I’ve really messed up at work

[ohbuggera]

I’ve name changed for this and I’m deliberately leaving it vague to avoid being outing.

I have worked in my public sector job for just over a year. I’ve bedded in and worked between multiple different departments in that time.

I’ve recently been given what is essentially control of the smallest department. I’ve been doing this for a few weeks and it’s not really a full time job. I can work at it for one day a week and it would be done. I feel I could work in at least one more department and still be fine.

I’ve raised this to my manager who completely agrees with me and raised it to our big manager.

The big manager is fuming. My concern is that if jobs were to be cut mine would be the first to go because of how small my role is. I’ve heard her talking all morning, in earshot of me, pretty unhappy that I’ve raised this. She’s agreed to meet with me but now im terrified.

AIBU to think raising this wasn’t actually an issue?!

Did she indicate why she was unhappy?

Sounds like an odd response from her.

Can you take your manager (who agrees with you) into the meeting?

Then all three of you can contribute.

Someone’s always ‘fuming’ in the public sector especially if you show any initiative.

Why would she be unhappy that you’ve indicated you can take on more work?

Why would the manager be fuming?

From what I've understood, you've said that you have additional capacity and could take more on? That is a positive, if you are actually doing your existing job to a high standard.

Is it possible that the manager thinks there is stuff that you should be doing that isn't getting done? If that's the case, then I would understand them being annoyed if you're indicating that you're sat around twiddling your thumbs. If not, then surely they should welcome your ability to take on more?

My predecessor in this role made it a full time role. It definitely isn’t.

The gist of it is they think I should just do what I’m told and work on that, and that I can’t work across more than one department

As far as I’m aware there’s nothing im missing

Then there is no reason for the manager to be angry.

Having worked in the public sector for over a decade, welcome to the public sector!

When I arrived there were huge cuts and still people were barely working part time. One colleague wrote a business case for early retirement he did so little. It took them 3 years to agree with him and in those 3 years and subsequent ones I didn't even notice anything he did/missed him. Lovely guy BTW! Just underemployed.

Lots of your colleagues will similarly be underemployed. You saying you're more efficient than them makes them look bad. That's why the boss is angry. If they managed someone who took 5 days to do what you can do in 1 then that makes them look like a bad boss.

I eventually wrote a business case of how I could save them money on external contractors by covering the work myself. They loved saving the money and I loved the variety of the role. That's the kind of case you need to put to them.

Well they’re pretty unhappy. And not hiding it.

This is very true in my experience

Why would she be fuming? Surely she’d just say that she disagrees that you can do more and leave it at that. Is there something you’re not telling us? Does she have a hidden agenda? It seems strange that your manager agrees and yet your manager’s manager is ‘fuming.’

I don't understand - why is big manager fuming? Why would big manager be annoyed with you and not also with your manager (who agrees with you and was the one to bring it up)?

As a manager I actively welcome my team coming to me and telling me they have capacity to do more (and want to do more), though I also welcome them coming with ideas of what they might be able to do to help the team/org. If they are transparent with me, it means I can redeploy them, or maybe I have better visibility of projects coming up that will take up more of their time (so I want them a little under-utilised at present), or I can manage resources across teams more appropriately. Or I'd be able to see if you could upskill, be seconded to another team, etc. It is SO much easier to redploy the people I already have trained up, cutting jobs is a gigantic bureaucratic nightmare and if you're public sector my guess is that it's twice as bad as in the private sector.

So to me, big manager's reaction is confusing unless it was worded somehow to be critical/undermining of big manager's decisions.

That suggests to me that she's maybe not managing the workload effectively and everyone else has just been happy to keep their head down and do what they're told and this might expose issues with her management capabilities.

I can't think of any other reason why it would make her angry.

ETA:
So to me, big manager's reaction is confusing unless it was worded somehow to be critical/undermining of big manager's decisions.

I suspect this is how she has interpreted it.

As pp said, you have embarassed your boss by pointing this out.

Are you quite young? It is all well and good to point out people not doing much, but when they get made redundant and you get all their work on top of your own for no extra pay, do come back and update the thread..

The gist of what I’ve heard is that she thinks it’s unreasonable of me to ask and that I should be happy to be doing what I’m doing.

I haven’t pointed out that other people aren’t doing much. I’ve just pointed out that I feel I could do more.

And mine.

Unless you're approrpaitely deferent and/or your face fits well.

Seems very strange. Looking forward to hearing what happens.

I don't think anyone has suggested she embarrassed the big boss.

The big boss might feel embarrassed but thats not the same thing.

Trying to imagine a scenario where I’d be unhappy if someone in my structure said “I’d like more work please” and struggling.

None of this makes much sense but it may be that you haven't understood the role fully yet- you say you have only been there a few weeks. When you say departments (as in working in different departments or being in charge of a department), can you say a bit more about what you mean? What grade are you?

What is she unhappy about exactly?

Well the OP would welcome the extra work to fill her time and justify her pay. My guess would be that you are one of the public sector workers stretching their work to fill their hours from your comment. Because otherwise why do you have a problem with her pointing out the lack if work to fill her time?

Ouch. Id have kept my mouth shut for a bit longer I think and then pitched it in a different way 😬 in some roles Id expect to not be too busy for the first couple of months while I get my head around things and suss out what I could review/improve/suggest/implement etc. A few weeks is nothing.