In the past when an employee was asked to do something that was outside of their scope in conjunction with their own work, it was at times met with a quiet eye-roll and compliance. Now in many cases it is met with a sentence people say out loud in meetings, in Slack threads and sometimes right in the middle of a “quick ask.” If you have been hearing “That’s not my job” more often lately, you are not imagining it. It is a workplace trend and it is spreading because it is the new answer to a problem that many organizations refuse to solve.
The Cost of Unspoken Expectations
Here is the truth, the phrase is rarely the real problem, it is the symptom of scope creep, unclear priorities and a system that treats “temporary help” like a permanent arrangement. Just because someone can do extra work does not mean they should do it without tradeoffs, support, acknowledgement or compensation.
Two Workplace Patterns Behind “That’s Not My Job”
There are two patterns that show up in organizations where employees express “That is not my job”. The first is weaponized compliance, where employees do only what they were hired to do because in their past experience “extra” work became the new norm with no title, pay or recognition. The second is disengagement, where employees stop rescuing situations because they no longer trust the organization to treat effort fairly. Neither one starts as a personality flaw but both are responses to an environment that rewards silence and punishes capability.
Duties Include, But Are Not Limited To: Flexibility or Loophole?
If you read many job descriptions you see that that clause of “duties include, but are not limited to” is used for flexibility, coverage and short-term needs. It becomes a trap when it is used as a loophole for chronic understaffing or poor planning. Here is a simple test to see if this is permanent or short-term coverage; ask:
- If the task is ongoing
- Critical
- Requires a specialized skill set
- Not an assigned duty
If it is an ongoing task that is critical, requires a specialized skilled set and not an assigned duty, that is a role. Roles require resourcing, which includes time, training, authority and compensation.
Clarity
If leaders want less “That’s not my job,” they need more clarity. That includes timelines for coverage, explicit ownership and real reprioritization.
Things that are temporary have end dates and goals. For example, specifying:
- This is temporary through a specific date
- Here is what success looks like
- Here is what you can deprioritize while you cover it
Ambiguity does not scale, clarity does; if a duty that requires a specific skill set or role is not in the budget, it should not be in the expectations.
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Shaunta Garth is a Strategic Communications & Visibility Architect specializing in digital storytelling, media strategy and public affairs.