>> “That’s not my job”
>
> That one used to send me into a rage.
And yet there are things you’ve been hired to do: for example, you wouldn’t hire me in a Computer Science job and then have me routinely do landscaping tasks... precisely because CS jobs pay more than the landscaping. But it can be flipped around, too: say that you’d had me doing landscaping for your company and then found out I have a CS degree, and came to me for system-admin tasks when problems popped up, you’d be shortchanging me because the system-admin job pays more than the landscaping.
Not in a family owned business with 12-25 employees over the years.
When we were slow I expected all the guys to pitch in and do things that weren’t their jobs. Landscaping, changing brake pads, sweeping the shop, changing light-bulbs, whatever needed to be done.
I was paying guys $28-35 an hour plus full time bennies (and I mean very nice bennies which raised their hourly rate to over $50 an hour), and if you don’t want to do whatever it takes, then punch out and go home.
I don’t care if your a licensed plumber, we are slow, so, go do the brakes on your truck. I don’t care that you are our machinist, the back door needs welding, get your rig over there and weld it. I don’t care that you are our ventilation guy, we are slow, get on the mower and mow the lawn.
It was my call to decide what was best for our financial bottom line AND the health and well being of our company, and our employees, and in some cases certain guys would punch out and go home. Then, my wife would get calls from their wives asking why Pete only got 20 hours this week? We can’t pay the bills, etc. Because your husband said “That’s not my job” that’s why, and he decided to go blow that 20 hour paycheck at the tavern or riverboat.
And if you told me “It’s not my job” ONCE, I was very reluctant to allow you to stay on the clock and work around the shop when we were slow, because you were obviously not a team player.
For the most part, my guys wanted to do every job they could to get a paycheck, but not all of them. $32 an hour to spray weeds or repair a chain link fence? Most guys jumped at that, but like I said, there were a few over the years whose ego prevented them from doing a lesser job.