can you help me - wfh not working - made to look bad

[Sarah510]

I don't know what to do about this. I'm in a small team of 4, there's one boss (but apparently she is not the boss of the team leader), then the team leader, who is the boss of me and one part time person. The boss boss has given a presentation to us saying that me and the pt person need to 'step up' and 'work more independently'. I'm not sure where this is coming from as the team leader hasn't said anything, and when I asked her was she going to put into practice some of the things - like organising the work between me and the pt person, she said no, she wants us both to have an 'overview'. Trouble is the p/t person does everything. As soon as an email comes in (shared inbox), she is on it, and has it sorted before I can even read it, or digest it. (am in the job 4 months). I just feel superfluous. Then when she is not "in" on Thurs & Fri, the team leader says to me to wait until she gets back. There's another presentation tomorrow, and I think it's going to be aimed at me not pulling my weight. But I dunno what else to do. Also the boss boss giving this presentation has taken on doing a lot of more menial tasks since being at home - also replying to a lot of emails - to the point where I'm nearly afraid to reply to anything in case someone else has already or that I say the 'wrong' thing and then one of the others writes again to correct me - happened before. Feel stuck. I don't know why they hired me.

but she (surprising to me) said no, that she thought it was better we both did everything - i.e. she does everything

Not surprising to me. If I am perfectly capable of managing my workload, the last thing I want is someone taking control of it.

Sounds to me like you aren’t taking the initiative. If the part time person is doing everything before you, she is clearly more proactive.

Thanks for all the messages. Yes I think bottom line there isn't enough work to go round. TL keeps saying its because of the virus - we have a lot of connections in the far east so a lot of disruption. They keep telling me how busy it is normally. I just haven't seen that (yet). Am going to try and do more on thurs/fri when p/t isn't there. She has worked there for years so is just very quick and knows the answer to everything before I've had to time to read the email IUKWIM. No, nothing much to do as far as I've been told anyway, apart from answering emails. I hope if I do apply for a different job that they will give me a good reference though. I have the feeling they don't think much of me. Yes it's true, I wonder if they complained about having too much to do, so they appointed me as a f/t person, but it turns out now there isn't that much to do after all. It's very frustrating. I want to get stuck in.

Contact your union.

Contact your union??!!

@Sarah510

On what grounds?

Sorry that was directed at @DisinfectantDoris

Because maybe the union can give some advice about constructive dismissal?

The whole thing sounds horrible! I hope you can get a new job OP.

From the Acas website:

"An employee usually needs two years continuous service with their employer in order to pursue a constructive dismissal claim against them."

So OP will have no case.

In the meeting say ok can we please establish a plan to implement this. The barriers I have are that I don't have a training plan in place; I have been told not to complete work unless p/t is in; p/t works on her days off so accesses emails outside of core hours.