Can my employer change my job description like this?!

[Officedogsbody]

Hi mumsnetters - I am furious with my employer and maybe need a bit of perspective here, so would be very grateful if you can help! I'll try and keep this brief:

I work for a global company as a Personal Assistant to an EVP - the job involves being available round the clock, acting as manager's eyes and ears, organising and attending senior meetings, creating presentations and reports etc...

I also do the usual managing his time/calls/calendar etc... so technically I'm an Executive Assistant as I get involved with the business side of things as well as admin.

However, during an organisation shake-up (4 months ago) they scrapped Team Support roles (my manager's team had 8 globally and 2 in UK) - and are now telling me that I will be Team Support for my manager's entire team in UK (25 people) which is a huge step down in my career. But they expect me to do this AS WELL as being manager's PA. So they are tacking another job onto my current one.

They showed me a draft job description and it's totally different to my current role. As in, I will do everyone's expenses. For 25 people. When currently I prepare my manager's speeches for global conferences...

I am not being a snob - I was a Team Support Assistant for years and worked my way up to a more senior/challenging admin role so I see this as a huge slap in the face/demotion from my employer.

Are they allowed to do this? AIBU to tell HR I see this as a massive demotion and that I will have very little motivation if all I'm doing is expenses all day? Don't they have to at least tell me about this at the time of the change, not 4 months later?

Also - HR have told me not to show my manager the draft job description or discuss it with him, which seems dodgy to me...

Any help v much appreciated!

Gosh I doubt it! Seems bloody cheeky at the least anyway! I'm afraid I don't know the legalities but I seriously doubt this is allowed. Interested to see what those in the know say.

It depends on whether this role is a "suitable alternative". At the very least there should have been some consultation about the chNge of job role, and I'm not sure how you're supposed to keep it secret from your EVP!

If it's a big global company you ought to have an HR dept who should be handling this better. I'm not clear who has told you about the job changes?

Ultimately though if they are saying they don't have PA/EA roles any more and you say you're not prepared to do team support, you are arguing your role is redundant. Is that the outcome you want?

What does your contract say? Sometimes there are clauses related to role changes.

OP, if I were you I'd request for this to be moved to Employment Issues. There are some very knowledgable people there who can offer you advice.

So they are basically getting rid of all the interesting stuff from the EA role and making you a team secratery again?

That's a bit crap :-( Unfortinatly there is a trend to get rid of EAs/make then look after more people in the corporate world.

Def share this with you boss. You need him on side.

very obvious reason they don't want you to speak to your boss is because they know he'll go thermonuclear when they tell him that his personal support system is being removed. It's a very tight relationship and people are very protective of it.
As Hermione says however - if they are removing all EA roles, are you after a redundancy package?

Hi - thanks for the replies.

It's the HR dept I'm speaking to about it - you're right they should be handling this waaaay more professionally!

The thing is - my manager was not aware of this role change at all until I told him what HR had told me. He still expects a very high level of service which will be impossible if I'm supposed to be looking after a team as well.

I think the reason they don't want my manager involved is because they know full well he will tell them he needs a Team Support as well as me as his PA.

I will be writing everything down and showing it all to him when he gets back from leave

I'm sure that legally they have to consult - asking me not to tell my manager sounds like they want me on my own to basically bully me into it...

I'm not after redundancy (I need the money) but the whole company has been through that already, so they had a chance to make my role redundant 4 months ago if they were going to and assist me in finding another role within the company

I have seen this process with the staff who were at risk, so know exactly what HR should have done... but it feels like they're trying to sneak this in the back door and that, as admin staff, I won't notice or make a fuss...

Interestingly, as part of the re-org we all (everyone in 250-strong dept) had to have a consultation with managers and HR to tell them broadly what we would want if our job was scrapped.

I said I wanted an equal level role but that the only thing I would be really against is Team Support as it would be a step back.

That was recorded at the time by HR.

However, after that meeting and again just before the new organisation date, my manager verbally confirmed that my job with him would remain the same. No other consultation was had.

The only reason HR are talking to me now is because I've been pestering them for months... they've cancelled three meetings to discuss it.

Many thanks for your replies btw - you've calmed me down a lot, so unlikely now to burst into HR office ranting and raving...

I was never as high but somewhat as you are but could you not carry on as the PA and become Team Leader as well but delegating most of the Team Leader tasks to those in the team? You could divide up the expenses tasks for instance. Whether or not this idea would work would depend on the quality who is in the team, of course.

With extra work / responsibility, I would ask for a salary increase if I were in your shoes.

Thanks Happy - that's pretty much the system we used to have: Team Support staff did the more arduous tasks like expenses etc for their smaller teams and the PA was network lead, so delegated to Team Support as and when needed/ensured everything ran smoothly.

There was a very clear difference in calibre between Team Support staff (usually from agency, no experience required) and PA staff - but now we're all 'equal' - except for the fact that senior management refuse to be supported (in meetings and whatnot) by the old Team support staff as they tend to be less professional/reliable...

I have no idea but maybe give acas/ union a call to see where you stand.

Your job sounds exciting btw.

I think your manager could be quite useful in this. If he is not happy with you doing lots of other things then he may have more clout with HR than you do. I would have a chat with him and let him know how much time your other duties will probably take and the potential impact on him.

Thanks very much everyone! He will definitely have more clout than me - which I'll bet is why they haven't asked him - I'm telling him everything when he gets back from holiday and hopefully he'll back me up :-)

I've just checked and HR have actually lifted tasks straight from their own HR employees (like training all newcomers) and Facilities employees (being in charge of all First Aiders and Fire Wardens in a 9 storey building in central London - I'M not even a Fire Warden!) and added them to my role. HILARIOUS!

I've written a calm and firm email taking the new job description point by point and stating what I think is wrong and I will read from it when I meet with them tomorrow - but if they disagree with me I will refuse to discuss it further until my manager is present... and see what happens...