UPDATE: New employee decides to quit job after finding out they were hired to do a 3-person job that has nothing to do with their own role

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Jun 11, 2026 10:30 AM EDT

How many times do you find yourself doing work that has nothing to do with your job description?

Most employees have to accept that when they're working for someone else, they are going to find themselves doing a job that is not 100% what they imagine, or even not 100% what is written in their job description. Whether it is the occasional desk job or even making your boss their coffee at lunch, sometimes you just have to accept this new role and, well, just roll with it.

That being said, when it comes to a point where all you do is somebody else's job, and you don't even come close to fulfilling your own role, you might want to have a serious conversation with yourself, and with your boss, to understand how to make it right. Sometimes, you might find the solutions and fix the problems. Other times, the only solution you have left is to find another job.

When we covered the story of the employee below last week, we thought that they were on their way to find a solution. You see, they were hired as a data analyst, but when they started the job, they quickly discovered that they were there to fill in for the retiring finance employee. Every day, they would come in and learn all about this guy's job, which had nothing to do with what they were actually hired for…

As the days in the new job went by, the employee was pushed further and further away from doing what they were hired to do. New tasks came in, and new responsibilities, but none of them were in the job description. At least not in the job description of a data analyst.

The most recent update was posted on Reddit's r/antiwork Subreddit, and it seems like this employee has finally reached their breaking point. There is simply too much work for them to take on, and it's time their new employer understands it.

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  • A rear view of young businessman stretching his arms in his office, represented by models.
    via Getty Images

    A rear view of young businessman stretching his arms in his office, represented by models.

  • Update to my update: it somehow got worse and clearer at the same time.

    Last week I posted that I was hired as a data analyst and was being quietly pulled into inheriting a retiring finance person's undocumented work.
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • Then I updated that it was actually two departing people, both leaving at the end of June, both tied to critical reporting.
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • Now it is even clearer what is happening. I built and shared a dashboard that was a legitimate data analyst deliverable: validated, interactive, cleaner metrics, better visuals, and directly aligned with my actual job description.
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • Leadership responded that dashboard work needs to pause because the core transition work is the real priority. Fair enough. I understand why the transition work matters.
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • Then I explained that I had already made a long working document on the departing person's process and would keep documenting the handoff. The
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • response was basically: make sure as you document it, you are also able to re-perform it. The result is a transition.
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • So now it is officially not "document this so we do not lose knowledge." It is "learn it and be able to do it."
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • Here is the problem: this is not one report. It is a whole ecosystem of manual processes, legacy files, system extracts, reconciliations, workarounds, approvals, dependencies, and
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • judgment calls that live across. people's heads and old spreadsheets. The person leaving has years of context. I have been here less than a month. I am a data analyst, not the person who built or owned this whole process.
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • I reread my job description again. It is a normal data analyst JD: dashboards, data models, BI tools, ERP data, automation, governance, KPIs, analytics.
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • Nothing about becoming the owner of multiple departing people's work in under a month.
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • Two men (models) sitting at a table, looking at a laptop
    via Vitaly Gariev

    Two men (models) sitting at a table, looking at a laptop

  • The bigger issue is that the workload has started to look like the work of four people being collapsed into one salary: the role I was hired for, the retiring person's work, another departing
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • person's reporting work, and additional cost/reporting responsibilities from other areas. I am not exaggerating when I say these are separate functions with separate context, review requirements, and failure points.
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • On top of that, I recently had to submit a doctor's note for a work-from-home accommodation after a car accident, with back surgery in my recent history. There was already
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • an ergonomic accommodation discussion in progress that still was not fully resolved in the office, while my home setup is already ergonomic. So now I am trying to manage a formal medical accommodation process
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • while also being expected to absorb several critical handoffs at once.
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • The most frustrating part is I can see why they are doing it. They have a manual, person- dependent reporting environment and key people leaving at the same time. They
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • need someone to absorb the work. I am the person documenting it, so I am becoming the default landing zone. The better I document, the more "ready" I look, even though the document itself proves how not-ready this transition is.
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • So my strategy now is boring and defensive: I am not saying "I can't." I am saying "define the minimum transition target." I am saying "what can I re- perform independently?"
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • I am saying "what requires review and signoff?" I am saying "who owns the unresolved pieces?" I am saying "what gets paused while this is the priority?"
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • No heroics. No unpaid overtime. No becoming the fall guy for a transition that should have been staffed months ago.
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • I am job hunting seriously now. Not rage quitting, not blowing anything up, just preparing. This job would actually be good if it were the job I was hired for. But if the actual job is replacing multiple departing people in 29
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • days while also doing my original data analyst role, then that is not a role expansion. That is a staffing problem being pushed onto one person. What should I do now?
    via Feeling-Extreme-7555
  • No-Price5802 Sounds like you've got it under control, document cya and bail. Best of luck in your new endeavors.
    via No-Price5802
  • Obvious_Ad3810 Sounds like you could hijack the whole company and gate keep until they pay you what you want up and above the wages of said 4 people. Or take everything with you when you leave.
    via Obvious_Ad3810

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