To think most jobs could be done by fewer people but no one admits it because they’d be out of work?

[PlainMintOwl]

So much of work feels like busywork. Whole roles exist to shuffle paper, attend pointless meetings or justify someone’s salary. AIBU to think most companies could cut staff by 30% and still function?

I'm in hospital admin. If we had double the staff we would still struggle. It's a nightmare. No one is happy.

An old school friend once asked me what I do in my quiet times at work to pass the time - apparently they had lots of dull parts of the day. I was completely perplexed. I’ve always had jobs where we are short staffed and working to tight deadlines so you have to work flat out or you’d have to work loads of overtime. Not doing the work isn’t an option. Previously features editor on a newspaper and now managing a team in the nhs. I know everyone hates nhs managers now but I work bloody hard. We are 2 down in the team and that means we have less output but prioritise carefully, though not always realistically. It’s generally okay so long as no one goes off sick or books holiday. It’s a very fragile position but has become my norm.

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Having worked in Local Authorities for years I've seen it numerous times where people develop tasks that only they can do thus keeping themselves in roles.

I've witnessed awful managers who when a complaint has been made get side lined into new roles rather than being demoted or managed out.

However the lower grade staff especially are the ones who are stretched. Social work is an exception, not lower grade but you cannot do the job in 37 hours.

I've more recently worked in a team they could have halved and literally laughed each time a colleague said how stretched they were and more staff were needed.

I work in elderly care. We need more workers, not less.

I don't know about 'most', but definitely there's more underemployed office roles than most people think. I've done two jobs where there simply wasn't enough work for a ft post - one i left and one they realised when I was thinking of leaving and made redundant. I offered other stuff I could do but it was a huge business and I couldn't just take on work for other teams because my time could only be charged to my tiny team and that took a lot of admin. I suspect this is a common issue in large businesses- there was totally useful work I could have done had it not been so complicated to arrange.

At the same time there are many people doing 2 or more people's jobs in one role as well.

Management need to be in meetings to
A: steer the direction (stop stupid decisions makings by people who all think they know marketing)
B: have a broad understanding of all the complexities of the organisation to ensure their decisions are as fully informed as possible

For good management, you need to give them thinking/planning time or you’ll keep on going with more of the same, no development and no change. This is an issue in the nhs, managers have no time to think so modernisation is done in silos.