How to ask for more hours at work?

[aaltaf]

Hi Guys,

At the moment I work for a school and I am only working 8till1pm. This was good to start of with but now im getting bored and want more hours. There is only one network manager working here and me. The network manager is teaching all day four days a week so he doesnt really have time to deal with problems that come up. Im not saying his useless but his hand are tied up teaching. I feel there is a need for me to stay on in the afternoons but i need a way to write this down politely.

Would appreciate it if you could help me.

Thanks

[kmount]

Be careful, your boredom should not factor into this but if there is a genuine increase in work that is not being satisfied in your current work schedule then you need to highlight this with your line manager that as a result of prioritisation some tasks have been deprioritised and won't be completed until later/ever due to other more pressing tasks.

 

Ultimately it will be the schools decision whether they wish to sacrifice the deprioritised tasks or grant you more time / additional resourcing to accommodate the demand.

 

The smart thing here is to be polite, have plenty of examples of where you've not been able to do something because you've not had time and more than anything else do not mention your boredom in the afternoons but do mention how the school could benefit from you spending more time there.

[witch]

What you need to do is prove that you are needed: do you have a helpdesk or other system that will give you the info as to what jobs there are and how long they have been waiting? This is the sort of stuff you need to convince them that you are of use in the afternoons.

The fact that the NM is tied up teaching is a very good 'selling' point as well - you can be available when he is not (look at his timetable for the afternoons and point out how many lessons he is teaching and therefore unable (NOT unwilling) to help.)

You need to push the 'poor NM completely tied up and can't do more, but school NEEDS more immediate response to problems at ANY time - and woohoo, here you are!

Also if you are there for more hours you can carry out longer projects and finish jobs all in one go rather than leaving things half done.

Hope that's given you a few ideas!

[elsiegee40]

When I had to pitch for more hours, boredom was absolutely not on the agenda. I had so much to do, I could not possibly achieve it in the time allocated. I' went from 8 hours per week to 16 and then 20 hours per week. In that time, on my own, I manage the network for my school and run the school library.

 

I admit I have a small school (150 children), but you are going to have to document carefully what you do and the work that needs doing. In the current financial climate you will have to make a very a good case for an increase in hours. we'd all love more money, but sadly schools are having to manage on less and less.

 

In my case, it was obvious that it was impossible to have any kind of service level on the IT when I was only doing a very small number of hours... some primaries have contract technicians who are only on the premises for a whole or half day a week. Take care that you don't get them thinking it would be cheaper to outsource.