Isn’t there an old saying? Job descriptions: Can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em? Well, maybe that’s not entirely an old saying, but it should be.
I’ve recommended to more than one future church staff member, that they MUST get a job description from their Pastor/Supervisor. There’s almost nothing more frustrating in the work place than to be held responsible for something that you did not know you were responsible for. So, for the employee, job descriptions are in fact helpful, because they help us to stay on task and remain focused. However, your employer might be reluctant to write out your job description because in the church world, we are often required to do things that no one ever saw coming!
For example, just this morning I arrived at the church only to discover that there was water shooting all over the place from a malfunctioning spigot! Now, if I ONLY did what was on my “job description”, I would have waded through the water, ignored it, never reported it, and just waited for someone else to come along and take care of it (which could have been hours later)!
The takeaway is this: be responsible for what is on your job description, but also be willing (even flexible) to do other things that need to be done! In other words, BE PROACTIVE!
What is something that you can do, in the next 24 hours that needs to be done, that might not even be YOUR job?