"Not My Job" Moments That Could Use Some Work

Eric Lund

Mar 20, 2022 10:00 AM EDT

We like to think of our jobs as part of our identity. It's one of the first things someone might ask you when meeting them. When someone asks "what do you do" it's not like we're expected to say "mostly I eat cold pizza and watch timelapse videos of guys building mud huts in the woods on YouTube." While that would describe many of us, our most accurate descriptor is often seen as our primary means of employment. While many of us don't feel like our total human experience can be encapsulated in the thing we do for 8ish ours a day, it's at least a starting point.

Which brings us to those times when a particular task is outside of our job description. "Hey man, I'm a concrete guy, not a traffic cone mover" you say, pouring what will become a permanent spectacle of idiocy for the next decade. "Dude, they asked me to make the sign, not spell anything correctly" you say, pounding a sign that says "pubic beach" into the sand. Because honestly, they're not paying you enough to care.

Here are some more "not my job" moments of professional failure.