Okay, anti-workers, I need your opinions. The situation is this. I was hired by my company to do a particular job. For a while, I was allowed to work on that job. I was a dedicated worker, was told I had a great attitude, and got strong performance reviews. I also volunteered to help some coworkers with their work despite the fact that it wasn't part of my field or my job requirement.
Our previous managers left and the new managers didn't seem to understand what my role had been. They treated me exactly as though I'd been hired for my co-workers jobs, and as though my previous responsibilities were just something I did on the side for fun.
I've had many conversations with my boss letting him know I was supposed to be doing the other work. I thought I made it clear I was uncomfortable with the situation. The response is always the same. There is some work that means my co-workers need the extra help temporarily. He has no other choice. I should be able to get back to what I want to do eventually.
This has been going on for years. In the meantime, I am very much treated like I am part of that co-workers group. Whenever extra work needs to be passed down the chain in that group, it gets distributed evenly between me and somebody who was hired directly into the group. The other person who works for my boss who is outside the group is never asked to help them out.
Now our department recently changed the employee listing so people are listed with the group they work for. My boss was put in charge of creating the listings for the people under him. Of course I am listed along with that group under their title. The other person who works for my boss gets his own separate listing. To say I am upset is an understatement. It's as if all those conversations my boss and I had never even happened!
Here is my dilemma. I will start looking at other jobs. But there aren't too many in my area that are quite what I want to do, so I'm likely to be at my present position for a while longer. I actually think I can explain to my boss how hard the situation has been on me in a way that will get through to him. If I explained how it's been causing me to battle depression, he would probably change the employee listing. He'd also likely talk to my coworkers about changing some of my duties. I would still do some of that work but it would be treated as more optional. The only problem is that if he does that I will feel obligated to continue trying to put in reasonable hours. If I don't talk to him and the problem remains, I could compensate myself by just doing minimal work and claiming to be busy. I know I can get away with it. The times I was too depressed to accomplish much work, my boss never even noticed. People just took things at face value when I said I didn't have time to get to what they wanted. The thought of purposefully just coasting by doing minimal work amuses me. It wouldn't be the “right” thing to do, but it also seems to be what my company prefers from me at this point. So what would you do?