Emma Richardson

17 days ago

I think that in any role when you are feeling overwhelmed and your work load is too much to handle it is important to share this with your line manager. I would talk to the project manager and ask for assistance - can someone else take over the role of line manager of the workstream members to ease the burden of work? or can a project support take on some work for you? often it is difficult to pass over a role because they are very specialist roles and someone else can't just jump in and help.  In conservation it is difficult as there are always limited budgets and most people are doing 2 or 3 roles for an organisation. I see this issue often. 

Abbie

10 days ago

First I would talk to my line manager to discuss the best course of action.

I would imagine that the best course of action would be to drop one of the roles. Logically I assume the easiest role to get a replacement for would be the role with less responsibility, the workstream member of the law workstream. However, we did talk about how these roles can be more specialised so I would give up whichever role is easier to fill so that the team can be productive with its work. There is no use in trying to juggle both roles and letting two teams of people down. The role that was dropped could either be filled my someone else on the team who had the space to be able to take on the extra work or someone new would need to be brought in.

If it was not an option to completely drop one of the roles then I would have a chat with my line manager and make a list of everything I am doing in both roles. I would then higlight the top tasks that are dragging me down and see if any of these individual tasks can be redelegated to another member of the team.

Alessio Mocci

9 days ago

If you find yourself stretched across multiple roles, it’s important to address the situation proactively and professionally. Begin by communicating openly with your teams about your current workload and the challenges it presents, while reassuring them that you are working towards a solution. Prioritize the most urgent and high-impact tasks to ensure that key objectives are still met. Next, clarify and formalize the responsibilities within each workstream so that everyone understands their roles and decision-making authority. Establish a process for escalating issues, ensuring that problems are addressed efficiently and do not stall progress. Discuss your workload with leadership and suggest delegating one of your roles to another team member. This will allow you to focus more effectively on your primary responsibilities and provide better support to your team. Encouraging peer mentoring within your teams can also help distribute responsibilities more evenly and encourage skill development. This would reduce frustration among team members, and help establish a more structured and effective working environment.