To say no to doing tasks I used to do in my old role

[ExportDuck]

Hi all, name changed for this as work related.

I have changed roles within my team at work, from early 2017 to September last year I was a PA for my team, responsible for booking travel, door access, calendar invites, general PA stuff. In September I applied for and was offered a very different trainee role still within the same team.

It took the company until January to replace me as the PA and until they did I still carried out PA tasks when the rest of the company PA's (team of about 6 - all assigned to various projects) were too busy to help cover my team.

Now we have a new PA who has been here over a month, is capable, efficient and getting in very well.

My AIBU is this: I appear to be being lumped into a PA role along with the new starter by my team, for example if she isn't at her desk they will come to me and ask me to book their travel, or will send emails to us both asking for "one of us" to sort it out. I have started to politely tell my colleagues that I will not be doing these tasks for them and they need to speak to the team PA.

A few of my colleagues have taken exception to this and just now I had an email CCing in my team manager complaining that I had said no to booking his travel and that he was now being taken off "crucial project work" trying to sort it himself.

AIBU to be refusing these requests? I don't think I am!

Sorry if it's a bit warbly, trying to not give too much away to be identified whilst giving a full picture is tricky!

Presumably there aren't enough hours in the day for you to do both jobs, so if you try to cover her PA tasks as well, then your new role will suffer. Have you got a job description? If not, you need to ask for one (based on the same duties that your colleagues in the new team carry out)

I'm sure you can put it nicely, as per your posting here, but why not email Mr Complainer back, ccing in the team manager, pointing out that this task is now covered by MissNewBroom (adding a remark about how well she is doing the job!) and explaining that you are now busy with your new responsibilities, and hoping that the "crucial project work" is now sorted and progressing well.

Why could the PA not do it? What’s the cover if the PA is not there?

Sorry for not name checking properly, on the app so can't flick back and forwards.

No, not enough hours in the day. I've gone from part time to full time and quite a lot of that is taken up with studying and training. My new role isn't suffering as such but I'm worrying about rushing things through.

No job description as such yet, have a meeting tomorrow to sort that out so I will be asking about expectation to cover the PA role.

Obviously I'm not a horrible person and if there is a really urgent need and no one else can help then I will, just getting fed up with it being expected of me.

Twosheds - that's a good idea, I like that :)

Grump - she hadn't appeared in the office when aggrieved colleague wanted his travel booked NOW!

Keep saying no, otherwise it will become part of your job. In any case, you're not saying an outright no, you're saying please wait for the PA to be back, so she can do it, as it's her role.

I would push back politely and firmly and say ‘Sorry, I no longer do that role in the team – X is the team PA so you need to ask them’. If it continues speak to your line manager and say people don’t seem to understand your role has changed and the requests continue despite push back from you, and see if they can offer support. Whatever you do don’t do the tasks, as it sets the precedent.

It depends.

We recently promoted a pa at work and she was asked to train her replacement and be flexible about the role she took on. We explained that was partly because initially she would need to help our generally as her current line manager is very ill and rarely in while we try to recruit a successor. After that she would need to be willing to help out across the wider department. This would help her education but also what we need her to do.

We found she actually needed to be the one to take her sick line managers calls rather than her replacement as pa because she actually knew the answers and that kept clients happier. That meant a backward step. However she has done this with a smile and she talks to me the department manager when she is unsure but she is always enthusiastic.

I would have discouraged her from sending emails to say no to something. It is always better to say no in person than by email.

I would have a chat with your manager and work out whether they want you to do this. If they say yes, accept it cheerfully and make it clear to the team that you have done so happily but then work hard to make the next step up.

I manage a large team nowadays but still muck in and do anything and everything that I first did many years ago when I was a secretary if someone in my team in any role needs that, especially when there is a lack of cover.

I found as I moved up that I would be treated differently to people who came in and had to do parts of old roles. That never held me back but rather meant I got to understand the business better and being willing to do anything meant I was easy to approach for harder and easier tasks.

I get your point @GOODCAT and I am more than happy to help out if I'm needed to. The difference between my situation and your example though is that I haven't been promoted, I've gone to a completely different role, not even admin based, where I need to do my own training.

Good points however and thank you :)

As to PA cover there is a pool of company PAs who are allocated to various teams/projects across the company. They all confer amongst themselves as to holiday cover etc.

Could you say that as you've changed roles, you no longer have access to that part of the system?

You shouldn’t take this on and twosheds has a good response. I’m sure your colleague could have waited for the PA to come in. Someone else’s poor planning doesn’t not become your emergency.

Whenever you get an email asking you to do a PA task I would just reply that it is no longer your role and that they need to address their issue to and only forward them to you if it is urgent and NewPA isn't in the office that day.

If it continues I would be asking your line manager to send out a general email to your entire team saying something like:

"As you are all aware ExportedDuck has now moved to a new role and is no longer our team PA. Any PA duties need to be directed to NewPA on [email protected] only. They should no longer be sent to ExportedDuck. Please ensure you are sending your requests to the right email. Thanks

"We found she actually needed to be the one to take her sick line managers calls rather than her replacement as pa because she actually knew the answers and that kept clients happier. That meant a backward step. However she has done this with a smile and she talks to me the department manager when she is unsure but she is always enthusiastic. "

And when will she stop doing this, since her replacement is not having to go find out these answers since first PA still does this?
This is what a learning curve in a job IS, there's always a period of going and finding out.
This is where wifework comes from, where one person has to do everything because they've always done it "and its just easier for everyone if YOU do it".

Thank you all for your comments. I shall raise my concerns with my project manager tomorrow. My functional manager has no influence here.

Also, it's worth noting that I am one of a team of four of my new role and none of them have ever been approached to do any PA tasks so it's definitely a hangover from the old role for me and not a case of confusion over job role boundaries.

Was any notification sent out letting people know of your change of role and/or introducing the new PA?

We've had it where people help out in their old role until a replacement is changed and learnt from experience that it is good practice to send out an email saying that now the new person is up and running the old person is no longer covering.

Hi Magenta, yes, several emails have gone out over the months as well as an announcement in a weekly team catch up meeting. The initial emails said "Please address queries to the PA group email address" then once they recruited that changed to "New Starter Name".

There is a particular face people use when they are about to say "I know it isn't your job anymore... but..."

In that case the person who sent the email is being a CF and he knows it!

Email back cc'ing in his manager (politely) pointing out that you also have projects that you can't take time away from and that he should be asking the correct people rather than you.

I say cc his manager because I'd be really annoyed and want to know if one of my team had done that, especially as he cc'd your manager which comes across as an attempt to get you in trouble.

I used to be a PA to two directors. Some other people in the team tried to use me to do their admin work until one of my bosses sent round an email saying I was not a team secretary!

From experience, you will get pigeonholed as a PA/admin if you stay in that team. I moved to a project co-ordinator role and had to be very firm in saying no!

When I changed jobs within my department I got my manager to send and email round to impress upon the other staff that I wouldn't be doing any aspect of my old job. Of course people still sent me stuff to do on my old cases, but it meant I could safely send it back without being the bad guy.

It's definitely for your manager to tell them to stop being such CF! Taking him away from important work indeed, who does he think he is!

@stormtreader in answer to your query about when will she stop doing it, it will be once the person we have recruited to take on some of the work which is the responsibility of the sick line manager takes over and the sick line manager is back. I take your point that quite rightly anyone in this situation wants to know there is an end date or they can get stuck with the drudge.

For what it is worth as the OP is in a very different situation I would suggest she mentions it to her manager again. She might suggest that she would like to politely say no and to be able to say that the manager has asked that all such requests should be referred to them, which should stop it. I work in a super polite place though!