Work - At what point something cannot be considered an objective...

[PeaceLoveAndCandy]

... and should be a change in job description, potentially with a change of grade, title, salary, etc?

I don't work Fridays, never have, and no one's done my job on Fridays, if it's work of a reactive nature someone else within the team picks it up, if not, I do. They have now employed someone to cover my job Fridays and they want this to be a seamless transition between her and me, so that no one even notices whether it's me or her, we just sort things out amongst ourselves.

I don't have any subordinates. For me, this is extra work I do not have the capacity for. The new person is inexperienced and we would never cross paths. It would mean having to pass on work for her that I could happily do myself, and then check what she's done, and continue from that point, or even correct. But we have the same grade, title and salary, so I don't feel this extra responsibility is fair.

They also want this person to have full access to my inbox. There's nothing in my inbox that isn't 100% work related. Still, this feels like an intrusion and also demeaning.

I work extremely hard by the way, never take a lunchbreak and although I don't get paid for Fridays, I do a lot of work at home. The job gets done extremely well and I have never had anything but praise.

Am I right in thinking that adding this responsibility as an objective in my year review is not on, or am I being ridiculous?

It would be reasonable for you to document your responsibilities and agree some sort of handover process, but it doesn't seem right for you to be held accountable for this other person's performance particularly as you're never in on the same day and they're only doing it one day a week.

I would email to say that you can document and agree a process but not manage the person's performance.

You're not the new person's manager, you're job-sharing with her. You and your/her manager need to recognise that and proceed accordingly. So, you hand material on to the manager that will allow them to train and supervise her.

It sounds as though you do too much and that's been noticed and steps taken to lighten your load, which is good.

It also sounds as though you've become a bit too territorial about 'your' work area, your work emails etc (rather than the company's and clients' emails) and that this is part of why you are trying to do everything, rather than flag up a need for support.

You sound like you can't see the wood for the trees. Luckily your manager can. Talk to them about how they plan to make this work.

In the shared mailbox (insist on this!), allocate each of you a colour. If you see stuff coming in during the week which is non urgent and can be picked up by them on the Friday, colour it blue. Then when they are in Friday they know to work through the Blue tasks.

Anything that comes in Friday that they cannot do (lack of skill, lack of time etc), they flag it Orange, and on Monday you skim over the Orange items and pick them up.

Anything in Orange you see that you think "they just needed to do x and y and this would be done" - do it, then send the email to them with a note on what to do next time.

A shared mailbox could work, and would be totally expected to hand over a few bits and pieces, but not to the managing a new person who's only working one day a week because it would end up being more work rather than less. This needs to to fall clearly within the remit of your manager, not you.

I wonder if part of the issue is that there's some confusion over what actually counts as management responsibility and what is reasonable communication with a colleague.

One is working out how to share operational workload between two people who do the same role. The other is an arrangement with formal lines of accountability and performance management.

Given the two positions are the same job on the same grade, it doesn't sound like any managerial responsibility is being given to OP.

I have a similar sort of thing with a colleague, I work three days a week and she works four, we do cross paths but work on exactly the same work and handover things we haven't finished to the other one etc. Nobody manages the other one but we check each other's work and have final sign off on pieces of work we are responsible for, even if the other one finishes it.

We have our own email addresses but also a shared mailbox and people who work with us know that we are sort of interchangeable and it doesn't matter which one of us you get. That said, people have favourites and some people will wait for me or her depending which one of us they like better.

Good communication and a thick skin is really important here, as is not being precious about pieces of work. We have worked like this for the last 5 years and work very well together but it's been a journey and because I work the least I have to be more prepared to 'let go' of things when she takes over.

It's doable but you shouldn't be managing her, that's a different role.

Surely you're just training her? Will she always need you to check it? It's clearly not a reflection on you as, as you say, the job is done really well and you've received nothing but praise.

If it was me and I did such a good job I would be wanting to train and initially check, rather than come in Monday to a big mess. It doesn't matter if you're going to spend time with this person or not.

If she's trained well she might be able to cover your leave or periods of illness.

Oh, and take a lunch break.