To think I’m not the tea bitch?

[Ribrabrob]

Recently started a new job. Fairly basic administration job, although fairly well paid for the role. It’s just a temporary maternity cover role. Not really a job I enjoy or want to do but was rather desperate so took the job.

The job is okay and the people are fine, mostly quite nice. I work closely with the manger in a tiny office, the owner is based in an office nearby but regularly pops in. From the start it’s been made very clear that making tea/coffee for them both is very important in fact in my first interview I asked what was the most helpful thing the previous post holder did for the manager. The manager answered ‘oh it’s so helpful when she gets my drink for me’. I remember laughing thinking it was a joke but it wasn’t

Hints are regularly made about having a drink, at least twice before I get the hint and then I’ll offer. If I don’t offer she’ll then ask outright but always after hunting. It’s annoying, i would rather she just ask. Other people also make little remarks when they visit the office that she (manager) doesn’t seem to drink as much as when the other post holder was here! It’s so weird.

I don’t drink many hot drinks myself, usually just one in the morning and occasionally another later on so it doesn’t always enter my head to make one 🤷‍♀️ But of course I do offer when I am making.

The other day the owner was due in in about half an hour. Manager asked me to have a chat quickly and took ten minutes explaining to me how he’d like his tea and to try and have one ready for him.

Aibu to be annoyed by this or is it just a part of a basic admin role? Aibu to think I’m not the tea bitch?! Aibu to think how I make the tea really isn’t that important? I’ve worked in offices before and the CEO’s would always make drinks like everybody else!

If I owned a business and wanted to employ someone who would make me tea, was prepared to pay them to do it and had pointed out at interview that I’d like them to do it, then I’d expect them to do it!

I mean, lots of people have crappy or annoying things as part of their job but if it was in the job description and you accepted it, then you should do it or get a different job. Likewise if I want to employ someone to do ANY task, and I’ll pay them, then if they take the pay they need to do the job! It might be old fashioned but they want their employee to make tea and were clear about it, so that’s part of the job!

If you are the most junior person and it has been clear that making drinks is part of your role from the outset you need to make the drinks although it is an old fashioned way of doing things.

I would address the hinting though. Tell her to just ask if she wants a drink. "Would you make a cup of tea please?" Is much more efficient and polite than beating around the bush.

IwishIwasyoda

I didn’t misread it. You asked whether they would ask a man OR male trainee. I responded to the second part of that. I can’t comment on whether they would have hired a man into this role, but they hired a person to make the tea, not a person to train up to a more senior level.

IwishIwasyoda

Someone has employed someone to make the tea. She can refuse if she likes but shouldn’t expect to keep the job.

Sorry OP but most places I’ve been the most junior person made the tea (except the place that had an actual tea lady). It makes financial sense as the junior’s time is charged out to clients at the lowest rate.

I have also been the tea lady (as temp holiday cover). Great holiday job - I had graduated in June, was starting a post grad year in Sept and spent a couple of months being paid £7.50/hour (which at the time was almost £2/hour above min wage) mooching around making cups of tea and doing a bit of tidying. The real tea lady had been there for 22 years and was the person to ask about almost anything within the business.

I went and temped in a horrible place once, and got hauled over the coals for not automatically bringing in the milk and washing up yesterday’s cups. Strangely I hadn’t made the connection since I thought they’d hired me for my excel and project management skills. I think it was meant to be for a month originally but on the Friday of the first week I turned up and they said oh didn’t the agency ring, we don’t want you. After I’d driven there, right in the town centre and found a bloody parking space and paid for it! Arseholes. .

surely no one employs someone to make tea????

They haven't.

It is just one of the roles.

Oops the teabags split again without you realising and you've put too much/not enough milk in.

Sometimes the silent protests are the best ones..

Wow. Gosh. I had no idea people were still expected to do this. Obviously lots of people on here think it is OK and there is no issue. Wow. In 2020.

I don't mind making tea for colleagues per se, but would be annoyed by someone waiting for me to arrive and make it. Surely she's not too important and busy to make her first cup in the mornings? Next time she talks about being thirsty I'd just say straight, 'Makes more sense for you to make your own first thing then.'

“I had no idea people were still expected to do this. Obviously lots of people on here think it is OK and there is no issue. Wow. In 2020.”

People who are hired to do it and explicitly told at interview that it’s part of the job are expected to do it. Can’t see the issue, no.

This is making me laugh. All over mumsnet there are posts saying how lazy SAHMs are.
This thread seems proof that what counts is whether money is being earned, not how hard people work.

“ I'd just say straight, 'Makes more sense for you to make your own first thing then.”

But it’s her job. If I hired a temp to make tea and they suggested I did it myself I’d fire them.

It seems like this is essentially part of your job, so maybe best to take control of it. If you've now got an idea of when the managers usually want a drink, pre-empt them by saying, I'm doing the tea now, would you like your usual?
That way you don't have to be listening for hints or have your other tasks randomly disrupted.

I’d be annoying at this. Next time she mentions how thirsty she is ect just say oh me too mines 1 sugar thanks 😂

I once had this in a job. I barely drank hot drinks - but I made an awful coffee for the horrible boss...

He never asked again.

in fact, once I fainted and my colleague made me a tea. It was so nice I attempted to make my own afterwards and failed. He laughed so much he actually became my “tea bitch”. Although I actually fell in love with him so quite different...

Totally unrelated

Why are you not embracing the tea time.
Tell your boss if they want a drink to just ask, also is it OK to use your mobile whole the kettle boils.
Then go stand in the kitchen on your mobile, and make lots of tea. You will be less productive, and she will ask a lot less.

It's very backward. If I were the owner of the company I can't say I'd be especially impressed to be paying what you say is a decent admin wage for someone to make hot drinks. Still, if that's what they're after, tbh for what it is I'd probably do it unless there was something better available: it pays you quite well for the skillset, it's maternity cover, it suits you for now.

But do take proper covid precautions. If it's part of the role and expected of you, that goes both ways. You should have the necessary tools to do it safely in a pandemic, as with any other part of the job, and your overall workload needs to reflect tea bitch duties.

Its a power thing for her.

She gets a kick from the status she thinks she gets from not having to make her own tea.

She's pathetic.

OP, it may be slightly old fashioned, but if it is part of your job, then I do think YABU.

The second job that I had, it was made clear to me that as the office junior, it was part of my job to make tea at 10am and 11.30am. The girl who had stepped up, would make it at 3pm. The office was just us 2 girls, and the senior manager and the Partner. It wasn't their job to make tea, it wasn't a sexist thing, just a respect thing, they were senior management, had earned their stripes and tea was not their job. This was over 20 years ago, so yes, it may be old fashioned now, but there are still some small firms like it. When I stepped up and we got an apprentice, it then became her job to make the tea.

The first job that I had was in a bank, and there were around 12 back room staff and we all took it in turns.

The last time I worked in an office, our desks were in groups of 4 in large open plan and you just made for your cluster and the men made it too, but the senior management (both male and female) still had their tea made for them.

there is a world of difference between 6 staff if equal standing all expecting one person to person to do the teas and being employed on a temporary bottom run admin job supporting the owner and manager and being expected to make teas.

It's your job, stop being so precious. Making bad tea is childish. You're being well paid for doing it, you said so. I personally don't see any issue.

*rung not run

flaviaritt, you haven't understood, I don't think. I said I was talking about the manager's first cup of tea in the morning, which the OP can't make as she starts later than her manager in the morning.

Exactly @m0therofdragons. I don't think some of the people here understand how time pressured senior roles can be, especially at the moment - private sector you're working all hours to protect everyone's jobs in case the company goes under due to covid, public sector you're working a packed day to run the sector under pandemic conditions. If these senior people want to pay someone to feed and water them so they can stay working hard all day, I don't see how the admin person can judge if it's necessary or not? Even if the senior person gives the impression of "swanning about" and not needing the tea, who's to say that those support services don't give them the help they need to stay calm and balanced through a day where they are making hard decisions and can't drop the ball even for a second.

The issue about it being a woman's job is different and yes that's unfair. But an admin tea making role sounds a good business decision to me. I think teachers and nurses ought to have a tea making person too, to be honest!

IntermittentParps

I’ve understood. The manager wants to wait for the OP to start and then for the OP to make her some tea. I think that’s up to the manager, and not really for the temp to organise her day for her.