Page 8 | To have pretty much automated 90% of my job and pretend I'm very busy?

IroningBoardAgainstTheWall · 2025-02-09T19:53:36+00:00

So, I run a database and predecessor didn't seem to actually understand databases and what they can do so was working 50+hrs and not achieving very much. We'll call him Phil. I took over and was warned how much work Phil did, he was very busy and he was actually in a retainer in case I needed his help or had any queries over certain tasks. I work in education and there's weekly, half termly, termly and annual tasks, quite cyclic and not difficult. Within a month I'd automated the daily, weekly and monthly reports, added more useful ones and sent them out. During my first academic year, I'd introduced new systems to automate tasks for others, developed new ways of capturing and reporting data, linked systems to the main MIS to automate account creation and syncing etc So basically I have very little to do anymore. I do ask for stuff to do, but there's nothing much really. I look for stuff to do but again, there's not much.Occasionally I'll get feature requests or specific reports. But honestly I do about 4-6 hours of work a week...max, and that includes stuff that isn't really my job, like fixing printers and laptops and stuff. Should I confess?

ThreePointOneFourOneFiveNine · 09/02/2025 21:59

I’d be checking my contract to see if I could be contracting on the side. And asking to work from home for a couple of days to do my own stuff. And probably doing a couple of training courses. They’re clearly happy to be paying you for a much better job than the previous person was doing. Enjoy your good fortune.

LatteLady · 09/02/2025 21:57

IroningBoardAgainstTheWall · 09/02/2025 21:46

Ha ha, they stopped it after a month when I pointed out what a piss taker he was. The plan was to keep him on for a year "just in case" 🤣

The best thing was the look on SLTs faces when I told them census was complete and submitted on the day it opened. Let's pretend that's 31st January for a 25th Feb deadline. I tidied the data, ran the reports, and sent them to admin team. It was submitted that day, and then confirmation of success is on 3rd Feb.
Om the 5th of Feb, SLT kind of cringed in a meeting and said "dare we ask... How is census going....? I know it's complicated...." Their jaws dropped to the floor when I told them it was done and successfully returned in the 3rd. "But...but... It takes weeks?? Sally in admin usually sits with him for hours. We submitted it late last year".

Turns out he was adding things up by hand. You have to know things like "how many 11/12/13/14... Year olds there were in school on X date.?" He spent DAYS doing this and always getting it wrong. So yea it would take most of February before. 🤣

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I am also a school governor... have been for 30+ yrs, cannot tell you how happy this makes me! GIAS financials can keep me happily entertained for hours!

Set up a group of local data specialists and become the go to person in your LA or Academy, we have recently done this with our local DSLs, amazing how powerful they have become with the Social Work team... You have secret powers and are an amazing person in the world of acadaemia.

raffegiraffe · 09/02/2025 21:55

I think after a while in a job, it's what you can do, not necessarily what you do. You are paid for your expertise and to take the rap. Don't worry about it

Notjustabrunette · 09/02/2025 21:52

While you have a young child, I would just carry on. It exhausting doing a full on day job, and then coming home to look after a young g child.

InSpainTheRain · 09/02/2025 21:50

I'd say just stick around for as long as it suits you. The database will need tweaks due to performance as data increases, different reports may be requested etc. But i would make sure I dolid a bit of consulting on the side and increase qualifications for when you get fed up and want to move on.

mumda · 09/02/2025 21:50

Teach me your skills. Don't know what they are but am interested!

Original poster

IroningBoardAgainstTheWall · 09/02/2025 21:50

GCAcademic · 09/02/2025 21:33

I would be very careful about the suggestions of taking on another job in your current working hours. There’s a chance that your current employer might discover this (through tax code issues or otherwise).

Hmmm. True..

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Original poster

IroningBoardAgainstTheWall · 09/02/2025 21:47

DistractMe · 09/02/2025 20:16

More power to your elbow I say. But if you haven't already, you could spend a bit of time documenting what you've done. For when you eventually get so bored you leave.

It's all documented... I was bored 😂😂😂

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Original poster

IroningBoardAgainstTheWall · 09/02/2025 21:46

Garlicworth · 09/02/2025 21:35

Is Phil still on a retainer? Maybe he's smarter than you thought 😂

Ha ha, they stopped it after a month when I pointed out what a piss taker he was. The plan was to keep him on for a year "just in case" 🤣

The best thing was the look on SLTs faces when I told them census was complete and submitted on the day it opened. Let's pretend that's 31st January for a 25th Feb deadline. I tidied the data, ran the reports, and sent them to admin team. It was submitted that day, and then confirmation of success is on 3rd Feb.
Om the 5th of Feb, SLT kind of cringed in a meeting and said "dare we ask... How is census going....? I know it's complicated...." Their jaws dropped to the floor when I told them it was done and successfully returned in the 3rd. "But...but... It takes weeks?? Sally in admin usually sits with him for hours. We submitted it late last year".

Turns out he was adding things up by hand. You have to know things like "how many 11/12/13/14... Year olds there were in school on X date.?" He spent DAYS doing this and always getting it wrong. So yea it would take most of February before. 🤣

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EarthSight · 09/02/2025 21:45

MsCactus · 09/02/2025 20:06

It's also the kind of thing that could lead to a lot of redundancies

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With zero planning in place on where all those people will be employed.

FiveBarGate · 09/02/2025 21:44

I agree with seeing what flexibility you can get.

If you could do compressed hours over four days or if that's too difficult a nine day fortnight and have every other Friday off.

If you can switch a bit to WFH then it makes being online for the required time easier.

Having proper free time rather than time pretending to work will be more enjoyable and you'll still be able to get everything done.

NovaF · 09/02/2025 21:44

I used to work with someone that, in a previous role was in a similar position and he did a degree through the open university and read loads. I don’t think I’d fess up, leave when you want a challenge and get bored otherwise enjoy your free time!

Fluffyowl00 · 09/02/2025 21:41

I would definitely be saying that over the school holidays it makes no sense to heat the building and you could work from home. It might be onerous when you have young children there, but other parent can cope and needs must etc etc. just thinking of the school

MounjaroOnMyMind · 09/02/2025 21:39

ObviouslyBlooming · 09/02/2025 21:28

That was years ago but there was a group of us doing similar tasks, quite repetitive.
Automated it as much as I could. Did 5x as much as the others.

I got told I wasn’t doing my job well 😳😳😳

What reason did they give for that?

Original poster

IroningBoardAgainstTheWall · 09/02/2025 21:38

LatteLady · 09/02/2025 21:28

One of the issues with regular reports is that people fail to read them properly and do not see the patterns emerging... is there any possibility that you could add that to your workstream? We use PowerBI and that is what I do for my Director... most people just look at that month's reporting... I look over 3. 6. 9 and 12 months, mostly to spot HR hotspots starting to bubble.

I used to feel very guilty about what I was paid until my sister pointed out that what I was really paid for was the out of hours work and pushing through screeds of work, doing it more efficiently and taking a step back to change it and not accept I was doing it a certain way because that is what we always did.

You'll be pleased to know I created a dashboard that you can filter by pupil or cohort (year group/tutor/ethnicity/sen status etc)

Heads of year get an ongoing report for their year group from the beginning of the year every week. Like showing trends in absence... They can start to spot patterns, like Johnny and Sophie always miss wednesday morning period 1. Or Sophie has started getting more demerits and her absence is going up, her attainment is down. So they can do interventions and see the bigger picture.

They never had this before.

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Octavia64 · 09/02/2025 21:37

I had this once.

I lasted six months. I am not good at being bored, especially in an office.

I did learn an awful lot of additional excel stuff.

I went off to be a teacher instead.

Garlicworth · 09/02/2025 21:35

Is Phil still on a retainer? Maybe he's smarter than you thought 😂

MounjaroOnMyMind · 09/02/2025 21:34

This has happened to someone I know, though in a different sector. She reckons by Monday lunchtime she's completed her job. She is thinking of going freelance and doing the same thing for a number of different but similar organisations. Could you do something like that?

XWKD · 09/02/2025 21:33

You've found a more efficient way to work. That's your work, so you should make the best of it.

Saturdayfever · 09/02/2025 21:33

IroningBoardAgainstTheWall · 09/02/2025 20:12

I could...but why take the pay cut?

I could do a second job instead ha ha

I might request WFH 2 days a week ...

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I would absolutely do this - request some WFH days!

GCAcademic · 09/02/2025 21:33

I would be very careful about the suggestions of taking on another job in your current working hours. There’s a chance that your current employer might discover this (through tax code issues or otherwise).

Original poster

IroningBoardAgainstTheWall · 09/02/2025 21:32

DearOwl · 09/02/2025 20:15

Why would you go part time for , presumably, part time money when you can err be part time, as OP is, for full time money? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot

I didn't really grasp what you do OP - I know what all the words mean individually but not put together 😀

Just keep doing what you're doing and use the free time to do whatever else you fancy

Ha ha

Like...if you need a total of all the demerits this week for Year 10. Predecessor would do this all by hand every week on a particular day and time. Export all the records, count the rows 🤣, then email the head of year 10 saying "34 demerits for year 10"

I just created the template report and put it on a subscription to email to relevant year head at 3pm on a Friday. Every week until I tell it to stop. I'm nice and pause them during the holidays

The report reads the data from the previous 7 days, adds the numbers up and pings it in an email. It includes totals, pupils names, reason for demerit etc. so more useful.

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FedUpandEatingChocolate · 09/02/2025 21:30

LatteLady · 09/02/2025 21:28

One of the issues with regular reports is that people fail to read them properly and do not see the patterns emerging... is there any possibility that you could add that to your workstream? We use PowerBI and that is what I do for my Director... most people just look at that month's reporting... I look over 3. 6. 9 and 12 months, mostly to spot HR hotspots starting to bubble.

I used to feel very guilty about what I was paid until my sister pointed out that what I was really paid for was the out of hours work and pushing through screeds of work, doing it more efficiently and taking a step back to change it and not accept I was doing it a certain way because that is what we always did.

This is brilliant advice.

AnAntisocialButterfly · 09/02/2025 21:28

Is there any chance that someone at some point will realise how little work you're doing and there would be consequences of you not disclosing all of the automation etc?

LatteLady · 09/02/2025 21:28

One of the issues with regular reports is that people fail to read them properly and do not see the patterns emerging... is there any possibility that you could add that to your workstream? We use PowerBI and that is what I do for my Director... most people just look at that month's reporting... I look over 3. 6. 9 and 12 months, mostly to spot HR hotspots starting to bubble.

I used to feel very guilty about what I was paid until my sister pointed out that what I was really paid for was the out of hours work and pushing through screeds of work, doing it more efficiently and taking a step back to change it and not accept I was doing it a certain way because that is what we always did.