What's your unofficial role in work?

[MamaAndTheSofa]

Chatting to a couple of friends the other day, we were discussing how we all have unofficial roles in work - roles that are never in any job description, but which someone has to do.

Mine is "Attender of funerals". When we feel we ought to send someone from the office to a funeral (eg a colleagues mum has died or something), it always ends up being me.

Another friend is the unofficial knot un-tier; if anyone has a knot they can't undo (which seems to happen ridiculously often in his work, as far as I can tell), they come to him and he undoes it.

Another friend is the one who always has hand cream.

What are yours?

Bringer of gifs

Checker of school term dates.
As I'm the only one with school aged children.
But it involves checking 4 other schools which my children don't attend for inset days etc...

Tea Bitch and Resetter of Passwords (if I had a tenner for every time I could probably retire)

Joint social secretary. When a team meal out is due, 2 of us are responsible for suggesting a choice of restaurants, getting everyone’s votes, making the booking and managing the orders if that needs to be done in advance.

The advantage is that we always end up going somewhere one or the other of us wants to try.

Grammar consultant

haha this is my actual paid role :)

My unofficial one is supplier of ibuprofen and tissues. I am very good at knots too but there is less call for that at work tbh.

I deal with the bailiffs.

Provider of cough sweets and painkillers. Emptier of dishwasher if I need a couple if minutes away from my desk.

My current role I'm "head of weird shit". It's not in my job description but is pretty much my job. Anything weird that people don't understand, don't know what to do with, don't know how to manage, it's my problem. There are probably 12 other people at my level in my department but no one other than me gets all the issues.

I am the keeper of the stapler. I bought a mini stapler from Asda and it can staple anything. It’s always got staples as I keep it full. When all other staplers are missing or fail, my stapler is there for you!

I can also open any jar. No matter how tight. My party trick 😀

Me too!

Also… general cleaner of things and decorator of desks for special birthdays etc…

I wonder how many men have an unofficial role compared to women.

Birthday card organiser - dh finds this ironic as I’m terrible at remembering family birthdays.

Team therapist.

Can't think of one that has.

TBF I only usually give out cough sweets to get the person coughing to be quiet

The writer of nice messages to put in birthday/baby/get well cards. Spider catcher. Window-shutter at the end of the day.

Person who can remember where rarely used forms are saved on the shared drive when no one can remember what they were called.

One of my old jobs, David was the only one that made the tea. It was a nightmare when he had annual leave.

Painkiller provider, dealing with dead things 🤣

Person who Knows Things (as in 'does anyone know? Ask Gliblet, I bet she knows'), mediator of arguments, policy translator (into plain English), provider of training that's less boring than people expected it to be.

Pep talker. People seem to come to me when they’re overwhelmed/feeling like they’re on the brink of failure. I help them organise their thoughts/tasks, slip in a few compliments about the things they’re good at, then send them on their way with a plan and a bit more belief in themselves. I’ve never understood why, as I’m internally very anxious, but it’s happened in so many different teams now that I realise I must hide it enough to seem like I have my sh** together! Thanks OP, hadn’t ever thought that this was my unofficial role, but am very happy to do it!

Yep me too - buyer and distributor of team birthday cards, plus getting them signed by team and delivered to birthday person on the right day. A right pain it is too

My husband gets asked for help all the time. Me when I had a job, not so much.

In my office?

Mike - traybake ninja
Tall James - can reach high shelves and sockets
Chris - agony aunt
Brad - can probably fix it with gaffer tape

One of ours is keeper of a selection of different types of glue and double sided sticky tape.

Another one is official maker of coffee (we have one of those systems which makes a glass jug full on a hotplate), it’s a small office.

Oh actually one of the many David's I work with is the answerer of things as he's been there that long and seems to have the memory of a Bull Elephant he can answer most questions.