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... and duty statements are the order of the day.
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Actually, these days, it's the Selection Criteria, rather than the duty statement, on which candidates are evaluated. That becomes particularly hard when you're limited to writing 6 criteria, and at least two of them are the standard ethics and communications ability.
I applied for a job a couple of years ago that had a 6-point selection crieria and 10-point duty statement - science-related (where I have a strong interest) but the duty statement was all engineering - seriously straight from a typical electrical and systems engineers CV - the duty statement seemed to suit me perfectly. However, the selection criteria included having a PhD in science and a research background. When I enquired, I found that the selection criteria had been written mostly by HR and the duty statement by the position supervisor, but even he thought that a PhD was required to simply work
next to scientists, even though the position did not perform, nor interpret, any research. It was a real shame as it was a damn-near perfect job for me.
I don't doubt that there are a lot of jobs out there, both public and private, that are poorly specified. And then there are the recruiting companies stuffing up finding the right person.
In my very humble opinion, one of the most fruitful efforts we could undertake as a nation to improve productivity would be to get the right person into the right job. It'd generally make people happier, too, I bet.