No extra pay for acting up as a manager

[Thenotleader]

I work in a university administrative role and am aspiring to become a manager. My managers are aware and if we are short, I will step in as support and act up as manager for the day for no extra money. This happens probably about once a week at the moment. I'm happy to get the experience but recently a friend of mine in another department on campus shared with me that their manager is leaving and while they are sorting a replacement he will be paid extra to fulfil some of his managers duties temporarily.

Do you think I should just keep filling in for no extra pay and hope it pays off in the long run? Or do you think I'm being treated unfairly?

I’m also in university admin, responsible for a department of 400. I wouldn’t expect to pay someone to act up unless it were for an extended period (3 months minimum-would expect other managers to juggle otherwise). But I would question why someone was “acting up” so regularly if that is really what happens. Have you raised it in your 1-1s?

I wouldnt expect to pay someone for this which is at most 1 day a week. I would however expect to have a formal development plan in place with a detailed list of 'manager duties' that you will be shadowing/fulfilling while acting up s9 that you can build that experience and evidence.

Interesting comments and good to know! I didn't really mind but when I found out about my friend in a different department doing a similar job, it got me wondering.

We had a manager leave a couple of months ago and since then I've been filling in approx once a week (this week, twice!). The university is just so slow at filling vacancies.

Where I work, anything you do for less than a week at a time doesn’t mean an increase in pay, but once it goes past a week in one go you start to get extra. So I wouldn’t expect it for a day every week or so as I’d view that as just developmental.
I think the reasoning is that for a week or more you’d have to do all of the line management side of things as well as just meetings, etc, more of the full role.

Are you applying for the friend's manager that is leaving's job?

Whilst it does suck doing the extra work/responsibility for no pay you are getting valuable experience. This should make it easier to get promoted.

As pp says why are you not applying for the management job, is it because your friend views it as theirs?

Have work supported you to do management qualifications such as ILM? This could be a good way to also build your management skills.

There is a management vacancy in my own department at the moment, I've put in an application and am waiting to hear back. If this recruitment process is anything to go by, my friends managers vacancy will take an age to, advertise, process and interview for etc.

I know eventually it will be good for me but Im even thinking about it from the perspective that if I secured a paid role, Id love to be able to up the pay of future aspiring leaders a small percentage.

You can imagine too that once I step back into my normal role for the rest of the week, I'm the one people ask for support and I'm still fulfilling small tasks here and there above my paygrade for the sake of experience.

I do understand as I have experienced this. Fingers crossed you get the job.

WRT to what you could do as a manager for your staff, part of this will be determined by what budget you have. Many times managers have finite budget/resources to get the job done. What I’ve done is found blocks of a week or two e.g. covering holiday where I could make a business case for an uplift.

Similar situation here. They’re never going to pay you as you’re working for free now. Why would they? What would happen if you weren’t there? And didn’t take on these extra roles? Would that expose the fact that you covering is absolutely essential? If so, you could do that? Are you in a union by any chance?

Although you are covering for your manager in their absence that isnt the same as a secondment where the secondee is covering a vacant position and will have to take on the full burden of decision making and line management responsibilities for a defined period. You have the comfort factor of being able to say sorry that decision will need to wait for manager A to return, if you dont feel comfortable making it but you wouldnt be able to do that if you were seconded and had an acting up increment in the agreement.

So in a way you have the best of both worlds, the chance for some experience but without the weight of responsibility contractually on your shoulders.

I had a vaguely similar scenario years ago- not in admin or uni though. I was employed via an agency to do a junior role. The manager left, and I was informally asked to do a combo of their job and my junior one- but for no extra pay. I assumed this would be for a week or so, but it ended up being 3mths!!!

I did ask for extra pay, but they said that the agency rate was already equivalent to what the managers pay would have been (it wasn't). I enjoyed the job and it did pay off in the end.

The director role (above manager) became available and I was heavily encouraged to go for it, although I would never have considered such a jump normally. I got the job though!

If I'd realised at the beginning that I'd end up doing the manager role for 3mths, I don't know if I would have stayed, but in the long run it paid off. I ended up earning over double what the junior role did and it was a fantastic career move.

Given that you are only helping out once a week, I'd use it to gain experience and not ask for extra pay. Best of luck with getting the management role x

You have asked for the acting up experience, which they are providing for you. Unless the job is offered on a contract, then no they don't need to be paying you.

I acted up in a previous role for many months. I asked if I could get temp pay rise to reflect this. They refused a month later I had a new job and they were flabbergasted. Paid my replacement £200 extra a month for acting up, so at least they realised in the end.