Other Duties As Assigned...Well, I Actually Volunteered for This One

My work office is currently FULL from the knee down of all sorts of things that I ordered for the STARS store at school. This is the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (or PBIS) incentive store that is located in a closet in my room, so when the people who were in charge of it left suddenly, I asked to be the person who oversees the store. Quite frankly, I was tired of coming into my room and finding that the people using the store were not being very respectful or neat, and I was having to spend lots of time in that room anyway, so why not be the person who makes the rules? I like making rules! I do!!

So, I've been in charge of the store for several months now. I think I've finally figured out all the steps that have to be taken and all the people that I have to talk to in order to get things ordered and available for the store. As a result, I have about 15 large boxes of cookies and chex mix and some other stuff that I have to figure out how to store in the limited storage space available. That's the chore for today - getting things into the store and into storage.

In my job description, at the end of the list of the various defunct music therapy organizations that I am supposed to be a member of that disbanded long before I started working at the facility, there is a phrase that is included in many job descriptions. It has certainly been at the bottom of my responsibilities for every job I've ever had. Here it is.

Other duties as assigned.

That's it. That's the phrase. That one little phrase has led me into so many things that are not really part of my job as a music therapist, but that I am more of capable of doing. I've led all school luaus, taken folks to amusement parks, been Special Olympics head coach, ripped up carpet after a flood, driven in pursuit of a camp counselor's purloined backpack, painted my work environment, helped students with their homework, and many more. It's a phrase that is to be used by employers but not abused.

When I first approached my principal (at the time) about starting an internship, one of the things that I needed from her was a letter of support stating that the facility would be interested in the program. She wrote one that I included in my application packet, and then she wrote another one. In that letter, she wrote that interns would be expected to pick up my dry cleaning, offer to write my papers, and various and sundry other things. She referred to me as the "Goddess of Music Therapy," and she meant it all in jest. She definitely included the phrase about other duties in that tongue-in-cheek letter. She knew that I would take the letter as it was intended - a joke and a warning - so she gave it to me.

Since that time, I've worked with administrators, co-workers, and music therapists who respected roles and duties and with some that have tried to take advantage of this phrase. It is interesting to me that there are some people who think that a simple phrase like that means that employees, co-workers, and/or interns are to be used in any way possible rather than remembering what folks are supposed to be doing.

I try very carefully to link all of the things that my interns have to do directly to the AMTA Professional Competencies. If a requested task is not tied to those competencies, then it really isn't something my volunteer interns need to be doing. That is a job for me, the employee who gets paid because of my job performance. There are others in my facility who just don't understand that mindset and the role that my interns have at my job. I am constantly trying to educate folks who just don't seem to get it. Basically, for me, the rule of thumb is whether this task is a music therapy one or just a facility one. If it is a facility one, then it is no longer something that my interns have to engage in - if it is a music therapy one, then they are included and expected to complete. There are times when it is difficult to determine the roles, but I think I've figured it out for my internship program.

It is time to start my job and my job duties for the day. I will be going in to finish my documentation, do consultation sessions with both of the interns, possibly do peer supervision with the art therapist (who was sick yesterday, so may not be present today), and spend lots of time in the store. I will also run the second choir practice of the year - I finally got some kids interested in singing again. At the end of the day, I am hoping that the knee-high level of boxes of stuff are no longer sitting on my office floor and are tucked away somewhere in the store.

Other duties as assigned - here we go!