Relaunch Your Career

I was recently hired as a junior designer. A member of staff who did a lot of admin has just left, and now my employer has said that they won’t replace this person, they want us (myself and another designer) to take on that person’s tasks. What can I do?

Firstly, try to find out whether your employer is in difficulty (you can see tips for doing this here). It may be that they are not in a position to hire anybody else, in which case it may be better to pitch in and share the workload in order to keep a job.

Next, get your employer to be specific about the new tasks and the amount of work involved. Ask whether they see the extra work as a temporary thing or a permanent change. If it’s temporary, ask for a date on which the extra workload can be reviewed. Be ready with a list of your own duties and ask the employer to prioritise, working through what will happen to any excessive workload.

You may find doing a different job more interesting than you think, and it never hurts to learn more about how the rest of the business works. Make sure you excel at your day job, though, so that any new design work naturally comes your way.

If the change is permanent, and you really don’t want to do it, you may need to think about looking for another job.