Job specs asking too much for too little pay?

[forwhatyouare]

Applied for this, the salary is 17k to 20k. It's NHS based so a pay bracket is applied, meaning you'll probably start on the 17k

How can they expect someone with experience of running an office to accept 17-18k a year?!

I think this a lot, but at least this one has the salary.

Some ads are written like they're looking for someone who could command £££ but don't state the salary

Agree wholeheartedly, a lot of jobs (both private and public sector) expect just far too much for the money they are offering. I have no idea how people are expected to afford to live.

Stay at home mums returning to work will? I took massive pay cut just to get back to work.

Version it specially asks for experience managing a busy office

*specifically
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No offence taken Version!

I think it's badly worded. By 'managing and office', I think they mean 'looking after the office admin'. Many NHS job ads are horrendous (I work in the Comms team for an NHS trust and am forever telling people to re-write they ads!)

Perhaps they don't mean literally managing the office in which case, whoever wrote the ad already strikes me as incompetent.

But diary management, managing staff training, etc. All seems specifically related to more than 17/18k

The NHS pays really badly. I was a medical secretary in London earning 23k including London Weighting. I moved to a City Banking PA job paying 35k in a much nicer environment, less stress, a bonus, private healthcare etc.

Many NHS admin jobs are crazy busy and stressful. For 17k! Would be better off working in a nice shop or the tills at Waitrose IMO where you at least get staff discount.

Well, that’s pretty average for an NHS administration job.

I am a school secretary, and my job involves a lot more than stated. Though I do have terms off, my workload is massive compared to that list.

Diary management - this is pretty basic. Booking meetings, etc and managing an Outlook calendar.Our band 3 (23 year old, first job) does this.

Managing training requirements - I'd take this to mean booking everyone onto their training courses.

It's not worded at all well. Reading between the lines, it's a suitable job for someone with maybe a years admin experience, but the wording would put them off applying.

This is the reality of public sector pay.

I was scrolling through the online job sites yesterday and came across 'volunteer' designer posts - ie - come and be our graphic designer, we won't pay you but our company is well cool!

Also, a conpany looking for someone to work what was basically three job positions/titles, for almost £15,000.

Ridiculous

Agree OP.
I was looking through jobs this week and found one in my area. It was for supporting vulnerable (MH, DV etc) people in their homes, with a need to know on court processes, various housing and child protection laws, data analysis, setting up and running groups in the community, representing and making decisions at various forums, and being included in a 24/7 rota.... For just under 18grand. How much work do they think people can do.

I'm on 17k, highly qualified but it has incredible progression. It's hard but if people are willing to work for it then they'll advertise it.

Wages need to go up, but right now I'm happy to have a wage.

The NHS pays really badly. I was a medical secretary in London earning 23k including London Weighting. I moved to a City Banking PA job paying 35k in a much nicer environment, less stress, a bonus, private healthcare etc.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I'm astounded you just moved straight from a NHS Medical Secretary, straight into City Banking PA on 35K!

I've looked into branching out as a private sector PA. But it's very clear I'd need to do some sort of Junior assistant/PA job first, despite a lot of transferable skills.

I'm also a Medical Secretary.

forwhatyouare - it’s all about how you word your CV and act in the interview! 35k was for a regular PA job, not senior. I had an EA above me who must have been on around 45k.

I went to see a recruitment agent who was shocked how low my salary was! She said at my age and with my experience I should have been on at least 30k. Really, there is nothing particularly demanding about a PA, it can be very busy but it’s not intellectually challenging or “hard.” I’m sure you could easily doing after being a med sec!

I think it’s sad that people are happy to be on 17k just to have a wage coming in. Minimum wage is around 15k a year full time these days. IMO people should get a fair wage for fair work. Millions of people are on the minimum wage, not the living wage. There really is nothing to be grateful for, you exchange your time and effort for money.

I think the job is priced right. All basic tasks anyone can do

Staff training = spreadsheet and just remind everyone at the right time ut in reality they should be able to do this themselves

Its a bog standard description for a band 3 admin job

I would call that a volunteer coordinator post and would pay 20 to 25k for it. (in fact I do)

There's no way to know how demanding the job is because at this stage, you don't know how much of each task you will do on a regular basis.

NHS pay might not be amazing but it comes with great benefits after years of service. How many emoyers pay 33 days holiday and 6 months full/6 months half pay sick leave and one month pay per year for redundancy?

If this frightens you though, a career in the NHS might not be right for you.

Where I live, I'd think they're not asking for an awful lot for the salary on offer. I've seen a lot of jobs for similar salaries which have maybe a dozen very specific essential criteria, then another dozen or so desirable criteria. I posted a link to one on here once because I was so astounded by it and asked what people thought the salary would be. Most posters suggested upwards of 40k. But where I live, it was 18k.

So, basically what I'm saying is, this is going to depend on where you live.

These threads always surprise me. What has happened to wages in the UK? I started a graduate trainee programme for a semi-civil service quango type organisation in 1991, and I started on 14k plus an all zone travel card. That was a pretty good starting wage back then, but not exceptional by any means! It seems to me wages haven't increased much at all, I mean that was 27 years ago! I have no idea how people can survive, especially in London.