The Unwritten Expectations of the Job

Leaders, there's a great book called THE 7 HIDDEN REASONS EMPLOYEE'S LEAVE. The #1 reason on their list is: Job or workplace not living up to expectations.

Expectations begin with the job posting lots of jobs look good on paper but learning to read between the lines will help manage your expectations from the beginning.

If you're on Linkedin, you get those "this job might be a good fit for you" pop-ups when you log in. Do you ever click on them? I do, if the job title is intriguing enough.

A job popped up recently that captured my attention. The job title looked good, Director -People & Culture Development - but, see, when I read through the job description, I got the impression that their culture isn't so good.

One of the central functions of the job is to make sure that company makes one of the "best places to work" lists. 

Being on a "best places to work" list gets a company a lot of street cred but doesn't usually tell the true story about what's really going on.(I speak from experience.)If they want someone to develop the culture that also tells me that it ain't so good right now. 

Deeper into the job posting there were at least 5 or 6 bullet points that began with "create and implement . . ." which in corp-speak translates to "we don't do any of this right now but we know we should".

The unwritten part of creating and implementing a program is getting the entire company to agree with your plans and to participate in what you're trying to create and implement. Have you ever tried to get a toddler to do something they don't want to do? Or give an animal a pill? Yup, that's what "creating and implementing" is like in a workplace. If you're LUCKY you can "create and implement" about 1 new program a year.

The additional duties were all the basic HR generalist functions. By my estimate, the work that 4 - 6 people do at any other business . . . .

Then, there was the little matter of "expected 40 - 50 variable hours per week" and "twice yearly off sites". Which translates to: you will have no life when you work here, you will be at our beck and call.

I wish that company luck in finding a "good fit" for that position. But, even more, I wish luck to the person who actually agrees to all the written -and unwritten- job requirements. I certainly wouldn't want it. 

Have you ever taken a job that's description seemed good on paper but turned out to be not-so-good?