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?

Tea towel washer, water filler-upper and checking tea bag stocks

I fix the printer when it's jammed and actually bother to go and get more paper when it's run out - and it takes several reams in one go.
I'm the unofficial provider of a range of painkillers and anti-inflammatories due to needing a lot of them plus heavy duty stuff myself.
I also bother to go over and ask people if they're ok if they look upset or are obviously upset - I'm not one of those people who can carry on their way and choose to ignore it.

IT fixer.

I switch it off and back on.
If that doesn't work I google.

It is thoroughly undeserved.

General dogsbody

It sounds like it should be someone’s job but it isn’t. I am a ‘final sense check’ for complaints. I almost always weed out some sentence or other that would have probably pissed off the complainant.

I worked frontline with our client base for a long time before becoming corporate and I am
a but more inclined to see things from their perspectives.

There are men with jobs in my office for sure.
One is a mega cake baker for any cake baking days
One will solve all your IT problems
One is a provider of board games (a bit niche but surprising how often we make use of him)

Btw to all you birthday card buyers and organisers, a plea from me – stop sending me one. Honestly I don’t care if I never again get a card from the office signed by a bunch of ppl I barely know (very big office). Am I miserable? probably. But I've saved you a job :)

Buyer of biscuits.
Also eater of biscuits.

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

Where I work, not many. It's actually a well known phenomenon that in my sector women are more likely to take on extra roles that are 'helpful' while men do the things that support their careers.
However, my male manager is unofficial handyman and furniture mover.

I'm the person that 'gets shit done' apparently 🤷🏼‍♀️

Do people still do the Grand National sweepstake round their office? That used to be a big thing years ago.

Deleter of errant apostrophes

I clean up puke and dead wildlife.

I work in a school. Neither are a particular role of mine. I manage to get almost all the day time puke. We have a fox and a feral cat on the field and a ridiculous number of dead and half consumed creatures. I am now the go to dead thing person to such an extent that kids come and track me down when I'm not on duty. ' Miss, Miss! There's a rat again!'

I'm really enjoying this thread. Great selection of non-job jobs.

Spotter of spelling mistakes in the marketing literature. I only wish they would ask me to read it before they send it to the printers.

A lot of people have my actual job (copyeditor) as their unofficial job! Still I guess not every office produces vast amounts of written work to be checked.

As the only native English speaker I am the translator and proof reader.

I'm also the one that is called for whenever small hands are needed or someone needs to fit into a small space.

We have men in the following informal roles:

Tech support
Driver of vans when needed

Answerphone message person. I was told I had to do the voicemail message for our team because I had the "poshest" voice 🙄🤣

Also unofficial IT support. I'm generally more computer literate than the rest of the team.

I’m a primary school teacher and for some reason, when it’s drizzling or raining, people always come to me to ask if it is wet break or not! I apparently am the only one who can decide that 🤷🏻‍♀️

Office thesaurus/spellcheck

Wise old bird who spends her entire life pointing out the obvious.

Secret keeper and shit shoveller 😀

I was generally the person who voiced what most of us were thinking, but didn't like to say.

There's a guy at my work who has fixed my car a fair few times.

Another who has made me makeshift stuff, ie to stop the draught getting to my legs.

As for me, I check the tone of emails. Sometimes the content.

Finder of old emails. 'Do we know anything about x or y?' Why yes we do, please see email from 2017 found 20 folders deep in the archive.
Also provider of words for emails when we want to say you're an idiot but we can't.

Office psychic. Somehow know things before they happen