I’m in a fixed-term role as a Senior Project Coordinator (£43k) and I’m starting to question whether what I’m doing even resembles what that title implies.
On paper, it’s meant to be a strategic and delivery-focused position - coordinating key activities, working with partners, overseeing support to beneficiaries and ensuring things run smoothly. But in reality? Most of my time is spent:
-Chasing proof of payment and filling out reimbursement claims
-Manually emailing clients individually about events
-Being treated as the middle person between clients and finance, or clients and other staff
-Having very little onboarding or clarity, then being told to “take ownership”
-Fielding calls and emails from my manager that feel less like leadership and more like delegation of whatever she hasn’t had time to do
-Cleaning up or continuing things she dropped /forgot about/couldn’t be bothered to do but with no real authority to push back or make structural decisions
-Being expected to know things I’ve never been trained on but also micromanaged on admin
It’s exhausting. I feel more like someone’s PA (specifically my manager’s), a claims processor or general inbox-wrangler than anything remotely “senior.”
AIBU to think that this isn’t what the role should look like? I know titles don’t always match the tasks but this feels like misrepresentation and I’m starting to wonder if I’ve just been hired to do the parts no one else wants to touch.