Roles and boundaries

Source: weheartit.com via Social on Pinterest

If you are one of my lovely Twitter followers, you know that this past week at work was pretty rough.

My boss laid down the law with some of my co-workers regarding what he wanted me to be spending my time on at work, and what he did not (i.e. answering phones).

Translation for many of them: She thinks she's better than us.

I think I and everyone know deep down that is absolutely 110% NOT the case, but in the moment I guess feathers were super ruffled.

Angry, hurtful comments were shared. To my face, and within ear-shot.

Anyways, I am confident that this situation will blow over. They generally always do (until the next time ;)).

Basically what the situation boils down to, is that people in another role than me are pissed that I am not expected to do the same things.

I get it, I totally do, but as a Master's level social worker, there just are some things, some days that like it or not, are not within my scope of practice at that moment. (Note: the co-workers I am referring to are in entry-level positions that require a HS diploma).

Sometimes I realize I need to suck it up and do things I don't always want to do as far as work and some of my clients are concerned, but in terms of the office dynamic, there has to be a pecking order with certain duties.

Even if we are ALL over-worked and stressed.

And people don't have to like me or be my friend if I'm not doing what THEY want, or expect me to.

Do you ever experience things like this at your job?

What are some of the issues or duties that have caused tension with different level staff?

How have you dealt with it?