Can they just ‘change’ my role?

[BlueYetGreen]

I’ve been in the same admin role for 5 years now. It’s a lovely big team with variety and I never get bored. The Office Manager manages our team and another team who has steadily shrunk due to people moving on, etc. He is not thinking it would be a good idea if some of our team could get involved in their role, ie going into parents and professionals meeting and taking the minutes. The role of a minute taker is nothing like what we even do.

I don’t want to incorporate this role into my role, it’s just not my thing. I’m concerned he’ll go ahead and do this.

I feel he will probably say it’s career progression but I’m just not interested.

Where do I stand should I say no to this? Do I have a leg to stand on?

Advice welcome, thank you

Look at your job description they normally get around changing your role by having a bit in your job description that says something like "any other activities deemed necessary by the business".

They have done it where I work. There are a lot of very unhappy people but, as there is a legal element in the business, I’m guessing they can legally do it. Plenty of staff have complained, a couple have already left and most are job hunting. Some have been there 19-20 years. It’s left a lot of bad feeling.

15-20 years that should have said

It doesn’t seem particularly unreasonable for a manager to ask somebody in an admin role to take minutes. In employment law, employees are required to carry out any reasonable request and I think this sounds reasonable.

Yes thats what I meant, reasonable request not "any other activities as that could be open to abuse. And yes I agree minute taking is not an unreasonable activity for someone in administration. If you are nervous about being able to do it accurately as it is a difficult skill expecially at first ask if the meeting can be recorded.

Isn't it normally an admin-type person who takes the minutes in a meeting?

I really don't think you can refuse - most contracts will have a clause saying you can be asked to do other related tasks if it will help the businesses

You could ask for training if you are unsure about taking notes. I used to do this role a lot. You look at how they have been done in the past and copy that format. We even did template minutes so you don’t leave anything out. It’s a role that’s difficult to refuse I think because it’s reasonable.

I can’t see that it’s in the same team? In which case why should you do them.

It does as if they are trying it on to me.

Most job descriptions are quite general, deliberately. I think if the JD says something like "necessary admin duties" you'd struggle to argue minute taking wasn't covered.

Say no. What will your manager do? It’s not your job and you are not trained to do it.

Training isn’t difficult to arrange and minute taking isn’t that difficult. Most people I know have just got on with it. I did.

I think they can change it - sounds like you are being given another task that falls under the umbrella of admin. I don't really see how you can refuse as it doesn't sound too unreasonable. I think people can't expect their jobs to stay exactly the same if they have been in an organisation a long time, people need to adapt with the business's needs and not stagnate. I guess there could be a case for asking for a pay rise if it is taking on significantly higher responsibility.

Say no. What will your manager do? Erm think that you are unhelpful and needlessly obstructive.

This doesn’t seem like the kind of change that would require consultation it sounds within then normal expected remit of an administrative role

I work in a huge household name organisation
we give all admin/entry level staff the same job title and move them as and where the resource is required so we may be very busy processing invoices so move a batch to that then call volumes increase move people to a phone role etc

same with first level team manager roles- shift people around where needed
we recently moved one team manager from a customer service area to a back off processing team and they were not happy but flexibility is needed to shift in business needs

like I said it really doesn’t sound like this change will be such a shift in job role you require consultation on it

The “why” is generally because it’s a reasonable request made by your manager. It being another team is neither here nor there.

Options will include starting a formal disciplinary process, or just working to manage the OP out of the business.

Surely minute taking in meetings is covered within an admin role? If it isn't now it would be easy to incorporate this into the role without a formal consultation I'm afraid.

Well, as OP is in admin and is being asked to do an admin task, I suspect her manager will just go down the disciplinary route if she refuses to do a reasonable aspect of her job 🤷🏻‍♀️

She may have never done it before but that doesn't mean she can just refuse to do it now and get away with it!

Hmmm, yes. My last PA role tried to take that approach with me, moving me around to different roles without consultation, like a piece of furniture. I left. Admin are actually people, who may want to develop the areas they work in, not a 'batch' to be moved around.

OP, if it's intended to be a very minor part of your role you might not reasonably be able to object. You can voice your opinion though as to why you don't want to do it.

Well, my route might include a performance improvement plan followed by disciplinary action with potential to lead to dismissal eventually.

Sorry, quote fail - that was in response to an earlier post.

I think if they want you to the task, they should offer proper training. My response would be 'I'll do it if I have to but I haven't got a clue what I'm doing.' Hopefully then they'll realise they will have to find an actual qualified person.

What will her manager do? Take her through a disciplinary process for failure to follow a reasonable management instruction.

It’s a totally reasonable request suitable to your level of role. You can’t just pick and choose which bits of a job you want to do.

Qualified?

If a member of staff started refusing to do things that were clearly well within the expectations of the role, then yes, I'd find someone who was willing and capable, and use them to replace the person who was not willing to do it.

Probably say it is within the job role (if the role is office admin then minute taking is not exactly completely outside the remit, even if op usually focuses on finance or whatver) and say he'll provide training.

This advice would be fine if he was asking you to do something completely outside what would be expected of your role, like doing maintenance or whatever but not when it's a fairly straightforward task. I've done minutes in loads of my previous roles, none of which have been admin based, we usually just take it in turns. Don't know why you wouldn't just agree and pick up a new skill to be honest, it's not like he's asking you to go and stick your hand down the toilet to declog it.

If you really don't want to do it, but don't want to be seen as a jobsworth and piss people off, I'd say something along the lines of "I'll do it if I need to but I'm a bit concerned that I won't be very good at it. If anyone else wants to do it I'm happy to take [other jobs you're happy to do, ideally the less popular ones] off them if that works better."