To most, a job’s description is the backbone of their ideas of what a future job might hold for them, giving specific information on hours, expectations of work, appropriate attire etc. Unfortunately many descriptions are created then set in stone for years if not decades within a company, causing for the details within to not have developed in regards to the ever-changing society in which we live in. Another challenge within forgetting to update a job description was talked about in Job Worth Doing, Update Descriptions was the risk of an employee filing an employment claim against the company if the description is not “crystal clear with essential responsibilities”. This could lead to thousands of dollars in legal fees and damage to a companies reputation and status.

Working as a Project Engineer in commercial construction, the job description given to me in the beginning didn’t fully represent all of the responsibilities and expectations within my work. While I was able to adapt through my work, some extra details should have been added to the application. I feel that the HR Department within a company would benefit by looking through these descriptions bi-annually, not only from societies perspective but also from an internal perspective, asking those with that job title if they had any opinions on it. This was something we talked about in lecture, in which data collection can come interviews, observations and questionnaires to employees.

This can be a great opportunity internally to understand job participation and crafting, as HR departments might not fully understand the responsibilities a worker may have, helping them understand ways to maximize efficiency and effectiveness by creating more interesting and specializing jobs. This was also talked about within the lecture videos along with something my job has struggled with, as higher ups sometimes do not understand all of the different responsibilities I am trying to juggle, which could be done more effectively by another personnel.