Too much work

[MariaHairy]

I work on a part time role. I have been with my company for 2.5 years. Since then my workload has doubled and I am just not managing it anymore. I have to work overtime (unpaid and cannot be taken back) to meet deadline and finish things. I earn £11/h in case someone thinks I am in some kind of important and we'll paid role..

I have written and spoken to my line manager and HR this week telling him that the workload far exceeds what I can do (I work part time only) and that my stress levels are through the roof but was told to just get on with things and just get it done
and that it is unlikely that the company will employ anyone else due to cost (it is a blue chip company with 30k employees worldwide and not a small local business). I am just so stressed and cannot sleep. I am WFH a lot due to covid so manage to do 2h extra daily as I am not commuting but it's not really sustainable. I am also a lone parents and carer of a child with complex needs.

No idea what I am asking .what should I do? I am not in a union.

I cannot afford to resign. I have a mortgage and carers allowance and DLA and a bit of UC is just not enough esp for the mortgage.

are there some other steps I should or could take to address the issue? Grievance? I am really clueless.

If you are paid £11 per hour and working 2 hours unpaid overtime a day then add up your hours and work out if you are earning less than the minimum wage in real terms
Also can you escalate this to HR or a senior manager to have the situation addressed?
What would happen if you just work your contracted hours and let the work pile up?
Make sure all your communication is by email and bcc it to your own personal email account.
You are being taken advantage of

Are you job hunting to go elsewhere?

Job hunt for a job that advertises the amount of hours you are working now.

I am just being told I have to finish the workload and if I cannot manage in my hours, I have to work extra. HR is siding with my line manager and they are just telling me to get stuff done, if needed with overtime. I cannot claim time back and get paid overtime. Contract specifies that on occasion, overtime is required and that this is unpaid and cannot be taken on lieu at a later point. Tbh, most do it but it doesn't work for me as it really gets on the way of my very substantial caring responsibilities. I would probably just suck it up otherwise as a shit job is better than no job.

Just re-calculated to see what the hourly rate is roughly (I am salaried) . It is actually nearer 12.50 and I would not get below NMW even with the extra time .

Could OP phone citizens advice bureau?

If it's that huge a company then there must be informal employee communities (anonymous posting) where people talk about issues they have had working for this company. You are not alone, but need to find those online fora for support.

Are you job hunting to go elsewhere?

I am looking but because of DC's SN and no access to wrap around childcare, I need a school hours job only. I have been looking for 1.5 years now and apply whenever I spot something but not a single interview. I am just stuck where I am as it is pretty much impossible to just find a job with these hours and covid just made it harder. It's not as easy as going job hunting I think work know that too.

I am so stressed, I would like to go on carers allowance but the numbers don't add up with a mortgage.

They should make reasonable adjustments for you as you are the carer of a disabled child. You have a protected characteristic under the Equalities Act 2010.
You need to stick to regular hours due to caring responsibilities.
Your contract may say you have to work over and above your hours but there are reasonable limits on this. 2 hours daily is not reasonable and has a significant impact on your ability to carry out caring for your child.
ACAS may help you

thanks. will try to speak to them.

Hi. I had a very similar experience and would recommend writing a work plan. List all the work you have to do, when and why, and how long it takes e.g call 12 clients every day to sell bananas to, each call lasts 10 minutes = 2 hours. Admin time per day = 1 hour. Research xyz to meet targets 2 hours a day, etc etc. Once you have this list, share with your line manager ....Dear mgr....this is my work plan for 1 week (or month, what ever suits your role). As you can see in order to meet my targets/ deliver KPIs I am currently working 100 hours a month. I am only supposed to work 50 a month. I would like to plan with you how i can prioritise my workload/ change my working processes to reduce time spent on certain tasks....

If you can show them in a clear and realistic way what you are actually doing and why, then they will be able to help. It may be they don't actually realise it is taking you 5 hours a week to do a task they thought took 1 hour.
If that doesn't help, then you can refer to your work plan daily and when asked to complete a task by a deadline you can then refer to the plan......Yes line mgr, I will complete that task by deadline, could you tell me which task on my work plan you don't want me to do in order to free up the time to complete the new task?

You are professional, organised, efficient, working to meet deadlines, committed and flexible. It seems like a challenge now but honestly, it has completely changed how I work and if I can't do something in time, it is no longer my problem as I have made everyone aware of the time constraints and the decision is firmly on their shoulders. There are times when I will work an hour or so extra but that is my choice and my decision. Good luck

Thanks. I will try do this this when I have a bit more time! Though I feel I shouldn't have to justify why I can only do that and that much. Business has more than doubled. Most departments doubled in staff. Just the small team where I work have been left with the original staffing. I ran reports. Of a certain activity I do (which is the main part of my role), I do about 2.5 times as much as a year ago. and HR and line manager knows. they still tell me to carry on and work overtimes as and when needed and reference to the contract which stipulates unpaid overtimes if and when needed.

I will ring ACAS when in January and see what they suggest.

The fact that other departments increased their staff to reflect increased workload speaks volumes.
Good luck with everything.

I am not sure if you would want to take this approach but an alternative argument is that the unpaid hours you are working are not overtime.

Bear with me on this, if full time is 5 days a week, 37.5 hours and you are employed 5 days a week 25 hours then any hours you work up to 37.5 are additional hours (nuanced difference). Only the hours worked over 37.5 are overtime.

Additional hours should be paid otherwise you are being discriminated for being part time. A full time person is paid for the first 37.5 hours they work but if you worked 30 hours you are only being paid for 25. This is lead favourable treatment for being part time.

The decision for you is do you want to get paid for the extra hours or would you rather just do your hours.

If you are in a union I would ask them to help you. Otherwise have a look at the grievance policy to understand the process, at this stage you are not raising a grievance but it helps to know the process.

Write to HR setting out the additional hours you have worked each week and request payment on the basis you would have been paid them if you worked full time. Do not refer to overtime and reject any suggestion that these hours are overtime. It may also be useful to state you consider failure to pay you the same hourly rate as full timers is an unlawful deduction of wages and (if you have evidence) an equal pay issue.

An equal pay issue would be if you are on the same grade/level with known pay ranges. As this would clearly show your hours rate has dropped.

Sorry, less favourable treatment.

Additional hours should be paid otherwise you are being discriminated for being part time.

my full time colleagues are also doing unpaid overtimes. Unpaid overtimes is also contractual. So I am not at a disadvantage in comparison to my full team team members. But they are all young or don't have little kids and none has the caring responsibilities I do so they are less bothered. I am the only one complaining which reflects badly on me.

Are your colleagues doing as much overtime as you? Also, if they're full time their overtime is likely to be more proportionate to their hours - i.e. if they work overtime 5 hours weekly that is one thing but if you're part time and working the same amount of overtime that in effect means you're doing double the extra overtime in relation to your hours.
Your contract states you work overtime on occasion but this is regular and unreasonable so you have grounds to have this reviewed.

I think they do more than I do. We a do ridiculous regular extra time

I have spoken to GP now. He will sign me off for a months with stress.

I will rethink what to do next year. Thanks.

Forget about work until the New Year.

When you are ready you should start by working out what you want then, if it would assist you, ask for help how to achieve it.

This sounds like indirect discrimination because the policy discriminates against you as a female in a caring role for a child with complex disability

@MariaHairy

thanks. will try to speak to them.

Normally, I would say talking is the best approach. However, in your circumstances, I think that you need a paper trail. Firstly, have you kept a record of the additional hours you're working? Occasional overtime should be just that, not daily. Secondly, do a time census of your working days. So recording how much is spent on everything, literally everything. So you can use this to try and reduce some of the unnecessary elements. For example, I blatantly decline some of our meetings, if it's outside of my working hours or I have too much to do. I will sometimes suggest more convenient times. Now unless urgent, noone will blink at this as I always state please cc me into minutes etc, but don't agree I will complete actions without speaking with me first as I may not have the capacity.

Thirdly, with above, I would be formally applying for flexible working based on caring needs. Within this, I'd be stating that to maintain family work life balance, that this level of overtime is unsustainable and detrimental. But you need to be making suggestions of how to improve the situation. Eg shared your role with another member of staff or just specific tasks, only focus on certain clients or groups, streamline processes?

I am on annualised hours contract. I am pregnant and my employer wants to change my hours before my maternity leave. Is this legal?

I’m an NHS salaried GP and this sounds like my working life OP, except my hourly rate is higher which at least softens the blow a bit (but honestly I still resent it, if I added up all the hours I have done for free for the NHS over my life it’s probably several years by now and it’s time that should have been mine to spend with my family or just relaxing or making money elsewhere). I think I’d feel like telling them to stick it and find somewhere else to work where they don’t take the piss at that hourly rate (I should take my own advice really but all NHS GP jobs are kinda the same...I have tried changing jobs!) but totally understand how difficult it is when you are a single parent (I am one too) and it must be doubly difficult with a disabled child. It is very frustrating when you have had the courage to speak to your manager about this issue to be told that you just have to get it done more quickly magically somehow (if they really want to put the boot in they accuse you of being inefficient and not managing your time well, after all they have no problems - largely this happens when your manager is the one dumping all their work in your inbox but you don’t have someone to dump yours into). The options are put up and shut up, move jobs or fight it with everything you have getting ACAS, unions and courts involved if necessary, but that is so psychologically draining when you are already coping with single parenthood, a disabled child and the pandemic etc. I really feel for you and I think this is not an uncommon issue especially for single mothers who work part time (I think part time work genuinely makes it harder to manage time well at work), especially since austerity, I think lots of people are essentially doing what was 2 or 3 people’s job a decade ago these days and have met many many patients as well as colleagues in similar positions but sorry I have no good solutions!

But you need to be making suggestions of how to improve the situation.

I don't think this is my job. The business increased and as I said all other departments have had staff doubled (one team went from 3 to 8). It's very obvious that we are understaffed and recruiting is the only way forward. but they don't want to do that. Our team does a combined 8-12h overtime daily. It's simple maths.

I have a very 'lean' approach to work. I cut all the BS so to speak. I don't spent time on non essential. I haven't attended weekly meetings for weeks now (my manager knows that I don't have time and is ok with this). I don't faff around. I just crack on with work. it is simply too much.

Rachel, thanks.

I really feel for you too. I’ve got a snowballing workload too. My company issue is that senior management implement things and add to workload without looking at the amount of work actually allocated and time constraints. Added to this issue is the way things are done. Chaotic and last minute direction when a bit of planning would be sensible. Part of me wonders if this is a power play that top management enjoy. An ego boost that they can make everyone jump and stress.

I talked to my manager about the massive workload and she said to do what you can but expect deadlines to be missed. That’s life. In the same breath he asked me to produce a complicated document a week early but based on her earlier advice I missed the new deadline.

It felt good.

My plan is to place work handed to me at last minute bottom of the pile and if it doesn’t get done it doesn’t get done (unless it’s critical to safeguarding). I can send my apologies when the deadline arrives and ask for more notice next time. If they talk about my contract I will ask them if they are happy to look after my children while I do the additional hours. I’m hoping this will eventually make things sink in

If you were contracted to work 25 hours weekly but had to work 45 hours this would be extremely unreasonable. At some point you simply cannot do any more. Been there - got signed off with stress after working 80 or 90 hours weekly whilst also being blamed for any mistake and called lazy for being tired.