Is this unfair? Work related

[WhiteGrapeBlackberry]

Hi all

Interested to hear your thoughts. I don't want to out myself but also want to make sure you get the full picture. Apologies in advance if this is long…

I work for a largeish company (70-80 sites across the UK) in recruitment. It is a small team, 5 including myself. I was specifically employed to manage one particular role across the business. My job is a bit different to my colleagues as they manage different roles.

When I first joined there were around 25 (of this particular role) vacancies across the business which have now reduced. We're currently at around 10, however this does fluctuate. After the numbers reduced, my manager asked me if I wanted to cover other roles which I was happy to do, and it's been nice to have some variety tbh. Obviously things change on a daily basis in recruitment. Some weeks I don't stop and other weeks are quieter and I know it’s the same for my colleagues. I normally catch up on admin tasks when work is quiet as I don’t get a chance to do it on a daily basis, so by no means as I’m just sitting there doing f all.

For context, I manage the entry level/low paid roles, so whilst my jobs are easier to fill, they have the highest staff turnover. For example, last week I had 23 vacancies, this week I have 16 and I don’t doubt that they’ll go back up again next week. I also get hundreds of applications (it can take me up to an hour just to sift through them all, then I have to call them, feed back to hiring managers then arrange interviews etc) so I can end up spending 2 hours of my day on just one vacancy. I also have to deal with agencies on a day to day basis and sort out any issues with the temporary staff across the business (my colleagues don’t have this responsibility).

I’m not trying to insinuate that I’m busier than my colleagues btw, it’s just we’re all busy in different ways. For example, they may only get 10 applications for one role so they have to do more sourcing than I do (however there's no way you can do source every day for the same role). I think it's obvious that the team (including my manager) think I have an easier job but I’ve never brought it up.

Anyway, I had a catch up call with my manager yesterday and he mentioned how my work load had reduced again and asked me if I wanted to support another department for a couple of weeks (which I said yes to, I mean I didn’t really have a choice), but then announced to the whole team today that I would be supporting this department one day a week on an ongoing basis. He’s said that when I have busier weeks I don’t have to help out but who decides that? I feel like it blurs the lines a little as what I think is busy he might not agree with. As I said we all quieter weeks at times, so I’m not sure why it’s just me that’s being given more responsibility.

AIBU?

Be honest with them and ask those questions. Tell them it needs to be clearer.

Yes I think I'll have to. Just feel like I'm being treated differently tbh, but I'm not sure if they would see it that way.

It does look like your core workload has more than halved since you joined (25 vacancies down to 10), unless the number of applicants for each post has doubled? It may be that the management see the first part but not the second. Are you involved in interviewing, in which case you'll have less of that for fewer vacancies.

How does it work re covering other roles when yours is quiet? Are specific tasks handed to you, or do you pick up tasks as and when you can?

You need to list things the way they are and ask to have a meeting to explain what you day to day is like, and ask for clarification about the extra duties etc.
It often is not fair but also it seems your manager nor the team seem to know what you have been doing since your workload initially got reduced when numbers went down.

Sorry, I don't think I've explained myself properly.

When I first joined the company I was only responsible for one particular role. Let's just say cleaners (not actually the job title but don't want to out myself). There were 25 vacancies across the business when I started early last year and over time I reduced the numbers to around 10. Obviously this does fluctuate as people leave etc. A couple of months later my manager asked me if I wanted to support with other roles since my workload had reduced, which I agreed to. Let’s just say I now cover cleaners, gardeners and builders. My workload then increased to around 20 vacancies which was similar to the amount of roles my colleagues had.

Because things change on a day to day basis, some weeks are busier and other weeks are quieter. Last week I had 23 vacancies, the week before I had more, this week is quieter and I’m sure things will pick up again next week. Some weeks I’ll start early, finish later, work through my lunch break and other weeks it’s a bit slower. It’s the same for all of us and I like to think it’s just give and take. Because it’s quieter this week (my first quiet week in months but I still have admin tasks to complete and candidates to call as applications come in on a daily basis) my manager has asked me to support in another department one day a week on an ongoing basis. My issue is that we all have quiet weeks at times, but he’s only asked me to take on the extra responsibility.

Hope that makes sense, wasn’t sure how else to explain it..