Many people don't fully understand what jobs they've never done entail. For example, I blogged before about how I don't know what pharmacists do other than dispense and advise about drugs. When I worked in fast food, some of my customers clearly didn't understand (both to their frustration and to mine) that I had scheduled tasks to do in addition to making food and ringing in customers. I still don't understand what social workers do (people keep explaining it to me as "assisting clients with X" and "supporting clients in Y", but no one elaborates on how exactly they assist and support).
Apart from general interest, sometimes people go into a certain field without fully understanding what the job entails, and sometimes people loudly complain that certain jobs are overpaid without fully understanding what the job entails (which is particularly problematic for public-sector jobs, where a critical mass of loud complaining - even if it comes from a place of ignorance - can result in working conditions being unfairly worsened.)
We need a single central website where people in different jobs can describe in detail exactly what it is they do all day, including the parts of the job that their clients don't see. It would also be interesting to have information like what's annoying and what's rewarding? What rules hinder you and what small pleasures are there? If they could keep it well-moderated, they could even have readers ask questions. But mostly we need a full view of what exactly it is everyone does all day.
3 comments:
I had a manager who made the mistake of over delegating. He kept openly piling onto my workload, for his reports. He got canned by year's end.
Problem was - after that, how could the company keep telling me that I wasn't properly qualified or worth a better wage or position, as directly compared to their supervisors and managers. And how could they later justify bringing in more 'who they know' replacements without even allowing a notification for internal promotions? When the sh*t hit, I asked to be canned - and took the severance.
Karma kept its eye on my situation; most of those executives also got canned soon after (or just before) owing to a merger. And the company, with one lone and twisted HR Sneak entrenched, itself earned a black eye a few years on - for not changing its way.
What did they do all day? Despite all their fancied up job descriptions and mission statement jargons? Didn't create a profitable result for step one.
(Yeah, I need better people in my parts of my life...)
I'm all for what you are describing. Think of it as career counseling without the black box. It'd have to be set up like Wikileaks to get around all the boilerplate non-disclosure agreements.
It's an excellent idea, both for complaining members of the public and for people choosing a career path. Non-disclosure wouldn't be an issue, because the purpose wouldn't be to reveal confidential information or name specific companies. Many people who do the same jobs coukd contribute, offering a more complete picture. Why doesn't this already exist??
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