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.

Wow! I cannot believe some of the rude unhelpful responses from some people, it is not the op's responsibility to figure out how to write/ send out the letters quicker, and identify the impact on her service users it's her line manager's responsibility to realise that there is an issue and to come up with a solution.

OP - I understand your frustrations. Firstly start to write down a list of issues/concerns that you have. Write down how long it takes you to write each letter and estimate how long x letters take. Tell your manager that x letters take x length of time to write, and tell the the impact that this duty it's having on your own tasks.

In your next 1-2-1 or meeting with your line manager, or ring them to arrange something sooner, take your with you your list of concerns/issues. You could put together a list of actions you feel could help resolve the issues E.g is there anyway the letters could be sent out quicker and you've spoken to x department or person, and feel you may need some help/support/training ect.

It is then your line managers responsibity to go away and come back with a plan on how to resolve the issues and the impact on work load.

Unfortunatly even though it's not part of your job description, there is a need in most jobs to take on additional responsibilities, however if it starts taking over your main duties your line manager needs to know about the issues as its their responsibility ultimately to ensure there's no impact on service users.

It's annoying but really you can't argue with what the boss tells you to do. You can ask them if it's the best use of your time and is that really your job and so on. But in the end you do as you're told. Why not ask for a meeting to define your role and air your grievances.

Also... Your line manager sounds as though they trust you, and she feels that you have the key competencies to take on the additional work.

Although the additional work is frustrating for you, take it as a compliment that your line manger feels you are competent enough to do the work. Things like this look great on CV's, especially the way you deal with conflict and highlight the impact on your own work load and seevice users.

But surely, if the OP has a certain job description, she is being paid to do that job. If she is the. doing the additional work of a whole other person's job, then she should either get her job description changed and alter the percentage of time she spends working both areas and get more money or they should surely employ someone else to do the extra.

OP can I ask is your current line manager is the same one who you started grievance proceedings against? I assumed it was and maybe that's why I'm urging a cautious approach.

That has recently happened with DH (not an NHS job). They gave him three different areas of work and now he has moved into a different department, they have suddenly employed an extra two people to do the work he was doing on his own !

Unfortunatly it's not uncommon for employers to ask/expect their employees to take on additional duties/work. Op's senario isn't unique to the nhs.

Yes it sounds unfair what's being asked as its impacting her own work load/tasks and is ultimately impacting the service users/paitents, however it's her line manager and senior management responsibility to recognise the impact of this additional task on their departments workload.

Op needs to work with her line manager to raise her concerns, her line manager then needs to raise the issue with senior management. It's how it works im afraid. (It doesn't make it right though)

Is your role safety/ patient outcome critical or 'nice to have'? If it's the former then you really, really need to make it clear that if you divert to other activities you might risk your patients' safety/ well-being.

Either way, I think the way to approach this is to ask your actual line manager for a chat about your role. Phrase it as a 'mid year review' or similar.

While you don't want to come across as a jobsworth, there is no way on earth I would be doing significant and regular unpaid overtime for a grade 4 NHS job (I just looked up the pay scales....). The more kind-hearted people put in for free, the less funding the NHS is going to get. That's not right.