AIBU about job?

[Dhapeer]

I started a new job 6 months ago. I was interviewed by the office manager, my manager and a director. It was casually alluded to that everyone pitches in with taking calls etc.
On my first day, it became apparent that while doing your job, they also have this 'virtual' reception which is where your phone rings every time a reception phone in any of the offices nationally rings. You are expected to take some of these calls.
I can not describe the stress of being in the middle of something and having to answer reception calls.
Ok, so I got used to that and accepted it.
Last week, we had an admin meeting and we were told that we now have to do the following as well:

1. Offer to do incoming/outcoming post when receptionist is on leave
2. Listen out for the doorbell ringing and answer the door if no-one is at the 4 desks behind reception. I sit about 30 seconds walk from the reception door.
3. Make teas and coffees for meetings in the absence of the receptionist.

I have 22 years administrative experience and am supposed to be a Team Administrator for a team of 5 building surveyors. I also have PA duties for my Director.

Would any of you do this? I have handed in my notice to my manager by text and have rang HR and am waiting to hear back.

FFS, they are paying me 28k to answer phones and make tea?

Am I the unreasonable one given that NONE of this was indicated in the interview and is not on my job description?

You don't sound like someone who'd make a valuable contribution to our team. We're in between receptionists and two of the team are on long term sick. All our team both male and female and including the project manager are just getting stuck in, supporting each other and doing whatever needs to be done.
Thank goodness no one thinks any job is beneath them.

No she should be exempt from duties not in her job description because she has a contract and her employer is breaking that contract.

Well depend what is months contract. Most decent contracts have catch all in them.

*in the

Ok we'll just nip into the kitchen and I'll make you one.

Where on earth do you work?

‘Hold the meeting everyone, we’re just nipping to the kitchen to make Sandra a brew’

Or should she do anything asked of her......give the kitchen a quick scrub while the kettle is boiling?

Refusing to take part in tasks asked of everyone in the office/at a particular seniority level, regardless of whether they're male or female, is a great way to get passed over for promotion, widening the gender pay gap even further. Personally, I'd like to see more women succeed than be held back in the name of ensuring only men do tasks that were historically only given to women.

@ilovesooty and the OP has said she is willing to help out just not all the time.

Ffs - I'll ask again CAN YOU READ?

She's happy to help when it's needed she is objecting to it becoming a permanent part of her job role.

She has a job description and a contract and they are adding duties - they are breaking the law - but the women on MN think she is unreasonable.

‘Hold the meeting everyone, we’re just nipping to the kitchen to make Sandra a brew’

Or, better still, 'sorry, Mathilda can't make tea, she's a woman, we'll have David make it for us to avoid re-enforcing gender stereotypes'

On the way into a meeting we often make visitors a cup of tea. When visitors arrive we often make a cup of tea. When I visit other locations people often make me a cup of tea before a meeting.

We do not sit in meetings expecting to be 'served' tea. If you do expect this kind of service where the fuck do you work.

I did once have a colleague tell me I should do something because it was 'beneath them' - they wanted me to do their washing up. Their lunch dishes. When there was a perfectly usable dishwasher.
Apparently they weren't hired to wash up.
I ended up pointing out they were not paid for their lunch hour, so if they chose to eat in the office they could wash/load their own dishes like everyone else.

The OPs points still stand though.

where the fuck do you work

An office

The thing is, it's not being paid 28K to answer phones and make tea.

It's being paid to answer phones (constantly) and answer doors and make tea as well as doing your own full-time job, which presumably has its own targets, performance management expectations etc?

There's a difference between everyone pitching in to help out, and being expected to carry out your own job while on constant high alert for interruptions which are not easy or quick to resolve.

If the company ran an efficient setup where the staff at OP's level could get on with their own job, then they'd need fewer of them and could then employ more staff at the lower qualification/less experienced pay grade to carry out the less specialised roles.

Our receptionists are on placement and don't do full time hours. We all have to do our bit - permanently - to cover the additional time. As a matter of course, in a permanent basis, all of us cover additional tasks like answering the phone, transferring calls, washing up, cleaning round the kitchen, general tidying whenever we see something needs doing. It's just that at the moment we're all having to do more of it than usual.

@Gronky I'm not saying men or women should do the task. The people employed to do the job should do it.

If women constantly step forward to do work considered menial and low value then they will be regarded as menial, low valued workers.

But if it's everyone's job to answer it, why don't you leave it for other people for the majority of the time? Let them learn the hard way that a rota works best?

About the tea - Mine's white with one sugar, thanks

Tea appears to be an extremely vital element of meetings. So much so they should really have a designated tea making person to serve all these meeting attendees who can neither cope without tea for an hour nor make their own fucking tea.

The people employed to do the job should do it.

It sounds like they do, but it's rather unreasonable to expect them to do it when they're not there.

If women constantly step forward to do work considered menial and low value then they will be regarded as menial, low valued workers.

Male or female, it's a fine line to tread but certainly, in my office, people who refuse to help out and exclusively perform their core responsibilities (again, regardless of gender) tend to score rather poorly on the 'teamwork' section of their appraisal. If someone feels they are being targeted for menial work, especially if it's to the detriment of their job, we have a robust means for discussing their concerns, both inside and outside of their management structure. By both doing the job when asked (where possible) and then raising their concerns, they are seen as both helpful and proactive, which demonstrates good personal management.

Gronky exactly your organisation has a 'robust means' for discussing the situation. The OPs organisation sounds like a disorganised bunch of fools.

She told them to get lost. Good on her.

I think people understand well enough the OPs gripe and it does sound like the organisation needs to review its set up.

But... the OPs attitude was obvious from the off and I think we have all worked with people like this. Arrogance and self importance are not nice traits in anyone regardless of how good they are at their job and the OP has them in bucketloads.

I agree with you op, if you'd have wanted to answer phones all day you'd have applied for a receptionist role.

I'm having a similar problem. I have a job to do, eight hours in which to do it per day yet I'm constantly interrupted by the overflow reception phone which rings all day long. Because of this I struggle to get through my work because I'm listening to fecking Brenda from Bury who wants to tell me her fecking life story.....twenty five thousand times a day.

I'm also paid an awful lot less than you.....double shit. But it's a job....it pays the bills blah blah

What are the receptionists doing that all 4 of them are away from reception at the same time?

That's what I'd question. They need to manage their tasks away from the desk/breaks better.

She has a job description and a contract and they are adding duties - they are breaking the law - but the women on MN think she is unreasonable.

How are they breaking the law? It would be very rare for a job description to itemise every single task that ever needs to be undertaken. Most JDs tend to have catch-all clauses such as "any other duties commensurate with role/grade". It would be hard to argue that asking an administrator/pa to answer the phone or make the odd drink was a breach of contract, assuming that the OP's core duties are still broadly in line with what she wad hired for. I can't really see a tribunal falling for that...

Why are you only getting paid £28k If you have so many years of experience OP? Something doesn’t add up. I know people with your experience that are on 3x what you are. I suspect your self important attitude is why you are where you are. Beneath you? Jesus Christ - I would never hire someone like you. So many years experience and no basic human politeness.

This thread is a joke right @Dhapeer

We do not sit in meetings expecting to be 'served' tea. If you do expect this kind of service where the fuck do you work

Corporate offices with no kitchens? Hot water and coffee should be in the meeting room on arrival.

One of my favourite jobs had an office tea lady. An honest to god real life tea lady circa 2010. She came around the office with her trolly and massive urn of hot water and made you a tea or a coffee to your exact specification. And you could have a biscuit for 10p. Lovely.

And if you were in a meeting or not at your desk when she came round, she’d keave you a brew on your desk.

Most decent contracts have catch all in them.

Indeed they do. Something along the lines of:

Job Description

Post: Superwoman

Responsible To: Super powers management team

Location: The World

Main Purpose of Post: To save the world... N.b "Any other duties as required."

--

Therefore the OP should either leave and find something better suited and completely rigid to the job spec or just do what everyone else does which is to get on with it.