What is your most memorable "that’s not in my job description" experience at work?

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 This question originated from a Quora submission. As I thought of adding this to the blog. I thought about some of the superhero tasks we take on as leaders for some of our organizations. My response (with edits for clarity) outlines my thoughts when tasked to perform what I referenced as "superhero" talent. Hopefully, you will get a laugh from this, but also recognize that there is a limit to our roles as leaders for organizations. 

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My Response: 

​Early in my distribution management career, one of my duties or responsibilities included the safety of our employees. Of course, a more than reasonable expectation. Right?
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However, after I began reading through some of the safety protocols, I came across the protocol for handling “bomb threats” in the facility. This topic was of strong interest to me as there were many workplace shootings occurring throughout the country at the time (This was in the late 90’s/early 2000’s). I took for granted it included evacuating the building etc.

However, one line caught my attention, and I had a “What is wrong them?” experience.
I can’t remember it verbatim, but after clearing people out of our assigned area, we as front-line supervisors were expected to ride our chariots (which resembled scooters, or some were golf carts) around the facility and look for “suspicious” packages.

​You know the feeling of when you first read something, that your “flow” may feel light as you take in the information and quickly process it? Well, when I arrived at the paragraph about "searching for suspicious packages," the reading “flow” screeched to an abrupt halt for a few seconds. It was the proverbial “pin drop” moment. I shifted in my seat for a moment and thought about what I had just read. I reasoned that I was reading so much information it had to be a mistake. I mean, I couldn’t have read that correctly. Right?

I re-read it to be clear. Yep, that’s what they wanted us to do. They wanted us to drive around a 1.5M sq. foot facility or whatever our assigned area was and look for a potential package with a bomb in it. Let that sink in and then let’s spell C-R-A-Z-Y. Because that is exactly what must have been what was wrong with them when they wrote that mess. Yep, that wasn’t going to happen. I reasoned that if I got my team out of the building safely, I wasn’t going to go search for a bomb. I decided that would be the day I would lose my job.

While it was “technically” in my job description, it may as well not been in there. Now if I would’ve seen a “suspicious” package on my way out, of course, I would advise the authorities, but I wasn’t going to go look for it. Afterall, I wasn’t McGuyver (google the name), CSI, Batman, nor a superhero. So yeah, not going to happen.

Fortunately, I never had to leave my job for that reason. 
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Nanette Kirk, Your Career Coach

Nanette Kirk is the President and CEO of NetKi Enterprises, LLC. We help clients navigate their career journey, through career coaching and consulting. Thank you for reading this blog post. Feel free to reach out if you have any leadership or career challenges, I can help you explore and resolve. You can click on the button below to schedule a discovery call. 

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