I’ve really messed up at work

I'd prepare myself for an absolute onslaught of work, if I were you.

Be careful what you wish for.

May not be the same, but I had similar many years ago - I replaced someone who was leaving, we had a week handover/job shadow and on my first week without her, I raised to the manager I already could tell this wasn't a full time job. Like with you, higher management was a bit peed off because the girl before me had been doing it for about 15 years, and when I spoke with them all we did a JD review that worked in my favour as i was given additional responsibilities. There's nothing worse than not having enough work to do; when you meet and speak with managers make it clear you are keen and willing to take on more and be constructive; tell them how long certain tasks take so they have a better understanding of how the person prior has taken the absolute piss!

I have worked in the public sector previously, and unless there are a run of redundancies, I would expect you to keep a job (whether or not its this one I couldn't say). I also don't think what you are experiencing is that uncommon. In my experience public sector workers are usually either massively over employed, ridiculously busy and fully stretched without capacity to do everything they want to, or under employed, stretching an easy role out over a week. Obviously there are exceptions, but it is very common.

You highlighting it for your role shows a lot of integrity. Unfortunately it may have annoyed the management as it may be highlighting many other areas that are much easier than advertised. If you were at a stagnant point in your career, it may be easier to stay quiet, but if you are working on self improvement, promotions, other goals, it doesn't help at all to be very quiet.

If there are any areas you want to work in/with you could use your spare time to proactively offer to help another department, or carry out any training that might be needed. Or it may be that the role needs a part time person (many people are looking for part time opportunities) and you are best moving on.

Best of luck. I don't think you have done anything wrong. Hopefully it settles soon.

I'd try and diffuse it a bit by pretending not to understand the anger. 'Sorry, Lynn, I think we've crossed our wires a bit here. I'm not moaning about it, just offering to take a bit more work off your hands, since I have the time.'

My director gave me a bollocking as we had to pretend we were at full capacity in order for him to argue to retain roles - departments were all arguing against cuts at the time

See this is just disgusting, though ( not the person who wrote this post, but the attitude of the directors). These are tax payer funded posts. We all go to work to pay for these staff. These are not Director's personal fiefdoms. A key part of their regular job should be to ascertain if all the staff they have are fully occupied and needed. Instead its the opposite. Pretend they are all needed so I feel more important next to my peers. Its an immoral culture.

It leads to people being recruited into roles with very little purpose or work. That's immoral for the staff recruited to them. Its soul destroying to have so little to do and it can destroy people's careers. Its immoral to the tax payer, Its immortal to the people we serve as limited resources are wasted on pointless jobs when they could be funding critical posts.

Just shameful.

So you were working alongside the other full timer before you took on that role? Did you not pick up then that there wasnt much to do?

How come your immediate manager didnt know there wasnt much to do?

There are ways of raising things without annoying or criticising people. For instance asking to be involved in some project work for your development. Suggesting you could be involved in other things like staff networks. Suggesting you can do a job in 20% of the time sounds condescending and critical of those who have been managing the department.

Just keep your head down, they will get over it in a bit.

If the manager is fuming at this and you're public sector, consider joining a union as it could go downhill and you may need support.

but my take is that you’ve raised it and she now needs to do something. If her role is at capacity then she may not have the time to do that.

can you consider how the team could add greater value (ie be more productive) as that will mean they have security in the longer term.

I’ve worked in public sector roles with both too much and too little to do. Maybe if they stopped constantly restructuring, and having posts funded for one year projects when in fact they should be permanent, we would be able to get the resource in the right place!

good luck OP - hope it goes well

This exact experience happened to me in a local government job. My director gave me a bollocking as we had to pretend we were at full capacity in order for him to argue to retain roles - departments were all arguing against cuts at the time. I got around it by writing him a short paper setting out the value add work that nobody was doing and that I was willing to take these projects on. Whatever you do don't use terms like underemployed and excess capacity, instead focus on efficiencies, priorities, impact, and delivery (outcomes).

We also had a restructure in which jobs were cut but I got a promotion. If you play this right I imagine you could do the same as you are clearly a valuable member of the team.

Good luck!

She's fuming because

you've given her a headache - could be because she would have rather you kept quiet and she now has to act, or she feels cheated by the previous role-holder

If you feel this is you messing up, its not. They messed up by not realising for the entire duration of the previous role-holder that it was not an FTE.

If you mean "I wish I'd kept my mouth shut, because it feels like my job is at risk", there would only be so long before it came to light anyway

What you mean is you've been honest and your management do not sound like supportive or even sane/safe people to be around...

It doesn't sound like constructive dismissal, i.e. giving you a job that is effectively redundant due to the fact the task hours can't support it, because the previous person managed to blag it for so long.

I've worked in local government for over 30 yrs and I can see why this would annoy.Its too late but I'd have recommended that you gain other duties through working on other working groups etc.

In that case I would think she has taken your suggestion as confirmation that you think she is doing a poor job in deploying her team effectively and feels that you are not in a position to comment on her abilities as a manager. It’s not my view, I work in the charity sector where we are all massively overworked and under paid and dream of a time when my teams don’t feel over stretched. But from your explanations that is the conclusion I would come to. If you are new, young and ambitious I would also perhaps think she is worried you are on your way up to her job and that makes her feel uncomfortable too.

You have flagged up you have capacity for additional tasks. Manager seemingly having an unprofessional response. Weather the storm. Not your problem. You have provided information with best intentions. Hold your nerve. No need to soak up their panic.

I had something similar: things were changed from On High which resulted in me having all my work coming in on Thursdays instead of spread over the week. I told my line manager the new system wouldn't work, and he said "Let it not work. Then they'll find out, and change it." He was right, but boy was it frustrating for a while!
So you could just go along with it, or you could do as a PP suggested and do a business case for changes. But you really shouldn't worry about having spoken up, I don't think. You were thinking of the good of the company.

That would make more sense.

Why does she think this, though? She’s surely said? And how does this equate to her being ‘fuming’?

I think this is more like it. I'd be bloody annoyed if someone who'd been with us for 12 months across several departments decided that a post was under-utilised.

I get my work done within around 2 hours. I am paid for 8. Have I flagged it up?Have I feck.

That is so weird. I would be thrilled if someone I manage told me there wasn’t enough to do and asked for more work.

Presumably there is something going on behind the scenes that you are not aware of. Just volunteer to pick up work for others and make yourself useful while this plays out.

Underemployment is not spoken about much, but it is actually corrosive to self esteem