I feel I am doing nothing at work. Why am I even employed there? Do they even know I work there?

[DotheyknowIworkthereatall]

I gave up full time work in March 2020 as I was moving and I had planned to get a new job in new area. I loved my job as a Medical Secretary in a mental health team. I was very busy, needed and felt I was important and good at my job.

The move didn't happen as lockdown did and my self employed husband couldn't work. We panicked and called the move off but found a very cheap old cottage that had a fantastic garden but needed loads of work a lot closer to our old home. We moved in in Autumn 2020 and I stayed off work to organise the complete overhaul of the building works. It was finished in 2023. Since then I have had a few part time casual roles as a cleaner and kitchen assistant but wanted to get back into the NHS as a medical secretary.

I saw a one day a week role advertised and it sounded perfect as a way back in. Right from the start it was so unorganised. Nobody seemed to know I was starting. The guy I shared the office with hadn't been told and the management hadn't set me up with a desk/computer/anything or told me what I was to be doing or anything about the service. They actually had a look of surprise when I turned up on my first day.

The full time guy I worked with started to show me the ropes (even though we both weren't sure if I was supposed to be doing the same tasks as him and nobody had told him to show me what to do) but after few months he unexpectedly died. Somebody from another office was given the role of doing all the things that the full time guy used to do, from her other office. I was left in the little, dark room on my own and told to "answer the phones" and book appts for 2 doctors. The docs appts take up about 10 minutes of my time. The phones are busy and although I knew how to check when an appt was and cancel appts etc I felt I didn't know enough about the service to fully answer some questions. I have been winging it!

All the other staff work from home so I was on my own with nobody on hand to ask for immediate help. If I emailed them with a query I wouldn't get the answer until the next week.

Supervisions with my manager have been very rare. At the last one I asked her for more training so I can do more and was told I would be trained alongside the new person when she starts. The new person has been there for a month now and has finished all her training and is up and running but I was never there when she was doing any training so I still feel that I don't know what I am doing. At least there is another person in the room with me.

I am employed for 6 hours per week.

My AIBU is am I being unreasonable to show up on time every week, do 10 mins of making appointments and answer the phones as best as I can and take their money? Or should I put something in writing to say I feel I am underused and want to do more? Or wait for the next supervision - whenever that may be and bring up the fact that I need training then.

I look online for other jobs every day but this is 5 minutes from my home and there isn't anything else nearby.

Long post. Sorry. I feel better now for getting it all out.

You work six hours a week?

Sounds alright?? Just keep on, keeping on

God it is soul destroying when that happens isn't it?

How long have you been there?

I'd sit tight, and raise it again at the next supervision. And keep job hunting.

I mean, having someone available to answer calls that come in is valuable. I’d say it sounds like you’re doing what they want you to do: answer phones and book in appointments 1 day per week.

Don’t worry about it, keep yourself occupied with something interesting where you can. My work is busy now but when it used to be quiet I’d do open university free training sessions and things like that to pass the time somewhat productively.

I would assess what your objectives are long term. If you want to progress, then you should get another job.

That’s a lot of fuss and worry over 6 hours a week! What’s even the point?

Ask for a pay rise 😉

You should have made yourself available for the training even if that meant doing extra hours.

However, after reading all that, why worry. It’s 6 hours per week. Just keep showing up. Unless you want more hours in which case you need to be more proactive getting trained. Dont talk yourself out of a job though.

I would be so bored and frustrated but would just get on with it for 6 hours a week.

Agree you probably should have been asked to be available on the days where they were doing training.

Turn up, take the money and look for something else? But it's near home and gets you out. You gave up ft work 6 years ago so just go in/go home

Am a bit confused. One minute you say you are bored out of your mind and your work takes ten minutes. Then you say you don’t know what you are doing ?

Make yourself useful. Make your job what you want it to be.

I would let people know that you were previously a medical secretary and would be happy to cover holidays/sick/maternity to get your foot back in the door.

What do you want to do though?

It sounds like the 6 hours a week is the problem.

If you want to do more meaningful work then it may be a case of seeing if they can increase your hours.

I can relate to this but my job was full time. I was placed in a public sector office a few years ago through a temp agency and turned up on my first day not knowing what to expect.

Everyone in the office was really busy and I sat waiting for someone to show me what to do. Nobody did. I repeatedly asked people around me if I could help them but was told that they didn’t have time to show me how to do their jobs.

I asked the supervisor a few times what I should be doing and she told me that once she had time to show me the ropes, she would. The next day she went off sick.

I turned up every day that week and it was the same story. It was so unbelievably boring. Nobody spoke to me and I felt like an idiot just sat there.

On the Friday, I gave up and got my phone out and I was reading the news online. A manager walked past and saw me and basically asked if I was busy in a sarcastic way. I tried to explain but she walked away.

At around 5pm I got a call from the agency saying the manager had called them saying they didn’t want me back.

I didn’t get any work again through that agency and I felt like it was because that manager had complained to them I was just sat around on my phone. So frustrating.

Luckily, I landed a permanent post soon after.

It’s so disrespectful to just leave someone to it and not allow them the opportunity to do the work they’re there for.

I would tread carefully. You don’t want someone to clock on that you’re not doing much and blame you for not raising it with anyone.

Is there anyone higher up you can speak to?

I was once hired as a freelance production person on a new magazine. Except the magazine wasn’t ready to be launched and I really had nothing to do. I talked to the editor and he said some work will be along soon. I was bored out of my mind. Another magazine asked if I could do some work for them but my editor wouldn’t release me even though he knew I was just sitting there mucking about online (and believe you me it was nothing like it is now). Days passed. Then he asked me to write a ridiculous made up article (to rank Oscar nominations and give odds on who might win - except the nominees hadn’t even been announced), and I told them I was not a writer and not hired to do that. But I did it as I had nothing else to do - rubbish. Then they asked me to write another silly article. In the end they let me go and I have no idea if they ever did publish the magazine. I have no idea why they employed me. I have no idea why they kept paying me. No idea at all.
Seems you, like me, are a box someone ticked but then it was someone else’s job to give you work to do and they have no idea.
Can you see any jobs that need doing? Reorganise the filing? Anything? Just marking time is demoralising and I would not stay in a job without any benefits to me other than a few quid a week

@DotheyknowIworkthereatall sorry but I don't know what you're worried about

I could really use a job like this, I need more hours but I have to go back to work after eight years and I'm so worried about it because I don't have any references or anything - I mean they're all eight years out of date at least

How did you get the job? Just keep turning up. You've solved the going back to work thing. That's great.