1 to 1 with team leader

[Moiree]

I’ve been in my admin role for the last 5 years. I do enjoy it but recently a new Team Leader has joined us and it’s her that does our 1;1s. She’s always talking about career progression which I nicely told her I’ve no interest and now she’s going on about doing other duties that I’ve never done before. Ie. Minuting of meetings. The team is busy as it is and I just want to be left alone to do the job! The meetings that require minuting used to be done by the Chair but I think she may have had something to do with that, so a few of them have been asking about it lately.
I work 26 hours a week and I don’t want anymore hours. The meeting often finish an hour or so later than my finishing time. What are my rights here?

Taking minutes is an admin task and you’re in an admin role, so they can reasonably assign you to take minutes I’d say.
They can’t make you stay over your hours obviously, so if a meeting is scheduled to finish over or close to your finishing time then you need to be clear that you can minute up until X time but you are unable to work overtime due to your personal commitments. Someone else will need to minute the rest of the meeting if it is required.

I have read and re read and cannot understand what you mean by I think she may have something to do with that, so a few of them have been asking lately (i.e. not clear who she or they are).

Any case being asked to take minutes is certainly a reasonable request for somebody in an admin role but you do not need to change your contracted hours in order to do so.

You work in a team, you really cannot expect to be “left alone” or to never be asked to do new things.

Most contracts include a clause about duties which may not fall into your job spec but you’ll be expected to pick up
in an admin role it is totally usual you may be asked to do admin tasks such as take minutes
you sound very inflexible
the overtime is seperate - you either need to get TOIL or explain you can’t do over your hours

I'm 18.5 hours and try to be flexible with my hours, as far as is reasonable, to support the work of the team, but I mainly work from home, which helps, plus I don't have school-age children.

The fact that your team leader has discussed career progression with you might indicate that she sees potential in you, so rather than reject it completely, you could say you have an open mind about it but not considering it at the moment.

Due to a restructure in the department, I have found myself working in a team where there is quite a lot of minute taking, but the work falls within the scope of my job role and pay grade. There are some tasks in the team that I would have liked to do, but the team leader has asked other people to undertake them, but duties come and go so you have to be flexible.

You may also have to relinquish some of your other duties so that you are not working well above your 26-hour working week. If you have to finish later on one day, can you finish earlier the next day, or start later perhaps?

I bet the meeting could be at a different time if there was a will by the manager to do so.

@LlynTegid They seem to offer out assistance to the management team without considering what the admin team are actually able to meet. I’m also a career for my elderly Father. They know my time is precious (as is his…sadly 😔) yet continue to push. This is now the second time I’ve nicely asked that they maybe provide more admin workers to meet the demands.