To bring this up or do I look petty? It’s a work one

[Mrstryingtofindmyfeet]

I work in a corporate role and us juniors take it in turns to look after the main inbox.

There is 11 of us that it is shared between I seem to be the person that seems to be covering the inbox the most frequently.

I covered beginning of January and last week and I’m covering again beginning of April. Realistically I shouldn’t be covering for another 8-12 weeks taking into account annual leave etc.

I feel petty for complaining but it takes up a lot of your day whilst also taking into account my own day to day role with a high caseload.

The rest of our team have between 8-12 weeks in between their next turn.

AIBU to raise this? Or do just get over it im not scheduled in again until end of June.

Ask for the schedule first.

I would mention it to your line manager or possibly in a team meeting in a "just for clarity" kind of way. Maybe you need a proper rota to ensure the way is covered as it could possibly be a business risk? This is to safeguard the team inbox becoming by default your inbox.

Get a schedule/rota sorted and a rule that states when you cover for someone else that they automatically take your next scheduled week. This kind of thing can fester a bit otherwise and there’s nothing worse than feeling put upon and under appreciated at work - I have been there and it’s insidious.

When you have your next supervision mention that in the last month the in box has taken you however many hours to deal with, leaving you with however many hours for your casework and that you wanted to make them aware of that as you are concerned about the balance.

Is there not an actual rota? Seems unfair for it to keep landing on you when there are 11 other people also responsible. Is someone/more than one of them changing their week to you? If so, nip it in the bud. You don't want to become known as the doormat. It's one thing being helpful but people soon learn to take the piss where that personality type is concerned and it sounds like this might already be happening. Keep it breezy but try and find out why your name keeps reaching the top of the list again so quickly.

Raise it with your line manager and ask for some clarity, there should be something formally in writing, a rota!
We have a similar thing in my office, we each are on a rota to do it once a fortnight.

What does it say on the schedule? Also, nothing wrong with going above and beyond!!

We have a rota but I seem to be the one that is being Rota’d in more than the others.

Then print it and take it to your meeting and question it.

Who prepares the rota?

This

Get an online schedule with names and dates and then no-one can wriggle out of it. Don't let this email box become yours by default.

One of the other juniors.

im going to bring it up tomorrow I just wanted to ask here if I sounded petty. I don’t want it to look like I’m causing issues but I don’t want to be a pushover either.

If it is your peer then I would approach them first on a “think there might be an inadvertent error here” basis. Don’t, whatever you do, raise it for the first time in a meeting in front of a manager.

If the person pushes back, have a quiet word with your manager then.

it’s definitely not petty to raise it.

Surely the rota should just be A then B then C and so on until it is As turn again. If people have annual leave then they swop with someone else.

Yep that’s the way it should be!

Just bring it up with the person who does the rota, they are clearly doing it wrong.

Not petty, nip it in the bud now before it really ends up getting your goat.

I hated shared mailboxes. Always take up so much time. Definitely raise it so someone is aware.

yeah just question it. I used to have something similar in an old job, it would just go in order and then start again once everyone had had a turn.

The problem would be when some people already had leave booked in, the rota would be worked around them, meaning people who hadn't yet booked their leave were on more often - the idea would obviously be that those who hadn't booked their leave would take theirs at some point so by year end it would all even out but in practice it didn't work like that, due to sickness, people leaving, etc. It would be better if the rota was prepared well in advance of any leave, so that everyone had the same amount of weeks, and then swapped to cover leave.

Look at it this way, if it was a car pool situation then you’d be driving more than anyone else, using up your fuel and wear and tear on your vehicle. That wouldn’t be acceptable. Only the fuel is your workload and the wear and tear is your time.

How is the rota shared? Does someone circulate or is it published somewhere and then you all get an email?
If so, way way to pushback without being directly confrontational is to say:
I'm sorry but I can't do weeks commencing xx/xx which you've put me down for. I have planned my workload on taking the inbox every 8 weeks like everyone else and there are only 6 weeks between my allocations. Can we double-check the time between allocations for everyone please?