How to delegate repetitive tasks without giving too much system access
Administrative tools often require giving employees excessive permissions just to handle routine tasks like updating distribution lists or screening tenants. This forces managers into awkward workarounds or leaves them trapped doing everything themselves while critical maintenance and security tasks get neglected.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- People have been saying this in most months since September 2026.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1staying stuck at a desk instead of checking on propertiesDid this help you?
- 2constantly putting out fires instead of doing preventive maintenanceDid this help you?
- 3Make employees owners of the distribution listsDid this help you?
- 4Use the Exchange admin center directly instead of the main admin portalDid this help you?
- 5Create a custom RBAC roleDid this help you?
- 6Doing tasks manually like reformatting notes and setting up email remindersDid this help you?
- 7Asking AI on personal computers for help or scriptsDid this help you?
- 8Using specific thinking modes or premium versions of tools for better formula generationDid this help you?
- 9trying to automate workflows using tools like Claude, Vapi, Entrata, or TableauDid this help you?
- 10automating renewal and inspection schedulingDid this help you?
- 11considering outsourcing parts of the workloadDid this help you?
- 12Squeezing tasks in during the dayDid this help you?
- 13Relegating tasks to after school hoursDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I can’t figure out how to get it to do the most mundane parts of my job.”source ↗
“I feel like these are the types of routine things AI SHOULD help with. But I can’t seem to make it work.”source ↗
“But this is what I’m struggling with…figuring out how to automate the mundane stuff. I’ve tried asking Gemini and Claude (personal computer) to teach me, but the answers it gives never actually work when I follow the steps in Microsoft products.”source ↗
“honestly I think I would have them do all the tenant screening stuff, is the most time consuming part and half the time you can tell in first 5 minutes if someone is trouble or not”source ↗
“the assistant could also handle the late rent calls, I hate those so much, people get so defensive and I just want to fix the sink not argue about money”source ↗
“with that time back I would actually do preventive maintenance walks, catch small problems before they become big expensive ones, but right now is always just putting out fires”source ↗
“200 doors - we have automated some stuff but theres little tedious admin work we havent quite figured out how to automate.”source ↗
“Honestly. We get a lot of HOA violations, fines, etc. Redacting, saving to files, emailing/texting tenants. That seems to take up some time. Not a lot but its just tedious admin work lol”source ↗
“Teaching involves a lot of administrative tasks that substitutes often do not see including parent phone calls and conferences, team meetings, PLC meetings, IEP/504/SST meetings, meetings with admin, committee meetings, grading, progress reports, report cards, data collection, data crunching, data reporting, planning, SLOs, filling out forms, writing reports, taking online trainings, completing mandatory surveys, reading and responding to emails, documenting student behavior, writing referrals, writing LORs, etc.”source ↗
“It's like having an office job on top of your teaching job. And you spend most of your day teaching. So all of those tasks get squeezed in during the day or are relegated to after school hours. It's a lot.”source ↗
“We have some helpdesk people whose jobs entail updating some standard distribution lists. They currently have the Exchange Administrator role, which is way too much access for these employees.”source ↗
“But when we assign this role to the employees, the Microsoft 365 admin center does not recognize the elevated permissions.”source ↗
“One workaround is to make all these employees owners of the distribution lists, but that is hacky and haphazard.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 22Why is project management just doing admin and updating trackers?
- 21Why does teaching involve so much paperwork and useless bureaucracy?
- 5How to delegate tasks without micromanaging
- 27How to handle too much work without project engineers or coordinators
- 14When your family treats household chores like an IT help desk
- 16Why can't employees ever use the self service portal?