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Janet Parkhurst
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466
Copy that gets RESULTS.
05/30/20 at 12:21AM UTC (Edited)
in
Career

Job Description "Disclaimer" or Pure Deception?

Dear FGBers, Here is a "addendum" to a job description I found online. It sounds like a blanket excuse to totally swamp a new employee with additional and/or distasteful responsibilities that have no relevance to the actual job: Job Description Disclaimer This job description should not be considered all-inclusive. It is merely a guide of expected duties. The employee understands that the job description is neither complete, nor permanent and may be modified at any time. At the request of their supervisor, an employee may be asked to perform additional duties or take on additional responsibilities without notice. Here is what I would place at the bottom of MY resume in response to such BS: Resume Disclaimer This resume should not be considered all-inclusive. It is merely a synopsis of relevant experience and duties successfully performed. The employer should understand that the resume is neither complete, nor static and may be modified at any time to fit an advertised position. If hired, the candidate may request that the employer provide regular and frequent opportunities to learn additional skills and/or assume a higher level of responsibilities commensurate with the employee's accumulated abilities. I wonder what Liz Ryan would think!

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Janet Parkhurst
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466
Copy that gets RESULTS.
06/02/20 at 10:05PM UTC
Dear M. Elizabeth, I'm sure you are right, but it seems whatever is in place to protect the employer's ass, but NEVER the employees. If you look around, I think you'll agree there are very few attorneys who represent employees, exclusively. Thanks for sharing!
M Elizabeth Ingram
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731
HR, administration, & benefits at work; mom of 2
06/02/20 at 7:04PM UTC
It may have been required/recommended by legal counsel. After all, jobs rarely remain exactly the same over time.
Janet Parkhurst
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466
Copy that gets RESULTS.
06/01/20 at 9PM UTC
Dear MJP, Thank you for sharing your experiences. It is so difficult to handle a situation like the one you described (your previous role) gracefully, yet without letting them mop up the floors with you. It has happened to me, too. As a "template writer" (a "title designed to keep my compensation low), I eventually took on more and more complex writing assignments for no additional pay or even credit for doing so. Who knew from the very beginning that this would happen?
MJP
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195
06/01/20 at 5:46PM UTC
I've seen versions of this quite a few times, including on the position that I recently accepted. I read it as "other things can come up that we can't yet predict or articulate, so let's get ready for it." I once accepted a role years ago that didn't include language like this, and provided a clear description of the job responsibilities during the process. But a few days after starting, my CEO met with me to share that he had redrafted my position based on some unexpected needs that had just come up (the org froze hiring, so he now wanted me to take on most of the responsibilities of the roles that were now going unfilled - in addition to what I was hired for). All this of course, was to be done with no additional pay or benefits. Similar to the above posted, I don't view the inclusion of language like this as negative. But that experience taught me to ask about these types of things during interviews (e.g. What's the process for assigning projects? How do you adjust when new projects come up unexpectedly that don't neatly fall in to one person / department's responsibility? etc.). That has provided greater insight than the inclusion / exclusion of language like this, and was a lesson I learned the hard way!
Goalsetter352065
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116
Inspiring Leaders to Make Time to Make Change.
05/30/20 at 5:14PM UTC
Since I come from the agency side, I would just say that no job description is completely comprehensive so I don't look at this disclaimer as something ultimately negative rather something that is more of a catch all. Some people can be very literal about job responsibilities so this is actually somewhat helpful. Your resume inclusion made me LOL.
Janet Parkhurst
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466
Copy that gets RESULTS.
06/01/20 at 8:55PM UTC
Thanks for your viewpoint, Goalsetter! I'm sure you are right; another way I have seen this, of course, is: "Other duties as assigned." I guess a candidate can always ask for clarification during the interview...
Janet Parkhurst
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466
Copy that gets RESULTS.
05/30/20 at 3:06AM UTC
Thanks for sharing, Amanda. I didn't want to sound paranoid, but I've had experiences where, as a staff copywriter (with a new boss), was suddenly being asked to execute "admin" duties--even when the department had an admin.
Amanda Johnson Hulsey
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61
Future doctor
05/30/20 at 2:27AM UTC
I have applied and had several jobs with that kind of description that said something to that affect. That is so when the supervisor/boss give you crap they don't want to do and its a huge mess you clean up they throw that under the description of other duties.
Janet Parkhurst
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466
Copy that gets RESULTS.
05/30/20 at 12:18AM UTC
Dear MJP, Nothing is "off" with your viewer. I copied and pasted my post from a Word document, but it didn't appear to be working. So I tried it several times and finally saw that the post was there. I went back in and erased the multiple copied text, but I guess it didn't "erase" it. Wish there were a way I could fix it! Sorry for your viewing inconvenience!

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