Task3: The Role of Job Descriptions
Script
People who don’t understand what their employers expect them to do may be headed for one of the most common and yet most avoidable career traps. If your boss doesn’t take the time to explain properly what you are expected to do in your position. Then keep asking questions until you know precisely what it is. Don’t limit your questions to matter of everyday routine. Lee Colby, a management consultant based in Minneapolis, offers his advice. He says you can ask more significant questions like, “What are our departmwnt’s goals? How does my work fit in with the overall objective of the company?”
That method helped Lisa James, an assistant manager at an electronics company. When James was transferred to a new department seven years ago, she found herself not only working for the manager of quality control, but assisting three other managers. Because the job was both demanding and ill-defined, James had to put in ten-hour days as well as take work home. To clarify what was expected of her and what she hoped to get from her job in terms of career department, she drafted a list of goals in collaboration with her principal boss. The list proved so well though out that her boss used it as the basis for her annual performance reviews. Shortly afterwards, she was given a raise for her efficient work.
If your boss is vague about what your goals should be, try this technique suggested by Atkin Simon, director of a Boston-based management-consulting firm: Read your position description, which most large firms provide, and identify the two or three most important tasks it mentions. Then meet with your boss, point out the tasks you’ve chosen and ask if they accurately reflect what your boss considers important.
1. If your boss does not describe your job responsibility clearly, what can you do?
2. What kind of questions can you ask about your job?
3. When James was transferred to a new department, how many managers did she have to work for?
4. With whom did James draft a list of goals?
5. How was her list of goals received?
Keys: 1B 2.D3. D 4.A 5.C
For Reference
Read your position description and identify the two or three most important tasks it mentions. Then meet with your boss, point out the tasks you’ve chosen and ask if they accurately reflect what your boss considers important.
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