system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
PI treats me like I'm her personal assistant

Hi all

I have been working as a research project manager in a large university for the past 2+ years in the UK. Essentially my role entails managing the delivery of a small grant, which means hands on involvement with all aspects of the project such as sorting the approvals, developing study materials, participant recruitment, data collection, data analysis and write up. Not sure if it’s relevant, but I finished my PhD about three years ago.

The problem is that I think the PI (my line manager) takes advantage of me professionally.  Of course I understand that you have to have a degree of flexibility but these other duties interfere with my workload significantly. Examples of duties I have been tasked that I think are inappropriate:

\- Writing conference and training event presentations of projects I have had no involvement with

\- Looking up flights, accommodation and visa requirements for conference travel; some related to the research I’ve had involvement with and some not

\- Once she stayed in a location of an international conference after the event (which is normal of course). For this, she asked me to compile a list of tourist attractions for her to visit.

\- Claiming expenses on her behalf

\- Inducting new staff who were not affiliated with the research I’m involved with (this has happened twice)

\- Shortlisting candidates out of 108 applications (as above, not affiliated with the research I manage)

\- Writing a reference for two people who briefly worked with us on my manager’s behalf (signed by her as if the references were from her)

\- Asking me to use the grant money as a bridging fund for another project briefly (I informed the finance department indirectly who told the PI off for this)

\- Asking me to organise two focus groups with a marginalised population (=challenging to recruit) in a 2 –week timeframe while she was away – this wasn’t for our project

\- Asking me to analyse data and write up that section for a report for a project I was not affiliated with – this took an entire week and I received no acknowledgement for this even though that’s not what I was promised at the time

\- Scheduling meetings for her that are unrelated to our project

I have told some of my peers about these additional tasks I keep getting assigned, and they seem to think they are inappropriate and not part of my job. The problem is that assigning these started very early on so I didn’t feel like I was in a position to say no in a new job. I also think she sensed from the get go that I’m submissive and find saying ‘no’ difficult. To be fair, she often puts me in a position where I don’t really have an opportunity to say no without looking like a d\*ck, such as copying me into emails saying that I have agreed to help with such and such, when she didn’t even discuss the subject matter with me. On the other hand, in the beginning of my contact I even said I was happy to help which then means that I have contributed to how I’m being treated now. I took part in an assertiveness training course about a year ago, which helped in some other areas but not with this particular issue. Our research team is small, me being by far  most junior. The other team members are senior clinicians or academics.

Generally speaking my manager and I get along well and she is a nice, warm person otherwise. I find her research very interesting and have gained lots of great experience and skills since starting to work with her. There are other job prospects with her and I would like to carry on working wither her. I just worry that I will always keep on working as her part-time PA, which really frustrates me.

What do you think I should do?

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**EDIT.** Wow, I did not expect my post to stir up this much conversation! Reading through the comments was interesting and thanks to those who made constructive suggestions. I realised that perhaps I should have explained more clearly what my role is for further context. I was hired to do all of the practical research for a small grant, which is a clinical feasibility pilot. I'm the only research staff in the team - no one else works on this grant full-time. The Co-Investigators are all academics, whose contributions entail advising on either clinical or academic matters and writing up papers. I'm the same grade as a postdoc or a Lecturer in my institution (I'm not sure what the US equivalent is but based on googling, it might be something like Assistant Professor but please do correct me if I'm wrong). 

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I looked at my job description, as advised by many of you. It does have two caveats which I suppose do mean that whichever disgruntlements I have can be brushed off with: "Other administration tasks as appropriate, e.g. photocopying and ordering equipment" and "Perform other duties of similar kind appropriate to the grade." Of course I knew the job description has something along the these lines but I suppose my irritation arises from the amount of time it is taking me to perform these other tasks in a what is already a busy job. For example, writing presentations about a study I have not worked on takes me a long time as I have to wrap my head around the subject matter, literature, what was done, what was found and what it means. I will have a more careful think about the suggestions that some of you made and see how to exercise assertiveness in this particular context. 

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gpt
Nevermind - just re-read. You’re a lab/project manager, which probably entails some secretarial work if your PI has no secretary. Also, these jobs are not fully independent/PhD-level, which is why you find yourself in this predicament.