26/07/2024
๐ก๐๐ฉ๐๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐๐ฌ "๐ง๐๐๐ง'๐ฆ ๐ก๐ข๐ง ๐ ๐ฌ ๐๐ข๐"
๐๐ ๐๐๐ป ๐ ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฑ๐ผ๐๐ฎ, ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐๐ฟ๐ด๐ฒ๐ผ๐ป
I saw this photo below posted anonymously a few weeks ago. I fully agree! I've never said โThatโs not my jobโ to any of my bosses. But I'd say I was probably more selfish than altruistic during the earlier years of my career. I must admit that back then, helping the organization, or helping others for that matter, wasn't really top of mind. My learning was.
I worked for 10 different companies since 1980 until I retired in 2018. Early on, perhaps towards my third or fourth year of working, I realized that my job description just "boxed me in". I found myself wanting to do tasks that wasn't in my JD, maybe because I'm a person whoโs easily bored without variety. While I was earning P777 monthly, it wasn't the measly salary that was making me unhappy -- it was the job itself. It was clear to me that if I stuck to what my JD said I should do, I would stop learning. That would be a huge problem for me, because I've always been a voracious learner, even now at this ripe old age of 66.
So I simply asked my boss for new tasks. Mind you, I didn't ask him for more work -- I asked him for NEW work. Doing more of what I was already doing would just continue to bore me and probably make me leave for another organization. Fortunately, my boss was open-minded and he gave me a variety of new job assignments, many of which were at a "higher level".
I left my first job after seven years. Many said I stayed too long. But I enjoyed my stint because of the new responsibilities I had every year, thanks to my boss. Even if my salary didn't change much, I didn't mind, because I felt the trade-off was worth it, i.e. all the learning compensated for the lack of financial rewards.
After my first job, I developed a mindset that I should "shred" my job description in all companies that would hire me in the future, which I did, figuratively. In all nine companies where I eventually worked, I merely signed my JD without looking at it (well, just glancing at it). Instead, I asked both my boss and my subordinates "What do you think I should do here to help make this company a better place for everyone?" In short, to hell with my JD.
I think it paid off. As I moved from one company to the other, all my interviewers were awed that I could do tasks beyond the duties and responsibilities of the job candidate they were looking for. When I was officially a Training Officer, I helped the Recruitment Department interview job candidates, even if they had ample personnel to do interviews. That made me officially the Recruitment Head years later. And while officiallylooking after Recruitment, I asked my boss to cross-post me to Labor Relations, which eventually made me land the post of Vice President of HR years later.
At one point in my career, when I was invited to join a large bank, the Chairman of the Board asked me during the interview, "Why do you represent your company in the NLRC? Your bank has lawyers to handle that?" I replied, "I asked for it. I would feel incomplete as an HR Head if I wouldn't have hands-on exposure in locking horns with all those labor arbiters and lawyers of employees I terminate. I requested our Board of Directors to appointment me as Attorney-in-Fact, so I would have the formal and legal authority to defend the company in the labor court without the assistance of a lawyer." The Chairman hired me and gave me full jurisdiction of labor cases, as in, HR (and not the Legal Department) had the final say in any employee-related labor issue. In fact, my corporate rank was even 2 levels higher than the Head of Legal, who was a lawyer (I am not a lawyer; I never went to law school).
I'd like to believe that the mindset of going beyond your job description also enabled me to commanded a higher price. I recall that I never accepted an initial job offer of any company. I always negotiated and 80% of the time, I got what I wanted, which was much, much higher than the initial job offer. In my mind, a company with adequate financial resources will move heaven and earth if they really like you. That's why it was a deliberate strategy of mine to target large local and multinational companies in the last 20 years of my career. Billion-dollar companies will never be limited by salary scales if what you can bring to the table is too value-adding for them to ignore.
A good number of employees I've met have little appreciation of the concept of investment. Fortunately, I was a banker for 22 years and this taught me to invest, not only in financial instruments. I treated "new responsibilities/no salary increase" as an investment -- defer the rewards now for better rewards in the future. It was totally fine if my boss gave me work beyond my job description without giving me a corresponding increase in pay. Now, don't get me wrong. Everyone should be paid for what they're worth. But the banker in me knew that investments are not a "here and now" thing. ๐๐ป๐๐ฒ๐๐๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐น ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ณ๐ถ๐๐ ๐บ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ. I decided to learn all I could in every job, even if my boss didn't pay me for the additional responsibilities. I knew it was an investment. I knew that one day, I could leverage on that investment and earn more, most probably in another company (that's why I worked for 10 organizations). And it worked as I had planned.
Yes, it sure sounds selfish, perhaps even contrary to that old saying that "HR is a vocation, not an occupation." But no regrets. I learned and earned as much as I could because I knew that one day, I could be more altruistic. And that is exactly why I've spent the last 6 years in retirement trying to help employees -- both HR practitioners and non-HR practitioners alike -- by providing free HR advise, especially to employees seriously aggrieved by their employers. I look back and realize that I would have been unable to provide any sound advice to these people, had I adopted a different mindset, a mindset of "That's not my job". I couldn't have learned the things I know today if I only did things my job description told me to do. ๐
*๐๐๐ข๐ญ๐จ๐ซ'๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐ญ๐: ๐๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐ซ๐ญ๐ข๐๐ฅ๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ๐๐ง ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ง ๐๐๐ง๐๐จ๐ณ๐, ๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐จ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐ฉ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฒ. ๐๐ฎ๐ง ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฌ๐จ๐ง๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ซ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ซ ๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ ๐จ๐ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ค ๐๐ฑ๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ง๐๐, ๐๐ ๐จ๐ ๐ฐ๐ก๐ข๐๐ก ๐ฐ๐๐ซ๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐๐ง ๐๐ฑ๐๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ. ๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐๐๐ซ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ก๐ข๐ฆ ๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐๐จ๐ง, ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐๐๐ฉ ๐๐ฑ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐ข๐ง "๐ฌ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ญ๐๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ " ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐ฅ๐๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ฅ๐, ๐ก๐๐ฅ๐ฉ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐๐ง๐ข๐ณ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ซ๐๐๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ซ ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ ๐ก๐๐๐ฅ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐๐ซ ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ-๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐๐ซ๐ฒ.
