USA: +1 (725) 712-1730 
Sign in
SUPPLEMENTAL CASE: Chapter 4
Case: The Reluctant Receptionist
Superior Products Company has recently hired a new HR assistant, Virginia Fisher, who just received a college degree. Frederick Mills, the HR Director, was extremely pleased to find someone who had some familiarity with basic management concepts because he was the entire HR department except for a clerk-typist. During the interview Frederick emphasized that he planned to have Virginia function as his assistant and that she would be doing some interviewing and be responsible for maintaining employee records. Because Superior has over 300 employees, Frederick had been too busy to prepare anything resembling a job description except for some scrawled notes on the back of an envelope.
Everything went fine for the first week for Virginia. On Monday of the second week, Frederick called Virginia into his office and explained that there was another minor duty that he had not mentioned to her. Frederick said, “In order to get approval to hire you from the president. I had to agree that whoever was hired would be the relief receptionist from 11:30 to 12:30 every day. The switchboard is usually quite busy and we wanted to be sure someone who is capable would be the backup.” Virginia was not very happy about this assignment being sprung on her, but she agreed to try it for a while.
Within two weeks she was beginning to dread having to work the switchboard an hour everyday. Also, she discovered that she was expected to be the relief if the receptionist was sick or unable to work. On Wednesday and Thursday of the third week the regular receptionist was sick and Virginia filled in for her. On Friday, Virginia told Frederick she was quitting in two weeks. When asked why, Virginia replied, “You misrepresented the job to me. You never said anything about my receptionist duties. If you had, I probably would not have taken the job.”
Questions
1. Why did the absence of accurate job information create a problem?
Expert Answer
Answer: The job description and information explains a candidate about the requirement of the job. Just like the organization, the candidates also have some expectations from the job. The job information provided to the candidates explains the roles and duties they need to perform which helps them to take decision about their ability to perform the job and suitability of the job as per their expectations. In absence of accurate job information or description, the candidates are unable to make informed decisions which may ultimately results in job dissatisfaction because of the difference in the actual job roles and the expectations of the candidates. This has exactly happened in this case as Virginia was not provided with full information about her job profile which actually frustrated her and forced her to leave the job.
