To be so fuming about this email from my boss

[ScrambledEggAndToast]

I have a slightly odd job, there are hardly any people in the UK that actually do it. It's a support worker role in a sense but quite specific. Anyhow, no-one ever seems to know what I do despite me constantly telling them in the hospital

Consequently, I keep getting jobs dumped onto me are are absolutely nothing to do with my role that basically either no-one else wants to do or has no time to do.

I have been trying to expand the service and now my "proper" job needs to take precedence. Yesterday, really was the last straw though. I'd already told my line manager that they had to take one of the big jobs away as it's eating up 30-40% of my time. However, yesterday, I got an email saying I had to create 118 letters for patients. Last time this job was dumped on me, I had 50 and it took 3 hours so you can imagine how long this will take.

The part I am so annoyed about is when I said to my line manager that unfortunately I wouldn't be able to help on this occasion. She replied with "I think we need to work things out so that the patients are not disadvantaged" I.e DO THE LETTERS

Well what about my patients, won't they be disadvantaged if I'm so bogged down in other people's work. Apparently there is a meeting with some of the managers next week to discuss this but I'm not holding out much hope. I am being made to feel as though I'm pitting them out when in actual fact, they have been putting me out for 9 months as I haven't been able to give my patients my full attention. Really, they need to employ someone else, maybe three days a week, to do the jobs I have been given.

Sorry rant over. Bloody NHS.

I agree it is my boss's job to come up with ideas wrt possibly sharing work. Of the people I am thinking of two are a band 4 and one is a band 3. Probably the best ideas on here have been from people suggesting showing her how I have been spending my time. Maybe then she will have to think about how to move forwards so I can concentrate better on what I need to do to improve the patient experience within the service.

But she is your senior and therefore your manager in the line of superiority. Your line manager is just that, your direct manager - her manager is also your superior and therefore well within her rights to dictate what you do.
I'm concerned for you that you are so cross that you are missing the wood for the trees. In this climate that's a dangerous thing to do. If you want to continue to develop your service you need to start to see the bigger picture and learn about politics.

Would I be reasonable to say that I will continue with the letters as it's less frequent than the other task. I could use that as my opening, which shows willing, then leave it to her to decide the rest.

The mail merge option should work. If there are two systems you might need a macro to pull out the info. This copying and pasting sounds really inefficient. Is there no computer whizz you can ask to make you a macro and mail merge? Agree this is only one element but it was the straw that broke the camels back and in private sector would be viewed today as an inefficiency to be quickly figured out. Suggest it to your manager. An IT person should be able to do it in their sleep. Re your workload, I agree your manager should have a holistic picture of the punch points and priorities. You work for the NHS. If your manager sees this work as priority after you have explained the impact, then you need to trust them.

Our IT guys are really good and helpful. Will have a chat on Monday as tbh, the email was loud and clear. DO THE JEFFING LETTERS!!

I would start by saying to your manager, obviously you have better visibility of the priorities f the department, but I iust need to check you understand what x and y work means on z project. If you're ok with that, so am I. I'll keep you updated if things change. In the mean time, I've seen an opportunity to speed up the letters but need a bit if it support. Who do you suggest yo help with a mail merge?

I think saying you are willing to continue with the letters implies unwillingness in other areas which I think could backfire. I think the best way to play this is providing evidence of how you are spending all your time, the impact of increased admin tasks on patient waiting times and then ask for your managers opinion as to how this can be managed.

Lol it's so hard. As your manager I would be really pleased about the ownership you feel for your job. BUT the people who get on best are the team players. You'd be amazed how few people bother to put themselves in their manager's shoes and see the bigger picture. That is key to getting on well and INFLUENCING your manager.

I've worked a lot in the NHS and there are far too many managers (who can't manage) and very little staff that do the work.

It's the sign of a poor worker to dump their own work on others as 'favours', guaranteed they are taking the credit for it and leaving the stress to you. Since these aren't your bosses, they have no say in your workload and are just trying their luck. Again, I've seen that many times in the hospital I worked in, the 'little people' can dumped on while the 'bigger ones' swan off. Things are starting to improve imo but largly the training for managers used to be shocking and so a lot that haven't had the new training are flapping in the wind with what to do in regards to delegation, organisation and sorting their own work.

You need to lay things out in an email and look at your job description, that should be clear what work comes first. If your own work is primary then your manager needs to be firm on that and tell them to outsource it, do it themselves or wait for it to be completed in time when your work has come first. If your job description allocates percentage time, even better. If this work is not in your job description then refuse it on those grounds unless you have none of your own work on.

You can bet that if your work is suffering you will be held to blame, despite other work being dumped on you.

Someone being a higher band doesn't make them your manager or you answerable to them in any way, the NHS has complex line manager/worker/manager relationships. I was a band 6, the band 7 was not my manager by far she was in a completely different management line.

Oh and devise a time sheet which you fill out to show exactly how much time this work is eating into. That way if they do need your help and it's agreed then work can be prioritised and delegated properly.

I have read through the whole thread a few things stick out.. You are passionate about the service you provide...However are the bosses. if it is such a rare service clearly other NHS's are managing without.

Secondly , I think you need to refer to your manager as to what needs doing.. Tell him. her how long letters are taking and if there is another method.

I agree with miniavenger on many of her points, quality of management decisions due to poor selection processes ans little training, a blame culture that filters down to the lowest grade staff member, keeping a record of how this admin work affects your core role etc.

Unfortunately, like yours, my part of the civil service (and I know anecdotally this is true of many public service roles) have cut back on the back room admin staff, no clinical/operational staff have been made redundant but the admin tasks still exist but now the operational staff (those who should be dealing with the public) are not dealing with the public as much because the admin tasks have been moved onto their shoulders. This policy may be good politics,but it is bad business.

This will be happening to many of the clinical/operational staff and managers. You need to decide if you are just going to sort out your own job or if you are going to involve Unison who may well decide to use your case as an example of how this policy reduces patient care. If you are going to involve your union you need to be very clear how far you are prepared to go with this.

I don't think the OP is being precious at all. I can quite understand her frustration as I'm a clinician in the NHS so have similar frustrations.

No of course she shouldn't do unpaid OT.

As for those having a go for not knowing how to set up MailMerge....she doesn't know how to do it because it's not her role! I don't know how to do it either, as I'm a clinician, not an admin. So shoot me for not knowing the ins and outs of my colleagues roles.

Patient care should come first, that's why we're doing the job.

Currently, there is a big drive to get more of the service that I provide into hospitals. About 30% of hospitals have the service I provide but by 2016, this is hoping to be far higher.

Missavenger- "You can bet that if your work is suffering you will be held to blame, despite other work being dumped on you."

This is what is happening, patients are ringing up and it's frustrating for them and me.

What happens when patients ring up, how are those concerns or complaints logged, if you are dealing with them by yourself and not formally recording them you may be unwittingly covering over the problem. Are you familiar with your organisation's complaints policy? In my trust we would have to report these concerns to complaints department.

No I haven't been formally reporting them. However I have no faith in our trust because when I put in a very serious grievance against my line manager about 18 months ago relating to disability discrimination I was basically told to suck it up

ScrambledEggAndToast, my sister has a saying: if people try to treat you like their bitch, turn around and be a bitch.

Be firm, be sure in your contract and responsibilities. Get union advice and put everything in writing to your line manager.

Do you have Performance related pay? Not hitting your targets can affect that and get you in even more trouble and stress if you do.

I so commiserate with you OP. I'm in the NHS as an administrator and it burns my butt that the politicians are always talking about not losing front line staff and that any cuts will be from back office functions. It completely devalues the administrative function and puts pressure on clinical services by forcing health care professionals to undertake tasks that are not necessarily in their skillset, hence a less efficient service.
In my area we have band 7 specialist nurses typing notes, setting up appointments and doing photocopying that could be done quicker and better by a band 2 for 4 hours a week. How is that saving taxpayer money?
I think you are right to point this out to your manager and ask for a review of your workload. Could the extended wait for your patients be put on a risk register or could you prove that the longer wait is costing the NHS more? IME the threat of a possible lawsuit or the possibility of cost savings are the 2 most powerful motivators for change in the NHS. (who's jaded? oh no, not me)
To those on this thread not in the NHS it is probably difficult to understand the OPs problem. It's a very different beast to private sector.

But the starting point - and I'm banging my head against a brick wall here is - Is this a commissioned service? If not the rest of this is pointless.
If a band 8 manages the band 7 who manages a band 4 the the band 8 is in the management structure for the band 4 whether you like it or not.
There's a lot of naivety on here which is fair enough but if you choose to ignore the people who do know what they are talking about then that's your choice and the consequences will be yours.
The current situation is terrible but the bottom line is you can only shit with the arse you're given - the survival mechanism is working out how to manage this and if you don't want to go elsewhere.

I should clarify that I'm in Scotland and we don't have commissioning up here. I'm aware it works much differently in England.

Mrsstarlord OP has stated that it is not

Apologies then, I missed that somewhere.

Then your bargaining power is massively reduced. Whatever you think of NHS managers (and my views aren't great) they have a huge challenge to meet and this often means that non commissioned services are closed down to refocus resources.
Making yourself an additional burden won't be a good idea, spend some time producing clear and objective information about the aims and outcomes of your service and how it meets the commissioning agenda. Once someone agrees with you that it's a vital service you will be able to start negotiating for time and support. Seriously (and I can't stress this highly enough) if you want your service and job to continue. Don't be an additional demand on already stretched services and managers. If you are ambitious (and it sounds like you are for your service) learn to play the politics game. And if you don't want to (as I did not) then vote with your feet.

I'm sorry to hear that you've been having a tough time at work recently, obviously I don't know the details of the grievance but it sounds like a horrible experience that has shaken your trust in your manager and the trust. I really would advise you to familiarise yourself with your complaints policy. If you are required to pass on complaints (we have to log them centrally through the datix system) even if you have resolved them locally and you are not doing so you could land up in heaps of trouble if there is a patient safety incident because of the delays or if someone raises a formal complaint (about wait times not about you) and during the investigation in emerges that they had raised the issue with you but that you had not documented it properly. Sadly I have seen people scapegoated in these circumstances (and it sounds like you could be vulnerable to this given past history) and management can absolve themselves of responsibility and claim they didn't know about these issues because you hadn't logged them. Don't want to sound like the harbinger of doom but as I said sadly I have seen this happen.

am assuming the time spent copying onto Excel will be balanced out by the time I save using mail merge

No - your IT guys should be able to export a spreadsheet direct from your database.

You keep saying it's not your place to decide who does the work, it's "the bosses" ..and I agree ...but the boss has decided it's you. You may be absolutely justified it not liking it but that doesn't mean it's wrong...someone somewhere has to send these letters!