Human resources best practices suggest that employers provide a job description to applicants and candidates, if not during the interview process, certainly when the new employee reports to work for the first day. But if you never receive a job description, that doesn't necessarily protect you from getting fired. A job description isn't a requirement, but it's nice to have one so you understand your employer's expectations.
Recruiters typically use the job description to write an accurate job posting. The posting needn't contain every item in the job description; however, it should contain enough information about the position to attract qualified and interested applicants. From the applicant's perspective, it's impossible to create the perfect cover letter and resume for a job when you don't know what the job entails. Three- to four-word job postings such as "Laborers Wanted," "Office Help Wanted" or "Call-Taker Jobs Available" contain virtually no information for applicants.
Job candidates should have a good understanding of what the job entails before accepting an offer, according to human resources expert and Forbes magazine contributor Angela Smith. Don't wait until you get the job offer to ask yourself this all-important question. Ask for information about the position before you confirm your interview appointment. It could be a job that you can't perform or a job that you don't even want. Take the initiative to get information about the job before you proceed with the interview or you could be wasting your time and the interviewer's time.
At a minimum, an employer should give you a list of job duties, and failure to provide a written job description or a list of job tasks shouldn't discourage you from asking for one. Absent that, your new boss could claim that you should have known what the company expected of you and terminate you for not performing your job duties. Of course, that's probably not the type of employer you'd likely enjoy a long-term career with anyway.
An employer has the right to fire you for any reason, provided it's not a discriminatory one. The employer might justify termination by saying that you weren't doing your job. If your defense is that you didn't know what your job entailed, that suggests that you shouldn't have accepted the job in the first place. Anyone might question why you took the job and then felt blindsided when you were fired for not knowing the kind of work you were hired to perform.
Employment at Will
The employment-at-will doctrine gives most employers the right to terminate you for any reason or for no reason. You could be fired even if your employer never gave you a job description. If your employer fires you based on the employment-at-will doctrine, explain that you believe your termination is unjust because you never received a job description. Speaking up might not get you your job back, but it's your chance to voice your concern about working for an organization that doesn't clearly communicate its expectations.