I’ve really messed up at work

I’ve recently been given what is essentially control of the smallest department.

You did however state you’d messed up at work.

Can you explain in what way you think you’ve are fault?

You are your team/dept head, why wouldn't you take the initiative and do this? Or change the way your team works yourself, why would you need to escalate that?

Horribly accurate.

Probably because you'll expose her lack of work to do too.

What bandings are you all - it will help us to understand what power your ‘big boss’ actually has in all this or whether she is just being odd (or worn down by the system perhaps?)

They’ll be more to this.

OP you were hired to jump from “multiple departments” picking up spare work?

Keep your mouth shut, download candy crush and enjoy working in a stress free, guaranteed pension job.

When you're older, you'll understand.

Public sector 101

1. Do what you're told
2. Never complain/raise an issue/raise an ethical concern
3. No good deed/initiative/great idea goes unpunished
4. Do not miss out on someone's birthday cake at morning tea
5. Pretend you are doing a lot more work than you are

If you can't do these things, I would move to the private sector.

@ohbuggera - I would go into that meeting with my head held high. You've done nothing wrong, in fact, quite the opposite. You e shown initiative and simply said, I can do more. As a manager, I would love this!

I suspect your manager (well, the one who is cross, not your direct manager), likes the status quo - which sounds like the easy life. If everyone worked like you and showed this initiative, the public sector would be better off. Remember that when you have this meeting with them.

Move to the private sector, you’re too good for public sector.

I am from Australia so don’t have direct experience that is relevant, but I would say based on what you have shared, the replies giving context of public service conditions/culture and your fairly defensive responses that there is some cultural element here that you are missing.
So, my suggestion would be to take your supportive manager for coffee or similar and have a chat about it, somewhat ‘off record’ and be open to hearing what they say/suggest.
Are there big picture parts of the job that you may not actually be across yet? Sure, you may be managing the spreadsheet and responding to emails etc, but are there staff management/improvement planning/broader tasks that you aren’t yet seeing or being assigned as you are new?
Why do they think this has gone over so badly with the upper manager?
Have you stepped on toes without realizing?
could you have approached it differently eg timing, waiting a bit, softer language, maybe just approaching the other teams you are helping on a Friday afternoon and getting them to bring you in earlier to help? Maybe you could do that without involving management.
or you may hear that you are totally right, the manager is unreasonable and/or this is the long term culture, like it or lump it and look out for the next opportunity to jump to a
new position that might suit you better!

If this inefficiency and skiving are true it gives me the rage. I'm in the public sector and all the staff in the area I work in are run off their feet and use their own money for office essentials because there's no budget to buy any for us.

If this is civil service it’s pretty standard. I know several people who are bored rigid as they have so little to do in their management roles especially those who ‘work from home’ but in technically in head office.
their managers don’t want to know as it reflects badly on them. In my experience, the civil service is incredibly top heavy with management who have very little to do except have meetings with each other.

Honestly I find the responses like this that you’ve experienced just a bit mental. If you can do your work in 1/5 of the time planned what an amazing results share the learning with others and take more on would be my take as a boss. This is bananas that people feel threatened by efficiency and high performance. Good on you for giving it your all and highlighting opportunities for improvement - your boss should be thanking you. I know I would.

don't know how you should approach it but I think your instinct that boss is 'furious' because she's been exposed is probably correct.

i would tread carefully in meeting. my boss is an absolute expert in skiving - if asked to do something he will come up with a question or condition that means it goes back to the person asking then quietly dies in someone's inbox; he works from home 'sick' a lot so he's not there but you know he's sick so you don't hassle him too much, still collects a pay and doesn't use up his sick leave, team members also work from home sick constantly, I can't really see what any of the do tbh.

I am busy but much prefer it. I would look around but I can't imagine your position is unsafe at this point, you've asked for more work, how can they sack you for that?

I do find it frustrating though how much people take the piss. I work on an organisation that is there to help people who really need it and the amount of money being wasted on these people's salaries is actually at a whistleblower level of scamming. In fact the HR manager asked me to update the whistleblower policy recently and I wonder if she was giving me a nudge.

Oh I have experience of this

turned out my role was created by my boss who was an expert in pretending to be busy. she did this so well a role was created for a junior business analyst to work full time with her.

I actually had zero work as she guarded the small amount of client with she had with her life. I just was too “look busy”

i ended up asking other people in the department if they needed help with anything “in case I had spare time” (haha)

long story short, I ended up losing that “job” but my boss remained in situ

some people make a career out of literally pretending to work

nobody likes to be called out

your comment basically is calling out you manager that she’s had not noticed your predecessor was a faker…. That does not reflect well on her…

hope it works out ok

You've come in and fairly new to the public sector and have said 'hey I can do this in 20% of the time, what's next' Your manager and 'big' manager will be questioned over this and what the layabout before you did, so of course they're angry. You've just exposed them unwittingly about their own incompetence. Not your problem obviously but be careful. And if I knew now what I wished I had known as a fledging in my early career, I'd too be taking a 20% job and make it look full time. The more you ask for, the more they'll give you and give you, and give you until you burnout, tread wisely

Jeez, you'd think they'd be delighted at your being so engaged and pro-active.

When i joined local government decades ago, I was taken aside by an older guy who told me I was working to fast and that I needed to slow down, build up work in my intray to get promoted because Id need an assistant. I told him I thought that was so dumb and I wasnt going to do that. I carried on working hard, going beyond my role etc. 2 years later, after a couple of promotions, I was promoted to a head of service roll at the ripe old age of 24yo.

I have never heard anything as dumb as what I was told by that older guy since, until I read your post @ohbuggera I think you need to position this so your manager and her boss are not shown to be incompetent - play to your capabilities - you've sussed out how to do the job efficiently that's a good thing and reflects well on them both because they appointed you. Talk about how you can support others who have too much on. You're not then taking over a different job, but you're helping the team to stay afloat and feel less pressured - again reflecting well on them.
Both managers may be feeling a bit duped by the previous person which might be the cause of the reaction, but that is not on yiu. You have done nothing at all.

I hope it goes well.

Is it one of those places where you only do your own work, you don't help anyone else unless your manager says so, or their manager tells them to tell you?

Please consider leaving the public sector. What you did was excellent. The world needs people who are ambitious with what they can do with their time. The public sector does not reward this.

Why are you responding with an attitude?

As a taxpayer this makes me so angry. You have done nothing wrong, you've just brought a private sector attitude to a public sector role. Your manager feels threatened because they are probably not working very hard but are quite happy to fly under the radar. It's ultimately a question of whether you can work/live like that without being completely drained by the apathy.