To think Admin staff are always taken for granted?

[TeaAndBrie]

I work as Admin for the NHS and Normally I love my job but just recently it's all been seriously stressful.
We've been short staffed for over 6 months, i work part time and as much as i am trying to cope with everything I'm just exhausted.
My manager and my service manager (I report to both) have different ideas about stuff and I feel like I'm constantly getting thrown under the bus from one or the other.
They both earn significantly more than me and I have told both of them numerous times that I'm struggling but still mo help comes forward.
Do other people feel this way? It always feel like Admin are just supposed to prop everything up and keep things going even though we're the lowest paid!!

Yep. And admin pay is crap, under 20k where I live. That and being “just the admin” is why I moved sideways into non admin. I’ve also worked as a PA in London on 40k and that was better. I really couldn’t take an admin job again.

I do wonder how many admin jobs will be left in the next decade as work is automated or outsourced. It’s a dying industry.

Im nhs admin too and could have written your post word for word. Take care @TeaAndBrie and have some unmumsnetty hugs from me

Teenagemaw
Thanks for the hugs right back at you!
PlomBear NHS admin is needed more than ever as we have to prop up the overworked clinical staff, it will never die out as commissioners demand more and more data to affirm funding

What did you move in to plombear?

I'm NHS admin too, however my job is very easy and only three days a week. Keeps me busy enough while DD is at nursery.

Admin is always undervalued. I use to work in a private pre school as an 'administrator' however in a small business I was basically the office manager, HR, bursar, marketing, receptionist, PA to school owner, looked after the kids at lunchtime, managed all the SEN and safeguarding communications and paperwork etc etc. It was interesting and varied on the one hand, low paid and under appreciated on the other!

From someone who couldn't do thier frontline HCP without help from admin staff - you are very valued!! Thank you for all your hard work. I think like a lot of the staff, management do not value you(or anyone but their own jobs it seems).Admin support is the first thing to cut which is such a short sighted money saving exercise.

I once worked in an organisation where the admins were paid well and valued. They were fantastic. In this job I am desperate for a good administrator, but no funding as usual. Under-sung heroes.

Moved into compliance then health and safety.

Not so sure on the longevity of NHS admin. Medical secretaries being downgraded and made redundant by outsourcing audio typing to the Philippines and India, it’ll all be digital soon. No need for typing.

Outpatient receptionists being replaced by check in screens. At Edinburgh airport I don’t have to interact with a human at check in. Check in by phone / on a screen and tag by own check in baggage. Same at City airport. BA is installing automatic boarding gates similar to border control with passport reading machines.

amp.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/11/the-robot-will-see-you-now-how-ai-could-revolutionise-nhs

Where I work the Admins are appreciated (I am one of them) but there is very little genuine understanding of how long it takes to do things.

We've a specific manager whose catchphrase is "its a five minute job" when actually,it took me and another manager 5 hours to complete.

Agreed, I had to fight tooth and nail to get my asst a pay rise that was long overdue, and wasn’t getting anywhere. Then she had a couple of things back to back that meant she was out of the office for nearly 2 months... the place nearly collapsed! Despite all our CRM systems and office 360 etc the amount of practical knowledge she has that no/one else does became apparent.
She came back and got a promotion and a decent pay rise.

I work in mental health (not NHS) and our admin staff are worth their weight in gold (though sadly not paid it - pension contributions are decent though). Our receptionist is leaving this week and I’m distraught - she’s the first person clients meet and talk to, and she is always so warm and discreet and reassuring, I don’t know how we’ll ever replace her. All our admin staff do skilled and difficult and vital work and it’s awful that is is so low paid and demoralising for so many.

Same in education. So much time and public money wasted because people (academics) don’t value the efficiencies that really good administration makes.

100% agree. I worked (as an academic) on a project where the PIs had used some of the budget to pay for a part-time administrator and people openly said it was wasting the budget and then couldn't work out why our project got so much done, why our events ran so smoothly, why the different editing stages of our multiauthor publications (which are normally a fricking nightmare) were so well-coordinated...

Plombear I was also admin and now compliance and health and safety. Our admin are valued but I work for a good nhs provider

Hell yes! NHS Admin, ward clerks and medical secretaries etc are completely disregarded, grossly underpaid and expected to have constant telephone or face to face distressing/long/complicated contacts with patients, untrained and put upon, trying to do our own jobs as well as taking the strain off of other clinical staff.

We carry entire teams and services that fall apart the moment we are on leave or god forbid, go on a lunch break! And yet are continually the first people to be downgraded (most band 4 jobs are now band 2 - utter disgrace) and undervalued. I've had Doctors imply that I must be unintelligent to be in these jobs, yet they can't use a photocopier, computer or phone and don't have any kind of emotional intelligence to enable them communicate efficiently or kindly with colleagues and patients.

I'm lucky too in that I have a great team that appreciate me but in general its really clear how we are viewed.

I started my career in admin and sadly you are correct - it’s often the administration staff that hold everything together but most are paid barely more than minimum wage.

It really got under my skin, being paid less than the majority of the team so I worked my absolute backside off for years, progressing through the ranks in my industry where the position I’m in now pays double what my salary was when I worked in admin.

I'm not sure if its a good thing or a bad thing that so many of you have similar experiences but it's definitely made me feel supported so thank you
To those that have said how much we are appreciated it's great to know we are seen for what we do by those on the frontline

Admin rarely get the pay or recognition they deserve. Every year I take in a tin of biscuits for all the admin staff at my kids schools to say thank you for all the work they do. One of them cried the first year I did it as no one had ever thanked them before. I am a very strong believer in the power of a thank you, no matter how small it may seem it can make a big difference.

Yep. And don't get me started on management and IT building databases for admin to use that don't bloody work for us.
It's like being gaslighted when we tell then it's useless and we're made to feel like we're too slow or daft to use it.

megletthesecond
Haha yep, I hear you!
My service manager calls me change adverse - i try to explain that I'm only adverse to change when it makes things even more complex and time consuming than it needs to be!

megletthesecond
Another favourite is when they change something without admin being involved and then when you tell them that it won't work because of A,B,C etc you then get told you're being negative

Yep, admin worker here - although not NHS, but I do work in a large office, I get given all the bits no one else wants to do usually, and I have been very stressed lately. I do often feel as though I’m “just admin” as oppose to the other people who work there, I feel undervalued (and underpaid). Want to look for something else really, but the hours really suit me

Same.
I'd be quite happy with change if they could improve processes A, B and C.
Instead they tweak processes X, Y and Z .

I think this is a lot of jobs. I used to do NHS admin and it was soul destroying, tbh I think most admin is not just NHS. After a few years I got out, retrained and now have a rewarding job, I don't need thanks to know I'm doing well and I think that is because it's enjoyable, varied and not soul destroying.

NHS Director here, and I started in the nhs 16 years ago at the age of 19 as an administrator at the then NHS Direct (now 111). I've spent my whole career valuing my admin employees. Whenever I hear them say "I'm only admin", I remind them not to pull down their self-worth. Without "just admin" I couldn't function effectively in my role - I wouldn't know where I'm needed to be day to day for a start! I actively encourage my team to develop, and support them when they need help - were all a team after all.

What I have noticed however is those who join the team from other sectors (not previously nhs) do not follow these values. They certainly seem to speak to admin members differently, and their expectations of an administrator are often very different to mine. I've lost count of the times I've had to step in when it was clear an administrator was burning out due to senior managers increasing demands.

Perhaps because I've worked my way up, I appreciate the value of everyone. I do not believe in a hierarchy. If I need photocopying doing and no admin is available, I'll do it myself rather than increase the burden of others. So my point being is we're not ALL like this. I do see it, and understand where the OP is coming from, but I not all of us treat people so badly.

BlimeyCalmDown
I know that's what I need to do but my job fits in so well with life at the moment.
I'm not necessarily after thanks, I know I'm doing a pretty decent job of keeping everything going. I'm mainly frustrated at the lack of consideration or respect from management