Company classification study
 

I work for a city that has been affected by the recession, as other CA cities have been. The city has had to layoff some people in the past year, and it looks like there may be another round of layoffs. It has recently contracted with a company to do a classification study of all city employees, but it's not for layoff purposes but more for auditing or seeing exactly what people are doing and making sure that people are doing what their position requires, or so that is the impression we get. Anyway, we have to answer a questionaire, which is really time-consuming. They want you to as detailed as possible. One can't help feeling a bit defensive in filling it out. It's demoralizing and a bit demeaning, in my opinion. You feel like you have to justify why you're needed. I can't help thinking of the movie Office Space. Has anyone gone through such a study? I wonder how much the city is spending on this.

I agree it is crappity. But, don't fight it, just comply as best you can. If you think they cannot use it against you you would be wrong....unless your job is protected by a union.

Have your meeting with the bobs yet?

Many years ago, in a previous life, I was an accountant. I took all my accounts and digitized them. Everything I had when I started was paper, and after about half a year of running paper and computer, we decided to switch over to just computer based records. Freed up lots of time, which I used to get involved with different aspects of the business (I had grand notions of climbing straight to the top with my smarts and work ethic;))
Point of the story, we had a new comptroller come in who wanted everyone to answer such a questionaire and type up a weekly schedule of what you did each day. After turning mine in, (and expecting an atta boy for being such a go-getter) I received a pink slip.:mad: Comptroller had decided that my accounts, now that they were computer based, could easily be given to someone else, and the other functions I was performing were not part of my job description.
I guess my plan to help the company worked, as they were able to save the cost of my salary...;)

I think Tom is offering you some very good advice here. Do your best with it and good luck!

My school, in the 1980's went through RIF's and required the employees in each department to make an argument as to why they should be retained as opposed to other employees in the department. One of my colleagues who retired a few years ago never forgot the psychic damaged it performed. Thereafter he always kept files documenting his performance but never forgave the institution for requiring him to treat his peers in such a demeaning manner.

that is just so sick......

No. It's to help them decide who to lay off.

That's because this is your chance to justify why you're needed.

Several times a year, every year. We call it eval time in the Navy. There's a lot of inflation involved, so if you have a good guy who does good work and you want him to advance to the next pay grade, you have to write him up to sound like a cross between Audie Murpy and Jesus. I wish it wasn't that way, but I can't change it, so I live with it.

One of my favorite bosses was of the impression that employees should earn the right to have the job the next day. He said to convince yourself you have to do the best job you can. "When you can no longer convince yourself, act on it quickly (get more training, find another job) unless you want me to act for you."

Back to the OP, it seems the request will identify those who know why their job is important and not necessarily those doing a good job. Is your job more about doing a set of tasks efficiently or appreciating the big picture?

Sixto
87 300D

I'm not sure if that's the best attitude to have--seems to be too stressful, if one thinks about losing his job every day. I believe in doing a good job, period. I think I have a pretty strong work ethic. No matter how trivial a job may be, I want to do a good job on it. For me, I look past the having a paycheck aspect and think of the job at hand and take pride in the work I do.

Anyway, some good points made. Many if not all people do not like doing the questionaire one bit. For one, it takes up a lot of time; you really can't take it lightly. Some of the questions are vague, as in the question pertaining to supervision. I'm not in a supervisory role, but I do some supervision of positions a grade lower than mine. Should I check the box that says I do supervision? I didn't but in the additional info I added that I perform some minor supervision. Arrrggghhh! I'm not too worried, rather I find the whole thing a bit demoralizing.

When it comes to layoffs, do they tend to layoff those who make more money or those in higher positions? I don't know if our dept. will be affected. We're in the process of hiring two new people in professional positions, by professional, I mean the pay might start around $50k. We recently hired three new people.

I've gone through this before. It sounds as if the city is looking at the Lean Manufacturing/QS classification model. If I'm right, you'll have job classifications, with complete job duties and procedures to fill out next.

What this does is give your employer a documented way to look at things...get's it all out on paper. They can then see where certain jobs can be eliminated and others merged. They need to save money, so they need to get rid of redundancies. Make sure to document all of your skills and certifications, as well as your accomplishments from tis point on.

Lay-offs are in the future.

Sorry.