Guest Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 How much time do you think you spend on admin? For the past 3 weeks I have written down how much admin I have been doing (just because it seemed to be taking up so much of my time!) In the past three weeks I have done 30 hours of admin!! I only get paid for 8 of those hours!! Granted its a very busy time of year with letters needing to be done for xmas parties/xmas services etc etc but this does seem an awful lot and I am begining to feel like a volunteer! I do all admin at home, as I dont get any non contact time and during the holidays (eg half term) I do loads but dont get admin pay at all in the holidays, (admin pay is not pro rateredsp??). I know that the admin side of things is only going to increase though because we have to go through the PLA accrediation process shortly!!!! Sorry, moan now over, it helps to share it though!! Jenni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Hi Jenni That does seem a lot! Since you mentioned the 'V' word can I ask are you a committee run group? If you, could you approach a likely parent who might be able to help you out with some of the workload? This is a really good way for a parent to become involved in the running of the group if they are unable to come to committee meetings or go on the rota etc. You're working a lot of unpaid overtime, and if it were my group I would be delighted at your commitment but I would feel so guilty! In effect what you are doing is distorting the running costs of your group - a job is being done but not being paid for and so profits will be increased artificially. Every group relies on goodwill of staff (and volunteers - even if the group is privately owned) to run, and I think we all do an amount of unpaid overtime because we think it kind of goes with the territory. That's fine when its the odd ten minutes at the end of a session, or doing the odd letter at home. The difficult part is to keep tabs on how much overtime everyone is doing and if it becomes excessive (which I think it has in your case) then it is time to review operations and see if (a) what is being done actually needs to be done and ( whether the responsibility can be shared out during session time or ( c ) if another member of staff needs to be recruited to carry out this work. Good luck - and my advice would be to sort this out before you start to resent it! Maz PS You don't work for me do you?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiles Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 I work for a committee run group and have fought hard to get my staff non contact time to update their children's records, they get 15 minutes each half term per child they act as keyperson too! I oversee all the records but only get the same amount for my children. I do alot of Admin work at home, often stay late and am in hour hour early every day for which I don't get paid. I think I will write down how much Admin work I do at home for a period! I am supposed to have a session where I am supernumery but uit never works out that way as it is difficult to ignore the childrens requests and because I am there staff tend to use me in the ratio. It is [/size]an age old problem but I agree with Maz, you need to sort it out (me too). smiles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Very sound advice from Maz. It's difficult to judge if 10 hrs a week is excessive, depends what admin is done. I know I used to avoid the mundane stuff like accounts etc to do nice Posters, newsletters, in fact anything creative. Then when I complained to hubby I never got anything done, or I didn't have time to do all my paperwork he reminded me that I spend too much time on the 'creative' stuff and not enough on the essential stuff. By no means am I suggesting you are doing the same but because of this procrastination on my part I began saving clip art that I thought I would use for Posters, newsletters etc ( saving time trawling the internet for suitable pics) I also save all newsletters and posters then just adapt them on an annual or need to use basis. This avoids having to re-think the layout, text size, appearance, pics etc. Hope that helps. Peggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 aaahhh well herein lies the problem, I have 4 deputies (yes excessive I know but I have only been in the role of 'supervisor' since september and was not responsible for recruitment) 1 deputy is fab, the others are great in their own way but 2 are computer illiterate and one deputy will only type a letter if I giver her the ink, paper and an outline of what I want, therefore its much quicker to do it myself ! The Chair works almost full time and the committee is very small. We are still waiting for the minutes of the AGM from the committee secretary (which was held in September!!!!) I have only logged the necessary things, not the things I like doing like the creative stuff (like Peggy) and like smiles, go in early every day but have not logged that either. I completely understand that some of what we do is 'good will' and I am totally happy with that and expected it as part of the role, but logging it all down makes you realise how much you do in reality!! I am going to continue logging it down for another week and then take it to the treasurer and see if we cant do something about it! Thank you for your replies, like I said, it helps to share!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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