I don't see the point of me at work

[Ceci03]

So I started a new job in January. It's different to the way I'm used to working. It's a team of 5 full-time (including me plus another one who will be starting soon) plus 2 part-time, plus 2 managers. The thing is we all seem to do everything - when I first started, they said x&x do this, and y&y do this, and you'll be doing this - but in practice they seem to want us all to know how to do everything, so you don't have your own tasks IUKWIM - well the people who have been there longer seem to, but they jump onto other things that are not 'theirs' as well. I just feel a lot of the time 'what is the point of me' like if I wasn't there would it make any difference.... Maybe I'm just not used to working in a team like this - previously I always had 'my' tasks that I was responsible for, and I enjoyed that responsibility, and then I'd pitch in where needed etc. Is this a new way of working maybe. They seem to want everyone to know everything and to do everything - but there's not sense of ownership for me at least. And often I'm doing something - like answering a call on the shared email, but by the time I've finished it, someone else has done it and closed the call. Similarly we all work on spreadsheets together, but anything I do is usually overwritten by the time I've done a couple of things - they of course are faster than I am as they have been there longer. I'm just feeling quite down hearted. I like the people, the work is ok, but I feel if I wasnt there I wouldnt be missed. And there's another full-time person starting soon - I don't feel like there's enough work for all of us!

That sounds tedious

I wonder is there a large turnover of staff leaving at short notice and they want everyone to be able to do everything or in case someone gets ill.

Yeh it is tedious @britnay feel so bored and downhearted

Yes maybe @purplecorkheart

Anyone else on a team who works like this? I'm looking round for something else actually.. am starting to think the job I left wasnt so bad after all :(

I started a job last year that sounds like this. Very little training, not a great deal of work & everyone expected to know everything (even though some tasks only need to be done once every few months so by the time it comes round again you've forgotten how to do it.) There are about 15 in the team & all jump on tasks as soon as they are available so often there's not much for me to do & not much opportunity to learn new tasks. I am now looking for another job.....I've given this one plenty of time & there's been no improvement. The only things that have made me stay this long are the lovely colleagues & flexi time.

Bumping. Anyone any advice

do you ahve one to ones?
can you mention you would like some particular project or ownership?
is there a job that everyone hates?

It doesn't sound like a very efficient way working. Can you speak to your manager? Something like 'I'm used to a more structured way of working where we had one main task we were responsible for, and were also able to pick up other tasks in the slack'.

Aaarrgghh - so just spent about 15 mins researching and answering a query - I copied 2 other team members, and one of them immediately got back to me saying they had already sorted the query. Why didn't they tell us then???? Am so frustrated. I said to him ok thanks for telling me, and he said "it's ok don't worry about it" like I was the one who made a mistake????!!!! I can't talk to the manager - she is very off-hand with me, I get the sense she doesnt like me, nothing specific, just she very much left me to my own devices when I started, I had to drag information out of her as to what I was supposed to be doing, and ended up just learning from the other team members - which is fine, but I'm always sensitive to asking them as training is not their job IUKWIM? Actively looking for another job now.

that sounds so pathetic
you need a system so you know what people are doing,
otherwise it is a waste of your time

We have a similar system at work BUT we communicate so that we don't just replicate what someone else is doing/has done. So the shared email inbox is flagged by a person's colour to indicate they are dealing. Each member does actually have their own assigned projects, but we can all cover for each other as required. If one of us does something on someone else's project while they're unavailable, we ensure they're copied into correspondence so they're aware it's been dealt with and they're in the loop.

Since the department is growing, it sounds as though some signposting needs to be put into place to make the work more efficient. Worth suggesting?

Great idea shared email inboxes are a menace whenever I worked them it always led to 🍒 picking as well. So the unappetising tasks get older and older. We solved this by having a TL allocate all the tasks using coloured flag system

It’s annoying when it’s like that. Especially when someone answers something in a shared inbox that you’re supposed to monitor (and they’re not) and it looks like you’re just bone idle. It’s even worse if the email was only received about 30 mins ago. It’s like ‘FFS, give me a chance!!’

Yeh am feeling so 'meh' about this job - like what is the point of me even trying. They can all do it in their sleep, and at 100 mph and honestly don't seem to need me to do anything, everything is almost always covered before I've finished reading it. Am pissed off with that colleague now for saying "don't worry about it" - like I did something wrong???!!! I'm not a f mind reader - how was I supposed to know he had already sorted it. I don't want to be a moaner on the team though - everyone else seems to think everything is grand.

We operate a similar system and it generally works well, and obviously mitigates the risk of key man dependency e.g when a colleague is off work/overloaded and they're the only one who can do a particular task. It's sensible for businesses to consider this.

There are benefits for you as an individual too of working this way, when it's done correctly e.g. less stress going on holiday and having loads of things to action when you return, etc.

But in your case OP, it's obviously not working. So you have a few options:

1. Accept it, and say nothing. Continue feeling the way you do.
2. Don't accept it, raise with your manager. Potentially see a positive change, but if not then you've still lost nothing. Revert to option 1 or 3.
3. Accept the job is not for you and look for another job.

Yes in my team I very much am of the philosophy that everyone needs to be able to do any of the tasks/responsibilities that we have, in the past where we divide things up so that person A only does task X and person B only does Y it's caused all sorts of problems e.g. covering for absence or work surges either planned or unplanned, weird competitiveness/defensiveness about who has most/least work, festering resentment about some tasks/work areas being 'easier'/'harder' than others, and in extreme scenarios I actually had to make someone redundant because she'd been entrenched for years in only ever doing 'task A', when due to digitization we no longer needed Task A she point blank refused to be retrained to do 'Task B', she totally lacked confidence doing anything else (equally the other members of the team were not super-helpful as they didn't want to 'share' their tasks either) and the only solution was to pay her redundancy and wave her goodbye, not a brilliant outcome for her or the business IMO, I never want to be in that position as a manager again.

So now we have shared inboxes etc., our job titles and descriptions are generic and everyone is trained on everything we do, but your team's way of working sounds totally chaotic. We have a rota where e.g. on Monday person A is lead on task X with assistance from B, person C is on tasks Y but available to jump in on Z if needed etc. . It's terrible etiquette and leads to all sorts of problems if C then starts jumping into X unasked/communicated and interferes with what A and B are doing. People are typically on one task/work area for a week at a time before rotating so there's time to sort slightly longer term issues/queries out. The system flags up if someone else is already in a spreadsheet or working on a record/tasks and you never override that - you always always ask them politely to come out of the spreadsheet or whatever first, review what they've done and only ever make additions/overwrite their work after discussing with them. Everyone know to go to their team leader or colleagues and ask if they are finished their work for that day and need more to do (and most people have ongoing projects that are 'theirs' they can work on also - or just take some flexitime if you're done for the day!). I'd hate to work in your system, I'm not surprised you're feeling frustrated. Can you talk to your colleagues, are you in the same building or can you pick up the phone to them and let them know (politely/calmly) that this isn't a sensible way of working, they surely aren't doing this to one another so I think you just need to assert yourself a little bit and ask how this can stop happening? If this doesn't work escalate to a manager, if that doesn't work look for another job?

I’m actually going through this myself. I’ve been there a year now and have written a letter to my manager explaining that I don’t feel I actually make any difference to the team and that if I left I don’t think anyone would notice 😳 I’m hoping he’ll say something positive and help me. So no advice but offering solidarity

🤦‍♀️

When you come at it from this angle, what are you honestly expecting your manager to do? You're essentially, passively suggesting that you bring nothing to the company so they should get rid of you.

@maxelly I'm thinking you are a manager :) It sounds better organised than my team. When I started the manager said we would have weekly meetings on a Monday to 'sort out the work' but that hasn't happened - the manager seems too busy.

@Showmethefood I feel your frustration - essentially we are asking to be better or more clearly managed. The trouble I have is that being quite new I don't want to 'rock the boat' when nobody else seems to have a problem.

If it doesn't improve though I'm going to move - it's just so depressing feeling that you are a tiny cog, and if you aren't there nobody would even notice. IUKWIM. And we have another full-time person starting soon - I'll be interested to see how they get on. There are 3 of us who are quite new, with me being the newest. The other full-time person, he just jumps on everything - but doesnt tell me what he's doing - he's weirdly competitive and is always saying 'leave this to me' - I'm tired of arguing so I've just started leaving things to him - who wants the hassle of fighting over work. Aaarrrgggghhhh

@SparklingChampagneAndStrawberries Yep this happens all the time - even this morning, I'm supposed to be the one monitoring the inbox, but I haven't had a chance to answer anything yet - I start, and then when I go to 'send' or 'save' it says "another person has already completed this call". Absolutely, like give me a chance to read it!

@GiltEdges no she's asking to be better managed - they are not utilising her skills or using her to her potential?

Well yes by implication, but it probably is not a great idea to write a letter that literally says "I feel useless, I don't do any meaningful work here, I might as well leave" (if that's what the PP meant they were going to say). A good manager would use that as a prompt to dig into why the person feels that way and what can be improved, but lots and lots of managers are not "good" and frankly the ones that are probably wouldn't have let the situation get to that point in the first place so it's dangerous to assume they'll do the right thing. A "bad" manager will more likely just dismiss the whole thing as the whinging of a lazy/jealous/silly employee and do nothing, and a really bad one will take it as an invitation to sack the complainer. I'd like to think I'm a "good" manager but even I have to admit that if I received a letter that was just a litany of complaints and hurt feelings and threats to resign with no positive suggestions for improvements I'd sigh internally and immediately expect that to be a difficult conversation with that person rather than a constructive and helpful discussion about how we can improve things for the good of all.

If you must write a letter at all (and I'd say better to have conversation first then follow up in writing after, if you can), it's much better to say "Things could be improved if we did X, if you as the manager can do Y it will improve productivity in Z ways, this would make the team feel valued/motivated/whatever" (and perhaps add on a section about the impact on you of the current situation at the end, but again framed less emotionally and more practically if you can manage it e.g. I have been trained to do X task but due to current system of working am currently only completing Y tasks, I have skills in Z task which are being under-utilized". I get it, it sucks when you aren't valued or appreciated at work and it's very stressful and upsetting to be cut out by your colleagues, but being tactful and diplomatic stands a better pragmatic chance of success than getting angry or confrontational or weepy.