Not in a family owned business with 12-25 employees over the years.
When we were slow I expected all the guys to pitch in and do things that weren’t their jobs. Landscaping, changing brake pads, sweeping the shop, changing light-bulbs, whatever needed to be done.
I was paying guys $28-35 an hour plus full time bennies (and I mean very nice bennies which raised their hourly rate to over $50 an hour), and if you don’t want to do whatever it takes, then punch out and go home.
I don’t care if your a licensed plumber, we are slow, so, go do the brakes on your truck. I don’t care that you are our machinist, the back door needs welding, get your rig over there and weld it. I don’t care that you are our ventilation guy, we are slow, get on the mower and mow the lawn.
It was my call to decide what was best for our financial bottom line AND the health and well being of our company, and our employees, and in some cases certain guys would punch out and go home. Then, my wife would get calls from their wives asking why Pete only got 20 hours this week? We can’t pay the bills, etc. Because your husband said “That’s not my job” that’s why, and he decided to go blow that 20 hour paycheck at the tavern or riverboat.
And if you told me “It’s not my job” ONCE, I was very reluctant to allow you to stay on the clock and work around the shop when we were slow, because you were obviously not a team player.
For the most part, my guys wanted to do every job they could to get a paycheck, but not all of them. $32 an hour to spray weeds or repair a chain link fence? Most guys jumped at that, but like I said, there were a few over the years whose ego prevented them from doing a lesser job.
Exactly: most companies simply could not afford to have programmers doing the Landscaping — I've done both, which is why I chose the two.
(Entry-level landscaping: $8.50/hr; entry-level programming: $20..$25/hr — so sure, I'd love to get programmer's pay for landscaper's work [provided I have long-sleeves, a hat, and water to drink])
And if you told me “It’s not my job” ONCE, I was very reluctant to allow you to stay on the clock and work around the shop when we were slow, because you were obviously not a team player.
Perhaps; though there's something to be said for the wages and job. Your description was of something that was a fair/equitable arrangement, while the example I gave [having the landscaper do your computer-work] was the other side, inherently unjust. Or, to put it another way, what would you think of a company that hired people in waiter/waitress positions (where they can legally pay less than minimum-wage, assuming that tips make up for it) and then forced them to work "in the back" doing the accounting, or admin/management, threatening them with being let go if they refused/protested because "that's not my job"?
IOW, what I was bringing up is that with the small/medium business it is very easy to take advantage of your employees using skills they possess that aren't on the resume. Now do many/most intentionally do it? I don't think so; treating your employees badly doesn't usually end well for a small business. (Though I am sure that the current economic climate is being abused by employers of all sizes; this will likely have repercussions if/when the economy gets better.)