Learning to Say No in the Workplace?

Ummagumma asks: "I'm trying to find out how those of you who work in the IT service industry, tell customers 'no', when the requests are unreasonable for whatever reason. There is a culture here of 'piling-on' work with regards to IT - and, unfortunately, I've never learned the proper way to tell people 'no'. It may sound simple, but in this economy, where jobs are tough to come by, I don't want to be seen as the impediment to getting things done Any suggestions on telling people that their work request can wait? Especially in a way that won't jeopardize my future here? I've searched the web, but most of the sites that supposedly have information of this type just want you to sign up for their seminars. I'm looking for actual, real-world experiences, and how the people of Slashdot deal with this issue on a day-to-day basis."

"Here is my dilemma: I'm a relatively new employee (~2 months) at a software engineering shop. I am the sole IT person for a 100+ person company, with 50+ remote VPN users, 40+ developers, 30+ servers, firewalls, etc. I do it all, from desktop and application support, to security, to servers. In the past, the IT department has been seriously under-funded, and there is an absolute ton of catch-up work that needs to get done. At this point, I could work 70+ hour work weeks for a year, and still not be caught up, between project work, upgrade, documentation and day-to-day stuff.

I've inquired about more IT budgeting (staff, equipment, etc.), and that just is not going to happen for quite a while."

Comments

You know what they say

[n0nsensical]

Tell them "No means no!"

Have you not learnt anything?

[Anonymous Coward]

The BOFH will show you the way to happiness and funds whenever possible.

I know.

[fruity1983]

I recently saw a very good video on the subject of telling your boss (and thus your customers?) when enough was enough.

It was called Fight Club, I think.

Me? I'd be very careful who I talked to about this. It sounds like someone dangerous wrote it... someone who might snap at any moment, stalking from office to office with an Armalite AR-10 Carbine-gas semiautomatic, bitterly pumping round after round into colleagues and co-workers. Might be someone you've known for years... somebody very close to you. Or, maybe you shouldn't be bringing me every little piece of trash you pick up.

Actually say the word No.

[sakusha]

I had an insane boss once, each day as business started he'd roam around the office for his morning ritual, he made each employee look him straight in the eyes and say "No" three times in a firm but neutral voice. If he didn't like how you did it, he'd make you do it again. Yep, he was totally nuts.

Re:don't "underestimate" this advice!

[Andy Smith]

[SNIP - lots of good advice]

Also, at the end of six months or a year, maybe you can use the resulting log as evidence that you need an assistant or a pay raise or both. It's also good for remembering what to put on your resume, if your small company decides to lay you off and replace you with two kids who just graduated and also happen to be related to the VPs...

After all that calm, good advice, was this where your blood suddenly started to boil over?

I could almost hear your teeth gritting... "those bastards!" :-)

Re:Give estimates

[Sircus]

Or, to elaborate:

1. Give an estimate of how long (in man-hours) it'll take to do project D.

2. Point out (nicely) that you nonetheless currently have A, B and C to do.

3a. If A, B and C are all from the same person who's currently asking you to do D, ask them which they'd like done first.

3b. If not, send them to discuss it with whoever wants A, B and C. Taking part in the resulting discussion/turf war/semi-automatic weapons fire is optional. Obviously, there's leeway here. If A, B and C are "tidy up and label the patch panel"-style tasks, and D is "Fix the file server 50 people use", you know what to do. But if it's not patently obvious that D's more important, a discussion's warranted. If you *think* D is more important, call the person who wants A, B and C and let them know that someone wants D and ask if it'd be OK to do that now and come back to A, B and C. If they say no, get person-for-D and person-for-ABC to discuss it.

4. Waste time on Slashdot only when you *don't* have four tasks on the go.

5. Pro^H^H^HHappiness!

Re:It depends on management

[Lumpy]

I ended up quitting,

why didn't you simply say no first?

I used to be in your position... so I started to be out of there at 5:00 sharp, when asked at the last second to do something I simply would say "no" and I'll get to it in the AM.

most employers want to see how hard they can whore you.

Re:Give estimates

[Gabriel Radic]

There is a fundamental reading about project management for the jack-off-all-tech-trades.

It teaches you everything about saying no AND enjoying it.

The Bastard Operator from Hell Official Archive

Some of those are classics :-)