the person that I have to say no to instead of them having to say no to me.
For “other duties as assigned” to work in a healthy way (as it sounds like they do at NS), there’s a huge, unstated corollary that must be present: leaders who are committed to the reasonable workloads of their teams. Without this complementary feature, “other duties as assigned” can become the contractual club used to steadily beat the life out of an employee.
I love my organization like crazy AND I trust my leaders completely…but I love my wife and children more. If I’ve got a totally full plate of work responsibilities and my boss wants me to do another big thing, my response is always going to be, “I’ll do ANYTHING you want. I just need to know what you want me to STOP doing.” To take on more than is possible to do will result in (among other things) either sub-par work or sub-par family. Everything costs something.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen too many church employees offer their families at the altar built by taskmaster leaders. On my watch, that won’t happen again. As long as “other duties as assigned” comes with the promise “I won’t ask you to do more than is reasonable,” I’m with you 100%.
I totally agree with post and I’m in an interesting position, I am a department head at a large church. I get fired up when this applies to me and I want my staff to feel the same way.
I think what the first 2 commenters are missing is the statement made in the post after talking about my vision for the church, is my “complete trust in my leaders”. Because I trust the people over me I don’t fear the things expressed in the above comments. My Pastor wouldn’t have me stuff envelopes,etc BECAUSE it’s not the best use of my talents, skills, etc. But IF HE DID, I would know he felt it was in the best interest of the church. He’s human. I’m not implying anything to the contrary, but I trusted him with my skills and talents, when I bought into his vision for this church. If that wasn’t the case I shouldn’t be here.
If I’ll only do the things in my area I’m more committed to my departmental silo than the total church.
Just my O, from my experience.
Jeremy
Right on.
Ministry isn’t about doing what you WANT to do–it’s about doing what has to be done to reach people.
Is the Senior Pastor really above scrubbing toilets? If so, you have a problem.
Great call.