Moved to a permanent NHS Band 8a role and now bored

[YesYesIDid]

NHS middle management, non-clinical (Band 8a). My role is quite changeable and a bit of a 'jack of all trades' as it's been created around five years ago and nobody can seem to quite agree on the actual job description.

Been doing the role on secondment for three years and kind of made it my own, I know that I provide valuable support for operational and clinical managers so they can get on and do the 'on the floor' management stuff while I e.g. write their reports, data analysis, etc. Recently been offered the same post permanently covering another area of the same Trust so of course jumped at the chance...

The new area works differently in that the staff are pooled rather than having a post for each service.... but not only that, the role seems to be a glorified admin role and not much more! For example, training figures get emailed over every week, I would do a deep dive and identify trajectories in terms of compliance and where additional courses would need to be provided... the new area just send it on to the clinical managers to do the same.

I thrive off being busy, usually more than busy. I'm ASD and ADHD but have that peculiar advantage which means I can hyperfocus and get stuff done in half the time of most NT people (it's just the way I've always been). But because of the way the new job is, that means I AM SO BORED. I literally ask what else can I do but our manager is so hard to pin down I literally don't know. I can't carry on like this!

I'm still looking for other opportunities but as what I do is quite niche and redundancy is a real thing these days the posts are few and far between. I just don't know what to do without exposing my colleagues not to be doing the job properly (not their fault, it's not deliberate - they can only do what is asked of them and won't be aware of every additional task I did in my previous area) - but these people are being paid £62k a year to do basic admin....

You started off talking about being bored and then ended the thread being judgemental and rude about your colleagues. What is your issue here exactly because you have conflated your boredom with nasty observations about your colleagues. Make your mind up. Do you usually harbour unkind views about those you work with? You seem to think you’re overachieving and perfect. I wonder if they feel the same way about you. And saying ‘it’s not their fault’ sounds unbearably patronising. Who died and made you the top of the tree? And if it helps when I worked for the NHS I was band 9/10 and would never have thought I was better than anyone else. We all contribute - it’s literally how the health service works.

sounds like a bullshit job to me - read the book by david graeber. so this is where taxpayer money is going..

That's my point. In my previous post I was doing a ton of unpaid overtime because of how much the service was under pressure and anything I could do to help the clinical staff I would because non-clinical stuff I took on released time for them to the hands on side of things.

@Arlanymor I'm not being judgemental of my colleagues, it's not their fault their managers aren't aware of the job they should be doing - they can only pick up the tasks they are given. And if it helps there's no such thing as a Band 10 in the NHS, but nice attempt....

Genuinely I would recommend you keep your head down and just quietly look for something else. Frankly with so many people being made redundant at the moment (in the acutes as well as ICBs and NHSE) you are lucky to have a role.

I'm aware of that but I already suffer from pre-existing mental health problems and being busy at work is one of the only things that has kept me well and present

I sort of agree with this

But band 10 doesn’t exist in the NHS so not sure you could have been a band 10?

It doesn't and it never has.

But I've already responded to this poster to say it's nothing personal about my colleagues. They simply don't know that others elsewhere in the Trust are doing so much more work for the same pay/in the same role - it's all dependent on what the manager is asking them to do

As a frontline Band 7 clinician working at the coal face for the past 20yrs I can’t find much sympathy for someone without clinical qualifications or experience earning way above me for doing half the work, with no compatible emotional and physical toll, whilst undertaking ostensibly admin duties.

Either stay where you are and feel blessed to be paid so well for so little, OR, find a new job that matches your excellent strengths and skills due to your AuDHD and other superpowers.

@Arlanymor won't come back I'm guessing now they've been thoroughly unpleasant and lied about their own roles...

Haha at the band 10 comment 😂 seriously OP I think the advice above aside from that poster is good. The thing about the NHS is despite the surface consistency of grades there can be a big variation between roles of the same grade even within trusts. You'll tend not to make many friends by complaining about it though, especially if your tone can even remotely be interpreted as saying you are better or more efficient or more hard working than your colleagues, however little you intend it that way. The other part is that by grade 8A you really should be capable of setting your own work programme with broad direction from your manager, if you're bored and underworked the expectation is you find something useful to occupy yourself (with permission from your manager if it's something that impacts the wider department) rather than just asking them to think of some more tasks for you. I get that it's difficult where you have several colleagues within the same role and you don't want to interfere with the way they work but if you look hard enough can you not find some kind of departmental process that's not working or shit work no-one enjoys that you can tackle in order to help everyone, particularly if you're good at process redesign? If it's genuinely such a limited role there's no scope for any stretch work then I agree you should look elsewhere, at the end of the day some jobs and some teams are a good fit and some just aren't...

I’m a band 4/5 nhs and would love a bigger salary to do admin! Combined role so paid a bit of both for x number of hours

my advice - take the money and keep doing a great job, they’re obviously very happy with what you’re doing

There are TONNES of roles like this in the nhs believe me!

Thank you.... yes the Band 10 comment was... interesting

I've brought my work plan from my old role with me as I'm aware some of that stuff was 'nice to have' where there are people with the time to do it - it's fallen on completely deaf ears as the attitude has been that what is on the agenda currently is enough to keep everyone super busy. My direct line manager now is almost like the Scarlet Pimpernel too....

This post piqued my interest. Whilst there are undoubtedly roles in the NHS that are non clinical and less workload wise, there is responsibility that you won’t see for some roles. I can think of one area where people have to have a relevant non clinical qualification (which is post grad level and not easy) and whilst there isn’t a physical toll from shift working, there is serious pressure. You could be struck off from the professional body and often you are at the mercy of what others have done and the buck stops with you.

People can choose what career direction they go in, and I’d say a lot of admin roles I know of in the NHS are not overpaid compared to the private sector. Admin is a valuable skill. I don’t think working in the NHS is a joy for many. Let’s not play a race to the bottom.

They are, but I'm not - I do struggle with mental health issues and they are exacerbated if my brain has chance to be quiet! My old manager said I would go to the new team and be a 'rock star' now I know what he meant since compared to their workload I've been doing 3x as much!

OP, if you don’t like it you have to vote with your feet. Why were you on secondment so long before?

I get needing to feel stimulated and challenged at work. But situations like this don’t usually improve in my experience, and it’s best to find something new/bide your time whilst
you search.

I was backfilling someone who was doing union work with no finite end date, but it was only part time alongside a Band 7 role so my time was split.

I look every day but anything on this level that I'm qualified to do is few and far between

I know that feeling. Something will come up. The higher you go the less often suitable jobs come up usually.

Can you do anything extra like volunteer work to tick some mental boxes? I have volunteered for quite a long time but recently became a trustee too. My last role was good in parts but frustrating in others (restructure after restructure) so I became a trustee to tick some self fulfilment boxes at that point.

I have a second job in a pub which is helping in that it gets me out of the house and socialising with people, but the 40% tax on already minimum wage stings!

Theres no band 10 in England!! never has been!!’ its band 9 then VSM or 9 plus a discretionary amount!!

I guess if you are mainly wfh and don’t have enough to do you could use free time for extra training, research, reading etc. to prepare you for your next move. Or, as poster above has suggested, you could use initiative appropriate to your band to look for other stuff to do if you feel you can do this without causing issues in your wider team.

You said you quietly grew your previous role. You’ll probably need to do the same.

Getbto know the clinical managers you support, properly. Understand their stress points and where you can support. Senior support roles should be able to spot where support is needed and work it in without needing to be spoon fed. But to do that you need to know the people you’re supporting. That takes some time.

Gloating about being bored in a Band 8a job, whilst many NHS staff are currently losing their jobs, is not the one OP.

Band 8 at any level are not middle management roles - band 6 is middle management, band 7 service and operational management, Band 8 is executive and director level. You would typically be expected to have post grad level qualifications for these roles.

It sounds like you need to revisit your job title and job description OP to see what your day to day job should be entailing- you should be managing department heads and operational managers alongside your other duties and responsibilities- are you missing chunks of your actual responsibilities?

Well I don't know what NHS world you live in but if you have 8a executive directors I'm impressed. In every trust I've ever worked in exec directors are VSMs, directors who aren't on the board e.g. the IT director are Band 9. The highest tier of 8 i.e. 8D might perhaps have a director title although more likely with a qualifier e.g. 'assistant director' or deputy director. I expect at 8a OP is something like a Business Manager or a Deputy General Manager, to my mind that's pretty 'middle' - certainly not an entry level role but nor would I call it senior management, but those terms are all relative anyway. I doubt OP's managed to miss that she's supposed to be on the board or have heads of department to manage!