What jobs/roles exist in workplaces that aren't part of the nature of the work?

[plasticdragon]

I'm not sure I can explain this very well, but I'm wondering what kinds of roles you can typically get in to that are not part of the intended purpose of the workplace.

I'm thinking large organisations such as a large sixth form college, a large county council department or HQ for a large commercial enterprise.

I don't mean roles that you specifically started in, such as accounting or HR. I'm thinking more like your role evolving to take in more and more time as, say, a Safeguarding Officer or Union Rep.

My ex was once the stationery buyer for a large corporation, is that the sort of thing you mean?

Do you mean paid or unpaid roles?

My ex was once the stationery buyer for a large corporation, is that the sort of thing you mean? I think so, (unless he went in as an office worker).

Do you mean paid or unpaid roles? paid.

Designated First Aider.

Health & Safety officer. In large firms, you could use up a lot of time doing that - meetings galore.

I'm a safeguarding officer. It takes up varying amounts of time, very little means everything is as it should be!

That's the kind of things @dodobookends !

very little means everything is as it should be! What do you mean?

Union rep isn't normally a paid full time role, although you can get certain amounts of paid time within your normal job for union duties. You can work for the union itself, of course, rather than being a rep but it would be a role you'd apply for like any other.

In larger companies there will be lots of paid roles supporting inclusion and diversity within the organisation.

Also, paid roles dealing with their social media accounts - PR and communications experience is usually asked for.

Other 'wellbeing' roles such as mental health first aiders sometimes exist but many of these will be things you do alongside your day job with varying amounts of time allocated to spend on your responsibilities.

I was in charge of the Wellness room. Basically a dimly lit room with comfy sofas, soft music playing and unlimited soft drinks that you could ask to have 15 minutes of chilling time by yourself if you were having a bad day. I organised the booking system to ensure it wasn't misused. A voluntary role which gave me an hours shopping time for the drinks per week.

First Aider, Fire Warden and Health & Safety Officer.

Don't get extra pay for any of them. Happy to be Firrst Aider, Fire Warden had fun training (e got to put out flames with various fire extinguishers) but annoying in practice(when half the office installed on using the same fire exit - not the nearest one - because they could pass the kitchen and grab sacks on the way, the FWs wanted to block that exit during a fire drill to make people take a different one, and when people kept storing things in the fire escape stairwells we wanted to try blocking them in the same way to prove our point. But we weren't allowed to. So nothing changed.) Health & Safety I got rid of ASAP (the constant, inane, risk assessments drove me nuts. They became exercise in creative writing.)

I had a friend who was a nurse at Fords, the car makers.

Information governance and records management roles

I had a brilliant role years ago serving on our 'Charity Committee', it involved a day a month (expenses paid) travelling to our Head Office to review applications to our Charity Fund ... at the time the Company could afford to be very generous and it was a real honour to be part of the process that allocated the funds.

At my work we have full time union officials (it's a really big employer which employers lots of very militant types of workers) who aren't employed by the union and technically have a 'post' within the organisation itself for which their wages are paid, but they never actually do that job, they only do union work.

There are a few of them that I know of.

Hmmm…I currently wear a few hats that I seem to have drifted into with no extra pay or time allocated. Think (not exact role but pretty much) ‘Data Control Champion’…grrr…

I was in charge of the Wellness room. Basically a dimly lit room with comfy sofas, soft music playing and unlimited soft drinks that you could ask to have 15 minutes of chilling time by yourself if you were having a bad day. I organised the booking system to ensure it wasn't misused. A voluntary role which gave me an hours shopping time for the drinks per week.

Wow, what kind of business/industry were you working in??

Data Control Champion Ah, yes, see also GDPR officer.

A lot of them are quite 'dry' aren't they, these roles?

During Covid DH somehow became the Online Meeting Coordinator, because apparently he was the only person who could use the software....

This sounds amazing! Where do you work, can you say?

I used to work in a large European bank where there was a lady employed to monitor / review the artwork on display throughout the (very large) office. I assume she was responsible for the selection of the artwork but who knows....

I was chair of the social committee for my department - mostly involved planning our department Xmas party and helping with the company-wide summer party, plus organising leaving drinks etc etc.

Also department representative in a collective redundancy situation.

There’s a historian and an art curator at my corporate workplace, so nothing to do with the purpose of the company except preserving its long heritage. The historian often posts sort of blogs about what she’s found in the archives relevant to the date or a current issue/initiative going on at work. The art curator recently posted about a piece of beautiful art that’s been held in storage and recently restored and hung up in one of the offices.

Why do you ask op?

I worked with a woman who was a project support officer in the NHS. She was on every committee, steering group, anything really that's he was eligible for. Her manager barely got any work out of her.....is that what you mean?

I don't think so @Relocatiorelocation because it sounds like that was something she was employed to be.

@Justhereforaibu1 I work in a vocation and I was thinking about a colleague who, over time, stopped doing what we all do and became pretty much a full time safeguarding officer. I was wondering what motivated her to leave her vocation and take on a role that involves a lot of sitting in an office all day or attending meetings.
It also made me think of my friend who started work in a laboratory, but again over time has drifted in to Health & Safety and now earns a better salary doing that. (She started in the lab after graduating with a very relevant science degree).
Made me curious about the whole thing really.

We have a woman whose entire job is to organise staff events, socials and parties. The company started out tiny but has now grown to manage billions of dollars in shareholder equity in a niche industry, so they’ve become very richy-rich on staff wellbeing and entertainment.

I think she started off as in a part-time general all-purpose PA-Secretary-Admin role, all role areas which now employ a ton of experienced people each. So they offered her the party job and that seems to be her niche!

I was once Well-being Champion and Net Zero 2040 Champion at a large supermarket!