In a job situation, how far beyond the boundaries of your specific job description are you willing to go? How far do people expect you to go?
The situation that prompted this question:
I work in higher education. The day a very important application was due, I received a phone call from a student, complaining that her computer was broken and she couldn’t access said application online. Would I fax her the paperwork? This application was 40+ pages long, including forms and instructions. I informed her that I could not do that, but suggested she visit an internet café or a friend’s house and use another computer to fill out her application. She tearfully demanded that I “give her the same consideration I give every student.” “Certainly,” I said. “I will happily give you the same consideration I give everyone, but what you are asking for is special consideration and I simply cannot help you.”
Was I out of line for not taking the extra step? Do you go the extra inch/foot/mile in your job?
It does not seem as though you treated her unfairly. She was clearly asking more of you might be expected to do in the course of a normal day. That said, would you not have been able to simply put the 40 pages in the fax machine and let it do its thing? I wouldn’t think you would have to constantly monitor it.
Well, this was an online-only application. To accept any paper documentation was breaking one hundred points of protocol. Telling her that just lead to more “but I want the same consideration as everyone else!” wailing.
I guess what I was really looking for in my OP was stories about situations where you gladly went the extra mile or situations where you felt it was just too much.
What was your supervisor’s expectation about how you should handle this? That’s really the answer. For an important customer/constituent, faxing a 40 page document is nothing. Going above and beyond is driving to the office in a snowstorm so you can fax said document on your day off. But it’s highly possible your university doesn’t value students that much, and you should handle it based on the expectations for your job.
Whoah, risky! If I was phoned up by someone who was interested in something I was offering I would naturally stick to official policy. Damn them for contacting you in an unorthodox fashion, despite the accompanying explanation. After all ,the “hundred points of protocol” are supreme. Talk to your boss, or whichever level above you is able to make decisions.
I think you did the right thing. First of all, the solution you suggested makes less work for everyone, and helps her, since she would not have to submit an application on a faded fax, filled in by hand, no doubt. Second, if she waited for the last minute to fill in a forty page application, she is an idiot. By the time she applies to college she should have known to leave time in the case of disasters. I assume she hadn’t started yet - if she was mostly done you’re even more right, since she’d have to fill in the application from scratch.
I’m all for going above and beyond, but this was not a case where it makes sense.
Personally, I would have done exactly what you did. On the other hand, if she told me that she had already tried many alternatives (before I suggested the ones you did), then I might go the extra mile.
If policy is that all applications are to be done online and that paper apps are not accepted, then you did exactly the right thing. This isn’t a case of ‘going the extra mile’, because that extra mile only existed in the head of the person calling you.
If this is someone already in your department or program who is applying to something else, I think you could chose to call it within your job description. I’m a grad student, I would do this for another student or staff member in my program.
But if they are applying to your program, then I actually think it would be unfair to do this, all applications should be treated equally. If they couldn’t make the deadline due to exceptional circumstances, then they can submit it a day late and attach a note of explaination to the admissions/acceptance committee, its really their responsibility to handle these situations, not yours. (Unless you head that committee, in which case, your call)