Unfair team sizes at work due to part time hours

banana1975

I wonder if anyone can give me some advise. I work for a large outsourcing company and have done for the last 9 years.

I currently work a 16 hour week managing a team of 8 agents. I really struggle to get all my work completed as my work load is so large.

The company have now brought out a new team structure and I still have a team of 8 (something that they stated was only a temporary measure) all of which are part time also. However all the other full time managers have only been given team sizes of 12 heads.

They have worked out my team size on full time equvilant hours and they have advised me if I had any smaller team then I would not be benifical for the business.

However all of the work that is carried out is the same whether the agents works 6 hours a week or 37.5 hours a week.

This means that I am now struggling to complete all my work. I do not feel that this is fair as even if I doubled my hours I would still not have the equvialant work load to my work colleagues. I also believe that it is not fair on the agents that I manage as they are not having the time spent on them that they should.

To top it off they have now advised that I have to complete all my workload to be considered for my bonus - even on weeks that I am not there!

I have tried to speak with my boss in regards to this but he states that it is a directive from above him and he can see where I am coming from. I have stated that I am more than willing to speak to the site director in regards to this matter but what more can I do?

Any help gratefully taken on board!

Victoriajayne

Ok, so just to clarify, when you break it down into workload per hour, your team of 8 is expected to carry out the same amount of work per hour as someone elses team of 12 ?

Sambucus_Nigra

Are you saying that the full time managers should have 16 staff?

This is very confusing.....what exactly do you do?

SarEl

Other than raise a grievance - and this may not be a wise move, although whether you do or not is up to you - there isn't really anything you can do though. The business workload is structured the way it is structured. They haven't changed your hours or terms - and you still manage the same number of staff you previously had. Presumably in terms of the bonus, the scheme applies to everyone the same - they have to complete targets to get it even when they are not in work? So I cannot see that this is matter in which there is a "legal right" and anything you succeed in changing would have to be down to negotiation with the employer.

But there is a clear "warning" in here - if your team size is reduced then your position would not, in financial terms, be viable to the employer. They could not simply get rid of your post, but if a "redundancy" situation came about as a result of further re-structuring of the teams, you might find that it is not all that difficult to ensure that "objective selection criteria" picked well will produce the result an employer wants - and it will be your job that is redundant.

You may want therefore, because you know your employer better than we ever could, to pick your ground very carefully if you want to argue this.

banana1975

Sorry I have not made myself clear.

At present I have 8 staff that report to me. It is my job to manage them. This includes monitoring their calls, completing their monthly reviews etc. It is a contact centre based job. I am also the late manager and have to manage the floor from 6pm until close on the evenings that I work.

I have to complete the same workload on my staff regardless of the hours that they work. This is in 16 hours per week.

There are 3 other managers who all work between 30 -37 hours per week. They have 12 people each to manage.

My arguement is that why is my team size so large in comparisson to the hours that I work. It is not fair that I have a larger work load in comparisson to my work colleagues and I feel that I am always having to rush the time that I spend with my staff.

I understand that I am on "dodgy" ground as I do not want to see myself out of a job but I also cannot continue like this as it is always my name that is bounded about that I have not completed work. I state that this is not my fault as they have given me too large a workload.

I hope that this is clearer than my 1st message and someone can advise me what is the best course of action.

Sambucus_Nigra

So, if you had 6 staff [half the people for half the hours] - you feel that you would have less work to do?

What sort of things is it bounded about that you haven't done?

Is there work for 8 people whilst you are working, or is there only work for 6?

banana1975

We are a multi site campaign so there is always work to carry out.

I have 8 staff but there are other staff that work within the call centre hours and the staff are divided by the managers.

My gripe is that someone on 37.5 hours has this amount of time I have to spend with each agent.

On a 16 hour week I have 2 hours to spend and complete each agents work.

My colleagues on a 37.5 hour week have 3.125 hours to complete each agents work.

I know that I am not really making myself clear. I will try again tomorrow!

FATBALLZ

Personally I wouldn't kick up a fuss, you're lucky to be in a managerial position when working so few hours.

If I ran a business I wouldn't employ managers to do only 16 hours a week. Maybe you should either ask to up your hours to pay for the extra time you need to do the job properly or ask to be demoted into a role where you can work 16 hours comfortably?

WeakHeart

Hi. This can be a common problem in contact centres (and may be elsewhere too) because allocated management headcount is often worked out per full time equivalent heads. However the support needed for a part time team member can equate to that of a full time team member (each need a review once a week, each need a call monitored for each day that they work).

This often means that a full time manager has extra work to do if they have part time members in their team or, like you, if the manager is part time can cause the problems that you have described. You have both problems. You are working about half the time that your full time manager colleagues are yet people wise don't have half the number of people, plus the workload in reality is not proportionate. Ideally your team would be made up of full timers and your full time manager colleagues teams would be made up of more part timers but that's unlikely when you are covering the late shifts!

I wish that contact centres could work out management heads needed per person rather then by full time equivalent OR reduce the frequency of support tasks provided to part time members of staff but both would bring their own problems and is not always seen as being cost effective. The other thing is that on paper the team leader role looks manageable but team leaders in contact centres have frequent interruptions for advice on calls etc etc caused by high staff turnover and lack of team experience and the amount of time spent on ad hoc support is very often underestimated.

Its good that your employers have tried to make an adjustment but you have a clear message that your role on a part time basis may not be viable if they make further reductions so I would tread with caution. I would not approach the problem from an 'it's not fair' angle. My advice would be to be seen to be proactive by putting a plan together and then asking your manager to check it through to improve and approve it.

To prepare, draw up a list of tasks that have to be done remembering to include things like call referrals and shouts for advice from your team. Work out which tasks can be delegated to team members (they write up notes after their reviews and call monitoring sessions, figure their own break rotas out, think of and run competitions, hold team meetings etc) Bear in mind that a contingency plan will be needed for when the contact centre is very busy and your team can only handle calls. Pull a plan together that maps out how your working time will be spent on these tasks to show how it all fits together. Then ask your manager to meet to discuss this and improve/approve. Your aim will be to log actual times against your plan to identify where your time is going and where further improvements can be made. This will present your manager with the practical problems that you currently face. I'm not saying that they will fix the problem for you but at least the problem will be highlighted to them.

You will also be able to make improvements. I knew a contact centre team manager who shared your problem but became expert at time management. He knew when to say yes and no, learned to be concise in his conversations, refused to answer team member questions if the answers were in their 'manuals' but they were too lazy to look them up etc etc. He was highly rated at all levels in the contact centre and could easily outperform his full time manager colleagues. If you don't fancy aiming for this kind of performance unfortunately you may need to rethink whether the role is right for you on a part time basis.

Good luck

banana1975

FATBALLZ wrote: »

Personally I wouldn't kick up a fuss, you're lucky to be in a managerial position when working so few hours.

If I ran a business I wouldn't employ managers to do only 16 hours a week. Maybe you should either ask to up your hours to pay for the extra time you need to do the job properly or ask to be demoted into a role where you can work 16 hours comfortably?

I think you comments are a bit unjust. I work these hours as I have 3 small children. Do you think that as a mother I should not be a manager?

All that I was asking is how could this be fair that a full time team leader has more time to complete their job than I do. Yes I know that I am lucky to be in this position but I have worked hard to get it but feel that I am being treated unjustly.

banana1975

Your comments sound like you could work in my office! Yes it is all worked out on FTE and as they have given me part timers then I have more staff. Some of my agents only work 6 hours per week and you still need to complete all their agent tasks and monitoring with them!

I have mentioned to my work that I would like to go on a time management course if childcare could be sorted.

I just feel that it is totally unfair in regards to team sizes and that I have no operational support after 6pm means that I am pulled from pillar to post.

Thank you once again for taking the time to reply in so much depth.