Working in an office - rights during covid?

TELLIT01

bobblebob said:

Self managed. I agree with what you say, but its us that have to deal with the backlog of work come deadline days. Yes if it doesnt get finished its not on us, thats a management issue. But i think the few of us in the office want to do the best we can and will muddle through rather than risk not meeting deadlines, if that makes sense.

Maybe letting things go unfinished is the best solution though, make them take notice

Yes it is the best thing you can do.  Otherwise management will just carry on as they are - expecting the remaining employees to cover the extra work.  If there are 20 people each doing an extra 5% it's no big issue.  However if there are 4 each being expected to do an extra 25% it's a very different situation.  Unless managers are getting it in the neck from above they have no incentive to sort problems.

oh_really

Any reason management won't weigh in to help or start bank/ agency staff in the short term.

Work needs to slow right down to elicit change or the status quo will prevail.

Don't make your fight the other guys arrangements.

Union?

74jax

TELLIT01 said:

bobblebob said:

Self managed. I agree with what you say, but its us that have to deal with the backlog of work come deadline days. Yes if it doesnt get finished its not on us, thats a management issue. But i think the few of us in the office want to do the best we can and will muddle through rather than risk not meeting deadlines, if that makes sense.

Maybe letting things go unfinished is the best solution though, make them take notice

Yes it is the best thing you can do.  Otherwise management will just carry on as they are - expecting the remaining employees to cover the extra work.  If there are 20 people each doing an extra 5% it's no big issue.  However if there are 4 each being expected to do an extra 25% it's a very different situation.  Unless managers are getting it in the neck from above they have no incentive to sort problems.

Completely agree with this.  
I understand where you are coming from, those working do not want to let standards 'slip', deadlines not be met.  BUT you have to try and understand it's not YOU allowing this to happen, it's MANAGEMENT.
If you are all seen as doing it anyway, what incentive does management have to come up with a solution - they don't see an problem.

TELLIT01

I feel very strongly about this type of situation.  My wife was given more and more work to do by her totally incompetent boss because the boss was incapable of doing her own job properly.  My wife was one of the willing horses who would continually take on more work rather than let anybody down.  That situation ended with my wife getting so stressed she had to get signed off work.  The positive which came from it was actually a poor annual appraisal given her by this manager.  The appraisal had to be gone through with HR who thankfully believed my wife's explanation which was backed up by other staff members.  That manager left shortly after.

Do not allow yourself to be browbeaten by people who are not doing their job properly.

theoretica

Rather than just failing to meet crunch day you and your colleagues can make it your bosses problem earlier - you tried to juggle the extra workload, its not working, what can be postponed or passed to someone not in the normal team? 

getmore4less

bobblebob said:

oh_really said:

bobblebob said:

I agree its a management issue but the staff are the ones suffering as we have twice as much work to do to cover

But you don't have twice the work, you have the same amount. There is only 8 hours in the working day (assuming), and you work away at your normal workrate, if this causes jobs to backlog then management will notice and have to deal with the situation, but your work load should not be affected by this.

Is your work self managed or assigned to you?

Self managed. I agree with what you say, but its us that have to deal with the backlog of work come deadline days. Yes if it doesnt get finished its not on us, thats a management issue. But i think the few of us in the office want to do the best we can and will muddle through rather than risk not meeting deadlines, if that makes sense.

Maybe letting things go unfinished is the best solution though, make them take notice

Very much the WRONG thing to do,

You look ahead at the work load and if there is too much you prioritise(if that is part of your job) and tell management what won't be getting done this period, be it a day or a week .... and it will roll over into the next period so less new stuff will get done.

if not part of the job(ie. there is an expectation it all gets done) you point out there is too much and ask what the priority is.

If the jobs are rolling as each new one comes in you identify based on the current work load when it can be done if it can't be done by the deadline you ask which jobs get put back to make room for the new one.

everything is important is not an acceptable response from management, a case of pointing out they should not be making their problem your problem.

In many jobs there is a often  bunch of stuff getting done where the output is never used or missed.  

Cromwell77

I think lots of private company’s have realised that they don’t need the amount of staff that they have and everyone can just work a little harder. Just because some staff are having to do more work within their contracted hours than have previously does not mean that they should  not do it now. I am also sure that this guys stance may well be different in the private sector but in the public sector is so much harder to sack someone if you don’t turn up for work you should not get paid. I think that when people have to return to the office there will be more and more issues of people not wanting to come in and have all sorts of reasons

elsien

If my boss comes to me and says they need me to take on an extra task for someone (bearing in mind I generally get the more complex ones anyway), my reply tends to be “yes, I can do it, but I can’t then do xyz as well. Which do you want me to prioritise and which ones are you going to pass to someone else?” Over to them.