The Dangers of Judging Your Colleagues’ Jobs

No one likes to be judged. The worst part about judgmental people, other than the unmitigated arrogance and audacity it takes to assess the worth of another human being, is that most judgmental people are, inevitably, hypocrites. And judgmental people at the workplace are the worst. Without knowing exactly, or even generally, what other people do, they feel free to characterize the jobs of others as meaningless or trivial, which is simply another way of portraying that person as having no professional meaning or value.

This happens often, believe it or not, to managers. Yes, the folks in charge. This article elaborates, “When a person is constantly delegating tasks to different groups or employees, it’s easy to assume that they keep few responsibilities for themselves. Managers sit up in their office as the rest of the company wonders if they’re responding to email or playing solitaire on that big old monitor.” The truth is your manager probably works harder than you ever realized, and this probably applies to many people in your company too.

We all know who the slackers are in the company: the habitually late, the irresponsible, the unreliable and the work dodgers. For many workplaces, years of recession have wiped them out, along with—unfortunately—the diligent, talented and capable employees who were dealt the same fate. Character issues aside, many office professionals wrongly assume they know what their colleagues do, and this can be dangerous. The fact is throughout the duration of a few months our jobs can change considerably.

Job creep is a leading source of frustration for millions of office professionals as their responsibilities change as businesses adjust to fluctuations in the economy and consumer practices. The administrative assistant at your office probably does more than you think, and all without complaining. So does Bob Wesley in accounting and Frida Gomez in human resources. Don’t be that colleague who says things like, “I honestly don’t know what Larry does” or “What does Sally do anyway?” or “I can’t believe that is actually someone’s job.” Chances are someone thinks the same about your job.

Photo courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives.