Career trade-off case study / Case 01
A job ad promised ‘great variety’. The position description told a bigger story.
The wording was friendly and the role was broad, but it never explained what gets pushed aside when another project lands.
- “great variety”
- “helping hand”
- “work and act flexibly”
We reviewed the job listing and its four-page position description together. The employer has been anonymised so the focus stays on the wording.
- Role
- Workforce development manager
- Hours
- 75 per fortnight
- Term
- Fixed to June 2027
- Reports to
- Deputy chief executive
Read the whole offer
The ad explains what the role covers, but not how all of that work is meant to fit together.
The ad includes useful detail. It states the employment term, ordinary hours, award classification and reporting line, then links to a detailed position description. Taken together, the documents cover team leadership, an industry network, an annual event, advice to other employers, stakeholder relationships, organisational risk, committee work, data and presentations.
That gives an applicant plenty to work with, but it also shows how broad the job is. The documents do not explain how the employer prioritises those responsibilities when several need attention at once. That is where the interview questions should start.
Read it for yourself
See the job ad we analysed
This includes the job advertisement and its attached four-page position description, so you can read the wording for yourself before deciding whether our interpretation holds up.
Source materialRead the complete anonymised source
Job summary
- Award classification: Level 7
- Work type: Contract, full time, 1.0 FTE
- Location: Western Australia
- Fields: Community development, management, mental health and counselling
- Sector: Not for profit
- Job posted: September 2026
Job-board advertisement
[The organisation] is the peak body for people living with mental health challenges in Western Australia. We are a lived experience organisation that is 100% peer-led.
The workforce development manager, reporting to the Deputy CEO, develops, implements, manages and monitors engagement and advocacy initiatives to support, increase and build the peer workforce in Western Australia. This position works collaboratively across the organisation, and closely with other key stakeholders and sector colleagues.
In this busy environment, you will be supported by an organisation made up of various subject-matter experts, including systemic advocacy, system navigation, independent advocacy and sector representation and leadership. Your work will be informed by ongoing consumer and sector engagement, focus groups and needs analysis.
Mental health is a fast-moving sector, and this role will come with great variety and may see you lend a helping hand on projects and events throughout the year in addition to regular duties.
A position description is attached.
About the role
The workforce development manager, reporting to the Deputy CEO, develops, implements, manages and monitors engagement and advocacy initiatives to support, increase and build the peer workforce in Western Australia. This position works collaboratively across the organisation, and closely with other key stakeholders and sector colleagues.
In this busy environment, you will be supported by an organisation made up of various subject-matter experts, including systemic advocacy, system navigation, independent advocacy and sector representation and leadership. Your work will be informed by ongoing consumer and sector engagement, focus groups and needs analysis.
Mental health is a fast-moving sector, and this role will come with great variety and may see you lend a helping hand on projects and events throughout the year in addition to regular duties.
Core skills and attributes
- Values driven: The ability to demonstrate kindness, respect, integrity, social justice, connection and courage.
- Consumer focus: The ability to be consumer-focused from a peer perspective.
- Flexibility: The capacity to work and act flexibly in order to meet peer and organisational goals.
- Collaborative: A demonstrated commitment to working collaboratively and constructively with others including consumers, stakeholders, staff and executive.
- Creative and inquisitive: Capacity to contribute to developing and evaluating innovative approaches with new and fresh ideas and a positive approach.
- Organised and structured: Demonstrated ability of solid time-management, organisation and prioritisation skills.
- Leadership and initiative: A demonstrated ability to proactively manage a team and to exercise sound judgement in seeking feedback and direction.
Peer-workforce duties
- Manage the operations of [the sector network] and associated communities of practice to support the sector, including organising its annual conference.
- Provide advice, support and resources to employers in relation to peer workforce readiness and in creating new roles within their organisation.
- Ensure delivery of outputs and outcomes as per the annual plan within agreed timeframes and to required standards.
- Build and maintain relationships with key stakeholders to support core business and other project goals and outcomes.
Quality improvement
- Participate in ongoing evaluation and quality improvement activities in [the organisation].
- Participate in professional and performance-development programs as required.
General duties
- Manage, support and develop a high performing peer workforce team.
- Identify and manage risks to business operations and objectives.
- Represent [the organisation] on various committees, working parties and reference groups as required.
- Identify and progress opportunities to maximise longer-term sustainability, outcomes and impact of [the organisation's] activities.
- Collect quantitative and qualitative data as required by the chief executive or their delegate.
- Prepare and deliver written and verbal presentations as required by the chief executive or their delegate.
- Conduct all activities in compliance with relevant legislation including Equal Employment Opportunity, Occupational Health and Safety, and all policies, procedures and guidelines as determined by [the organisation] from time to time.
- Perform other duties as required by the chief executive or their delegate.
Reporting and qualifications
The role reports to the Deputy CEO.
Tertiary or vocational qualifications in social sciences, humanities, community development or related field, and/or relevant professional experience.
Essential requirements
- It is a genuine occupational qualification of this position to have a lived experience of mental health or social and emotional wellbeing issues and recovery in accordance with section 66(s)(c) of the Equal Opportunity Act 1984.
- Excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills, with a strong team orientation and consumer focus.
- High-level understanding of the peer workforce and the mental health sector in Western Australia.
- Management skills relevant to project planning, implementation and evaluation.
- Demonstrated capacity to work as part of a team on the basis of an ethos of collaboration, kindness, cooperation, respect and mutual support.
- Ability to work autonomously, use initiative and lead a team to meet required outcomes.
- Analytical and problem-solving skills used to develop strategies, ideas and opportunities for resolving issues.
Desirable experience and prerequisites
- Experience working with people with lived experience of mental health issues.
- Experience working with people across a diversity of backgrounds.
- The organisation welcomes applications from people across a diversity of backgrounds, including culture, ability, gender, sexuality and age, and from people with additional life experiences relevant to mental health, including homelessness or overcoming substance-use challenges.
- Current driver's licence.
- National police certificate. The organisation states that distressing past engagement with police or justice systems is not an automatic reason for exclusion. Depending on the record, there may be a confidential follow-up discussion with a staff member.
- Working with Children Check.
- Certification of tertiary qualifications.
Position type and remuneration
- Fixed term to 30 June 2027.
- Full time, 1.0 FTE and 75 hours per fortnight.
- Salary at Level 7.1, plus statutory superannuation.
- Salary packaging or sacrifice is available with approval. The organisation is classified as a Health Promotion Charity by the Australian Taxation Office. Fringe Benefits Tax-exempt salary sacrifice may be approved to a maximum of $30,000 grossed up per annum.
Anonymisation note: We anonymised the employer, exact location and identifying network names. The job listing and position description have been reformatted for the web, but their meaning has not been changed.
Four places to look closer
From vague wording to useful questions
Each phrase could describe a perfectly reasonable job or one that asks more of you than you expected. An interview is your chance to ask what it means in practice, listen to the answer and decide whether that trade-off works for you.
In context“This role will come with great variety and may see you lend a helping hand on projects and events throughout the year in addition to regular duties.”
Variety is attractive only after you know what has to fit
For someone looking for more than predictable administration, the mix of leadership, events, advice and external relationships could be genuinely appealing. Kanso calls this Work balance: the mix of interesting and routine work, rather than the amount of work.
The catch is that each part of the job can demand attention at the same time. A conference has fixed deadlines, a team needs support when problems arise, and stakeholder requests do not wait for a clear diary. An applicant needs to know who resets priorities when that happens.
A varied senior role with enough support and authority, where priorities are reset when extra work arrives.
Several parts of the job become urgent at once, and the manager is expected to make everything fit.
In a normal month, how is this role's time divided between team leadership, the industry network, employer advice, events and internal organisational work?
Then listen for
The answer does not need to account for every hour. A rough split will show whether the employer has made realistic choices about how much time each part of the job gets.
What the ad cannot tell you: Whether the broad role creates an unreasonable workload.
In contextThe role may require a “helping hand on projects and events throughout the year in addition to regular duties”. The formal duties also include an annual conference, committees, presentations and “other duties as required”.
Friendly wording can still describe substantial extra work
The short listing makes extra projects sound small and reciprocal. That may be exactly how it works in a small organisation. The position description, however, already includes events, committees, presentations and additional duties.
Extra projects are manageable if the employer makes room for them. The problem starts when each new request is added without deciding which existing task can wait. The pressure builds across the year, even if every request seems reasonable on its own.
Occasional help on another project, with something else moved when the extra work is significant.
New work keeps being added, but no one decides what should be delayed or stopped.
What extra project did the previous person support most recently, how much time did it take, and which regular work was reduced while it was happening?
Then listen for
Pay attention to whether they can explain what was deprioritised. Explaining what was added is the easy part. The harder question is what they took off the person's plate.
What the ad cannot tell you: Whether extra projects lead to scope creep, unpaid overtime or after-hours work.
If time outside work becomes part of the answer, ask about the boundary directlyIn context“Flexibility: The capacity to work and act flexibly in order to meet peer and organisational goals.”
The ad asks for flexibility, but does not say what flexibility you get
The position description asks the applicant to adapt how they work so that organisational goals can be met. It does not promise control over hours or location. Employers often use the same word for both, but they are different arrangements.
Kanso's Flexible working factor asks how important it is to have control over when and where you work. A role can demand adaptability from the employee while saying nothing about the choices available to them. The organisation may still offer an excellent arrangement, but the ad does not tell us either way.
Priorities change occasionally, but working hours and location remain clear and the manager has some say in how they adjust.
Priorities, hours or locations change as needed, with little say from the employee.
When you say the person needs to work flexibly, what changes in practice: their approach, their priorities, their hours, their location, or some combination of those?
Then listen for
A useful answer will separate changes in the work from changes in the person's availability. A general assurance about being flexible leaves the original question open.
What the ad cannot tell you: Whether the employee can choose when or where they work.
In contextThe applicant must show the “ability to work autonomously, use initiative and provide leadership of a team to meet required outcomes”, while exercising “sound judgement in seeking feedback and direction”.
How much can this manager actually decide?
The manager is expected to use initiative while delivering an existing annual plan, meeting agreed standards and seeking senior input when needed. Those expectations can sit together in a senior role, but the ad does not say which decisions belong to the manager and which still need approval.
Freedom to choose how you do the work is different from having authority to change priorities, move resources, decline a new project or alter a deadline. If Autonomy is Highly Important or Truly Essential in your Kanso Trade-off Profile, that difference may determine whether the role gives you the control you expect.
Clear outcomes, freedom over how the work is done and senior support when approval is needed.
The manager is held responsible for results but cannot change priorities, resources or deadlines without approval.
What is one important decision this manager can make without approval, and what is one decision that must go to the deputy chief executive?
Then listen for
Asking for one example on each side makes a general answer about trust harder to give. You should come away knowing where the approval line sits.
What the ad cannot tell you: How much freedom the manager has in practice.
Read more about the cost attached to autonomyWhat you know so far
A detailed ad can still leave an important question unanswered
- The role has defined ordinary hours, a fixed term and a formal pay classification.
- The reporting line and major areas of responsibility are visible.
- The role will work alongside specialists in several areas.
- The role covers several areas and works to an existing annual plan.
- How the manager's time is normally divided across the different responsibilities.
- What is delayed or removed when another project is added.
- Whether flexibility applies to the work, the working arrangement or both.
- Which decisions and resources the manager actually controls.
None of those gaps makes this a bad job. Someone may actively want a broad role close to senior leadership, even if it carries more ambiguity. Another person may want clearer scope, more predictable work or authority that is defined before they arrive.
Your own priorities determine which of these questions matters most. A job ad cannot tell you whether a role is right for you, and neither can a Kanso profile. Together, they can show you what needs a clear answer before you make a decision.
Know which questions matter to you
Clarify what you value before you weigh the trade-offs
Kanso's free five-minute assessment helps you clarify the workplace conditions that matter most to you. Your Trade-off Profile shows what you would protect, where you could compromise and what to investigate in your current or next role.