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

Yes they can in this respect. I'm admin and my contract states any admin jobs deemed necessary by the company it doesn't specify a list of tasks. Minute taking falls under the admin umbrella

However they couldn't change your role to something entirely different, say you are admin and they decide your role is now law enforcement.

I think it's good to be flexible and willing in any role. It reflects well on you. For some people, they say no automatically and for a manager that's a pain. If you've got good, solid reasons why you can't do it, then make your case. But if it's lack of training or plain just don't want to change, then it will not reflect well on you. Organisations change all the time because they have to and that requires employees to change too.

@SlightlyGeordieJohn erm no. It looks like they are streamlining and asking OP to take on the burden. Clerking is actually a specific skill, and yes you can get training and qualifications to do the role. If they are cost cutting, they are going to get a poorer job done if it's out of the scope of OP's abilities. But that's not OP's fault, especially if she's not being supported to do the role, and she is being asked to do it in addition to her normal workload.

Qualifications in taking minutes? Not really applicable. It’s not taking minutes in cabinet.

Can you say a bit more about your job role and area OP?

Whilst taking minutes in an internal meeting / board meeting / client meeting sounds very reasonable for someone in an admin role, when you say "going into parents and professionals meeting and taking the minutes" I wonder whether you're working in something like child protection? Taking minutes which could have a very serious impact on families if they're not accurate is whole different ball game and not something which should be farmed out to just anyone.

It’s taking minutes, not designing a new jet engine.

Oh, don't be silly - it's taking minutes in a meeting, not designing a solar powered car.

In almost every case when I have taken minutes, the Chair of the meeting and others will check they are ok and amend them if necessary. Important decisions have to be minuted accurately and several brains might be needed for this. One performs version is rarely acted upon as if it’s the bible,

I think it would depend on the seriousness of the meeting they want you to minute take for.

If it isn't serious and you are only taking decisions and actions in a meeting where it is easy to understand I.e. not full of jargon or technical where you'd have to understand the subject matter well to be effective, then fair enough.

However, if there is a lot riding on the minutes then I'd push back or at least ask for training. Detailed minute taking is a skill when those minutes will be held up for scrutiny.