My work load has tripled, am I being paid fairly

[Wildthingsx]

I recently started a new job. It was understood I would be working a reception role and some marketing/social media type stuff.

I finished training for the reception role having never done anything like this before, I am paid £9 an hour.

Having hit the ground running, I have now been given a marketing role a few days a week. This role hasn’t been explained too clearly to me and involves ALOT of admin stuff - contacting various companies, thinking of and promoting social media content and chasing up various other odd jobs.
I am also expected to be on hand during these days for the other receptionist as it can be quite busy.

Throughout the day, various colleagues will ask me to do other odd jobs, namely calling x or y and organising small jobs. These can be time consuming.

Often at the end of the day I am asked if I have completed x or y, and if I haven’t I feel like Iv failed. But I am feeling overwhelmed by the workload and frankly, underwhelmed by my wage packet.....

I don’t know how to broach this with my employer, my manager is great and v understanding but my boss (and my managers spouse) ISNT. She can often be a bit sharp tongued about ‘getting on with things’ or ‘being more organised’ ....

(As a side : I am often in the middle of a phone call or typing up notes when she appears and asks me to do a complicated task (think lots of dates names and times) so I will quickly take a note of what she’s said. She told me to stop writing things down on bits of paper because it isn’t organised. If I DONT do this, I have no hope of remembering what she’s just said, as I am actually focusing on my original task...)

I don’t know. I’m feeling stressed and underappreciated. I want to talk about this before I start to resent going to work, as I usually enjoy my job. :(

Am I being underpaid?

Yes

Pay is usually based on responsibility level and hours, rather than workload. If your workload has “tripled”, ie you are three times as busy as you were before, but not working longer hours that doesn’t necessarily mean you are underpaid.

However I think you are probably underpaid based on having a higher level of responsibility. Have you done a search locally for roles covering similar responsibilities and seen how much they are being paid?

Has your workload tripled or is this just the job? If you've only been there a few weeks then I'd assume this is the job.

Welcome to the world of admin....
Low pay
All manner of tasks being delegated by everyone from every angle
Being expected to 'just get on with it'
Being told to 'manage your time better'
Being expected to complete work in two minute slots when you're not on the phone or being interrupted
A dynamic and ever growing workload
No one has any idea of how much you have on your plate
Constantly dilemma of trying to work out when to push back to protect yourself and when to say yes to work so you're not criticised for not being a team player
Managers barking orders at you while walking out of the door then having a go if you dare ask for any of it to be repeated

Most admin jobs are pretty horrid and stressful these days for all of the above reasons.

What is your long term plan? Do you want to build a career? Admin is not a very good starting point these days.

There is nothing you have mentioned that doesn't sound like admin?
What is the admin rate in your area?

You need something like an A4 spiral-bound notebook to write down everything that you need to do and who has asked you to do it. Put the date at the top of the page, tick off the task when it's done and, if it has taken more than a couple of minutes, write in the margin the time taken. Then when you haven't completed everything you can show the list for that day and ask which of the tasks are lower priority than the thing that hasn't been done and could have been left.

@EddieBananas

Has your workload tripled or is this just the job? If you've only been there a few weeks then I'd assume this is the job.

Welcome to the world of admin....
Low pay
All manner of tasks being delegated by everyone from every angle
Being expected to 'just get on with it'
Being told to 'manage your time better'
Being expected to complete work in two minute slots when you're not on the phone or being interrupted
A dynamic and ever growing workload
No one has any idea of how much you have on your plate
Constantly dilemma of trying to work out when to push back to protect yourself and when to say yes to work so you're not criticised for not being a team player
Managers barking orders at you while walking out of the door then having a go if you dare ask for any of it to be repeated

Most admin jobs are pretty horrid and stressful these days for all of the above reasons.

What is your long term plan? Do you want to build a career? Admin is not a very good starting point these days.

Arent all office based jobs admin to a large extent? Finance, operations, marketing, IT... opening a document to update X etc? Email information across. Fish for information. Push back on requests all as urgent as the other, basically becoming a customer service centre except to internal customers? Managers job is to "manage" other people's workload? I.e. bark orders.

It was understood I would be working a reception role and some marketing/social media type stuff

If I were to advise you a few priorities, it would be to press for a job description, plus a set of annual Objectives for you to work to and reviews with your manager at least twice a year plus regular 30 min 1:1 meetings during the month.

It's nigh on impossible to have a reliable conversation about pay, performance and workload, when your employer have given themselves the ability to constantly shift the goalposts and throw stuff at you in a haphazard fashion. The contract of employment has to be fair and transparent on both sides, employee and employer and in your position OP, I would have serious misgivings with this arrangement.

And your manager is bloody rude, marching out and barking orders at you. Totally disrespectful.

Thankyou all for your input. It’s good food for thought x

The notebook idea is also a useful tool if you need to discuss workload and responsibilities with your boss in future - eg you can evidence exactly what you are being asked, by whom and on what sort of timescale. Eg you can demonstrate patterns and changes in the workloads, who is dumping tasks on you, and how much time is being given to the various tasks

The first thing I’d do is write down everything your asked to do. Do you have a boss you can speak to speak to and asked them to help you understand your priorities as you just don’t have enough time to complete it all. Usually they either don’t know how much your trying to do, or they are trying to push it. You’ll know straight away which it is

When someone appears and asks you to do something, you need to learn to be able to say to them that you are just in the middle of ...x... job that so-and-so asked you to do, and do they want you to finish that first, or stop what you are doing and start the new task.

Pass the buck onto them.

I work in a similar role for not much more an hour and I definitely find that writing things down helps. I have a week planner and on a Monday I write out my daily jobs on each day, the things I have to do without fail, then add in any meetings, any tasks I've already taken on, making sure I'm giving myself enough time for my unpaid lunch break. Having done the job for a while I know how long doing X or Y will take so will block out the time for it. Then when someone asks me to do something I always ask the deadline/priority level and slot it into my day/week from there. If its urgent I have half hours alloted to small tasks I can move around to do the urgent task.

It's busy, it's stressful, it's chaotic at times, but the only way to succeed in such a role is to become a pro at managing your time effectively and getting as many deadlines in writing as possible so you can refer back when people chase things early. People will always think their task should take priority, be firm but fair.