Should a manager do this?

[restofthetimes]

The person who manages me got her job a month before me, took one look at her objectives, and said 'this is too much, I need help'. It is a huge job, I don't blame her for that at all.
Cue me - supposedly her 'business support'. When I arrived she seems to have taken around half of her objectives, and given them to me. She's been open about this as she's showed me her objectives list. She's even said she's glad I'm doing some of them as she doesn't understand them.
She's not very interested in what I'm doing, as long as I get it done for her.
It feels a bit more like a job share. Although I am quite capable I have gone in at a lower level than I worked before, having been out of workplace for years due to children.
I am getting behind with all the day to day work I have to do as part of the role as well as the objectives, and I'm wondering really whether this is normal - for a manger to abdicate rather than delegate her responsibilities then get stressed they aren't materialising for her....?

You're going to have to talk to her. Make your own list, mark up the ones you can't keep up with, the objectives you aren't meeting, and ask her how she intends to manage the workload.

Don't offer solutions... wait... leave that silence and see what she says!

Then confirm it all in an email.

Cos you are going to drown under your workload and have no inkling of whether or not she will throw you under the bus. So ask her, find out just how supportive she will be.

You may be pleasantly surprised!

Are her objectives bonus linked and if so, will she be sharing?

”I'm wondering really whether this is normal - for a manger to abdicate rather than delegate her responsibilities”

Can you explain the difference- why do you not think of her as delegating?

I always think of business suppprt staff as doing admin “suppprt” work - not doing the tasks of the manager’s role that they don’t want to do?

I trickle down objectives to people I manage, sometimes in part, sometimes entirely. I then have the expectation they might delegate them down further, but only ever to someone who is capable of doing it. So no I don't think in itself it's wrong but the way she has done it sounds a bit odd, literally showing you a list like that.

If they are part of her objectives, she can delegate responsibility for tasks but not accountability. On this basis, I would talk to her about what you're doing and ask for support in prioritising the work. Does the team fall over if you don't do the day to day stuff? Can you push back deadlines? Be solution focussed.

It's a great opportunity to gain current experience for your next role. Keep recorded of your achievements that are quantifiable, and have been delivered by you and when you have 12-18 months under your belt you'll find a new, more senior role with no problem!

I feel like she’s abdicating and not delegating because she doesn’t seem slightly interested in hearing about it when I’ve met an objective. They are are all about setting up a brand new office with systems for everything, so what I design is important and presumably should meet her needs. But she has no idea what I’ve done, just puts a tick by it.
The office would fall over if I didn’t do every day tasks and ad hoc ‘little jobs’ too.
Its a full time role I think, I’m only pt and don’t want ft.

It is delegating in a roundabout way, although really she should fully comprehend the wmwork fully. But also see the positives. Namely you’re learning new skills and expanding abilities which could take you further. Once you’ve nailed the role fully ask for a pay rise listing your responsibilities

Can you ask for someone to do the boring bits of your job.

When I worked in business support and as an EA, I was keen to take on extra tasks like project work. But I still had to do my admin role as well as project stuff so I was overloaded

I ended getting a project co-ordinator role outside the company in the end as they wouldn’t let me move to a non admin support job.

for a manger to abdicate rather than delegate her responsibilities”

Delegate means the manager will take the rap if there's a snafu.

Abdicate means get it wrong, and it's your head on the block.