Where do you draw the line!

[emd_22]

At the start of the year I was given the following target:-

"Work in a way that enables colleagues to fulfil their roles and meet their objectives, fulfil agreed team or group supporting roles, proactively help others meet their goals through effective team work, engage in open and constructive dialogue with colleagues.  Measure: 360 feedback from peer group"

This is normally fine, however, I would like advice on what others do when covering for another member of staff.  Yesterday one of my colleagues who has recently come back from Maternity leave held a 'handover session' with myself.  I had agreed that I would deal with urgent issues only as I would be on my own for the next week and a half while she is off.  However at this meeting she produced a two page list.  Half the first page was just for information.  That's fine.  However the second page consisted of a list of 13 items she would like carried out in her absence.  Due to pressure of work from my own role - I do not feel able to cope with the additonal burden. One of the tasks involves a lot of work - ie updating records for all staff members - ie approximately 60-70 staff.  I feel it is unrealistic to expect me to do my role as well as all these additonal tasks.  

Has anyone else got any suggestions or listing of duties they will carry out in times of absence?   I wonder if it is worth drawing up guidelines for what should happen when one of us is absent.  

Any advice or suggestions will be greatly received!

Thanks

Liz

[Cozwaz]

Morning Liz

What I would do is go through the items and highlight what I thought was urgent, then I would go and discuss the whole matter with my boss.  With working in a small organisation and having a boss that listens, that is easy for me, but I can understand that might not be so easy in your organisation.  If you feel you are unable to cope with the additional burden you should really talk to someone though.

When I am on leave - my boss just tends to do more himself mainly urgent stuff, anything none urgent waits until I get back.  When my only female work colleague is on leave the only extra job I end up doing is opening up the post and thats about it.

Coz

[chevygirl55]

Agree to the urgency of the task.  It doesn't sound like updating employee  records is all that urgent and couldn't wait for her return.  Assign a priority to the tasks: 1 - do immediately, 2- sometime today, 3 - sometime this week, 4 - rainy day work.  If you have any question at all, ask the boss.  It is not your responsibility to do this.  If they assign all the tasks 1 or 2, sit down and assign completion time to them.  Is it going to take 15 hours to do everything they need to do today?  Show them that and tell them there is no way for you to complete the tasks in the time allotted.  Then offer two suggestions.  Reassign some of the tasks or re-prioritize what needs to be done.  

It is not a perfect world but I have found this to be helpful.

chevygirl

[chevygirl55]

Agree to the urgency of the task.  It doesn't sound like updating employee  records is all that urgent and couldn't wait for her return.  Assign a priority to the tasks: 1 - do immediately, 2- sometime today, 3 - sometime this week, 4 - rainy day work.  If you have any question at all, ask the boss.  It is not your responsibility to do this.  If they assign all the tasks 1 or 2, sit down and assign completion time to them.  Is it going to take 15 hours to do everything they need to do today?  Show them that and tell them there is no way for you to complete the tasks in the time allotted.  Then offer two suggestions.  Reassign some of the tasks or re-prioritize what needs to be done.  

It is not a perfect world but I have found this to be helpful.

chevygirl

[gee4]

I agree with the others.  It isn't possible to clone yourself while anyone is off so how do colleagues expect us to do twice the workload?

G

[gee4]

I agree with the others.  It isn't possible to clone yourself while anyone is off so how do colleagues expect us to do twice the workload?

G

[Jackie G]

Updating employee records sound like a job she's passing off because she hates it, and certainly doesn't sound urgent, so I would agree with the others about prioritising - and anyway, it's cover - so you do your own stuff first, right?  And then see what else you can deal with.

Jackie, Peer Moderator
www.iqps.org

[countrigal]

I agree with the other posters.  If I were you, I smile at co-worker and say that you'll gladly do as much of those items as you can do -- after taking care of your priority work.  And maybe ask her if there is a priority to the list, or some guidance on which items are more improtant and why, since she's the knowledgable person on her job.  This lets her know that you're not going to kill yourself doing her 'busy' work but that you're also willing to assist in ensuring priority work still gets done timely, while maintaining your own workload.  And hopefully it keeps good working relations between the 2 of you.

CountriGal
Peer Moderator

[chris68]

If it becomes an issue down the line and you know your not going to have time to complete it, I would definetly bring it up to either the person that passed this work on to you or your boss.  It may come down to bossie saying I urgently need you for xxx to be done right away and you'll have to tell him you won't be able to complete xxx project for so and so while they are out on maternity.  But I agree with the others too, sounds like she's passing the buck, hoping that some of her work will get done while she's away.  Put it as a low priority item and if as someone else said you get a "rainy day" you may want to start it for them and they can pick up where you left off.

[emd_22]

Thank you all for your responses.  I have to admit I didn't feel that great yesterday after the handover meeting.  It has helped my realise that I am not being unreasonable in refusing to do this.  When this colleague came back to work she said that she wasn't going to over work herself (ie do five days work in three days) as her priorities have changed.  She is currently working three days a week, next month it will be four then in December she will be back full time.  I really don't like not being able to help but with my current work load I just don't feel able to do this.

I have now prioritised the list she has given me and narrowed it down to two main things that I consider urgent.  I have also checked with my boss about the Personnel Records (ie Job Descriptions) which needs updating as I also need to complete this task for the 50 staff in my section!  He has told me that I don't need to do anything about this yet as it is not urgent and would only normally be updated when someone changes job.  He will be reviewing these in a few months and so it will be easier to do these just once rather than twice - saves work in the long run and sounds good to me.  I did realise this however my colleague didn't want to listen when I mentioned this to her at the handover meeting - so she is going to create more work for herself anyway.

I agree that she doesn't like doing this kind of work, she had complained about this the other day!  However these records need to be kept up to date as they are required by the Quality Assurance Department who audits the work staff do.  They should be a continuous record of work completed.  I am also a bit concerned if I did have the time to do this task that she would complain afterwards about what I had done.  As per my previous post about the change of all the files.  

I think what ever I do is going to be wrong!  Thanks for all the replys it helps to know I'm not completely unreasonable.  I have to say this is one of those jobs I wouldn't pass onto anyone else as it's such a pain!  Even if you update the records you have to then chase the individual and the manager to get them signed.  

Liz