Slashdot Mirror
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."
I've told customers in the past that we're not taking on any new clients until our production system has been upgraded to handle increased workloads, and in almost all cases they were willing hold until we were ready. They appreciated the fact that we weren't spreading ourselves too thin, risking long term failure for the sake of padding our short term coffers, so just tell the truth.
Make sure you have a list of priorities from your boss.
Follow the list.
When someone asks for a low priority task, let them know that your boss has chosen your priorities and you have three months work before you will get to their task.
Try to help them to get their task done themselves quicker than you doing it.
Of course you will probably not be thanked for this. Peter
If you can get support from management, you can do anything. Unfortunately that means you end up at their mercy if they still want you to do EVERYTHING. Not much to do about it there.
At my last job I would often be asked at 5:20pm to do dumbshit stuff like get a full OS reinstall done on a half dozen machines in a department that needed an upgrade. No amount of explaining that this is not just an extra half hours work would mean a thing to those above me. If it were a one off I'd be fine with it, but from day one my job consisted of staying back insane amounts of time to get these things done, when the people who used the machines had set hours that never varied. No overtime either.
I ended up quitting, and while you might not consider that an option, if it comes down to working yourself dry and being used/abused then it's an option. Get on management until they relent, to get another IT person if you need. If you don't do it now changing later is all the harder. Hell, you're new at this job - do you know if the last person quit because of insane expectations like this?
We avoid this problem with a simple rule: Any work for "the techie" for has to be passed by "the techie's boss." Really, for anything not sopmewhat urgently needed, only management-level personnel should be able to assign longterm tasks.
After all, your manager is supposed to, well, manage. And if not him/her, then a project manager of some sort. Any decent sized corp I've worked for had one of those. If you're getting snowballed with lots of work, then at least those above will be aware of it, and more can be done to manage your time.
The only diplomatic way I could find around this was in a prioritization scheme based on adverse impact. For instance, network issues supersede server issues, server issues supersede workstation issues, workstation issues supersede printer jams.
My initial problem was in trusting my clients to be understanding enough to "get it". To my surprise, when I laid it out, they were amazingly receptive, as most of them knew when it was their turn to have a network or server problem, they'd be at the top of the list.
I'm not sure how well that will play out in a corporate environment, but like my customers, your users may be more understanding than you are willing to give them credit for. You are one IT person. Everyone in the company can count to 1, I'm almost sure. They're also keenly aware of how out-of-whack the user/nerd ratio is. Conservative (read:CHEAP) companies will let it get to 70:1, users:nerd. Good companies will go 40:1. Exceptional companies will go 20:1.
I don't envy you your job, you've got to focus on efficiency. Good luck to you, it'll probably be either highly rewarding or we'll all see you on the 6 o'clock news pinning down your coworkers with an assault rifle. Let's hope for the former.
We all get along together like tornadoes and trailer parks.
Most of the comments in this thread are entirely accurate. Do not say no, but rather, document exactly what tasks you're doing, ask your manager to prioritize, and have customers go through him/her to get to you.
If your manager is unreasonable, you will have to do the prioritization yourself. Most important, though, is that you very clearly document the time estimated and actual hours spent on fulfilling a task.
What I have also found to be extremely useful (consultant, yeah yeah...) is, before starting a task, outline the actual task deliverables. When finished, do a quick writeup on what you did, who it was for, how long it took, etc. Doesn't have to be long, just look reasonably nice
This takes a bit of getting used to and initially may seem like a waste of half an hour per task, but I have yet to speak to anyone in any level of management who didn't appreciate that sort of thing. It gives them concrete proof of what you're doing, it gives you a paper trail to fall back on when people claim you don't have enough to do, and it makes your boss look good, because they have something tangible in their hands to present to their management.
Also, though I know it's not entirely relevant, it helps me to occasionally look at Stokely's Golden Rules of Consulting. It's more geared towards independent contractors, but contains some very wise principles.
Whatever happens, don't get frustrated. I guarantee you, eventually your customers will begin to understand that everyone and their mom wants you to do things for them, and will learn to stand in line. And my experience has been that when something is truly truly earthshatteringly urgent, they become even more appreciative if you can bend the rules a bit. That's how we kept a fairly extensive bar stocked during my last operations role
Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
As far as the customer is concerned there are three elements that concern them. Time, Quality, and Money.
On any product they can't have all three. Example: If they want it quick (time) and the want it cheap (money), it will be lacking in quantity. Or If they want it cheap, and they want qulity, the delivery time will be long.
Saying "No" is not always the answer. But if you explain how their request will affect the one of the three elements (time, money, quality) they will either:
A) Give you more money.
B) Give you more time.
C) Expect less at delivery(cut-corners)
D) Withdraw their request.
And everyone wins.
Myself and my co-worker work for an educational services company. We manage a smallish network of ~150 UNIX machines and are responsible for maintaining them, the network gear, and network security. We also solve every problem that the applications developers can't figure out (which amounts to a lot). On top of that, we're continually striving to improve our network infrastructure. We're often dragged into meetings to plan and develop infrastructure upgrade projects.
Management's priorities are all over the map, and priorities can change every hour. This makes life incredibly difficult for us.
Our solution was to grab a big-ass whiteboard (you know, 4 feet tall, and 16-feet wide) and write down all of our tasks. No real detail... just enough to indicate what the task is. We mark which task we're currently working on. Whenever management comes by to give us more work, we take them to the whiteboard, write down the task(s), and insist they prioritize what's on there.
The amount of incoming work was enough to keep four people busy. We spent 2 hours daily discussing priorities with management. All tasks were important enough to keep on the board, and our Ops Manager maintained the priority list.
Then one day, the whiteboard filled up.
Management got the hint when we insisted on a second whiteboard. Instead of providing us with a second whiteboard, there's now whitespace available on the first board.
Just keep a list of tasks at hand, and make sure your manager knows what you've got on your plate. If you're given a new task, insist that he looks over your current list and assigns some priority.
Simple: Lawyers, Plumbers, and Car mechanics are viewed as professionals. They charge an exorbinant rate for fixing things. In business and at school IT is freely given out like candy. When folks aren't used to paying for something, they assume that it in fact costs nothing.
It also doesn't help that we (myself included) are often all to eager to volunteer our help. If we as an industry were populated by cynical and legalistic mercinaries we wouldn't have these problems.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
the best "no" is a qualified "yes". of course, for this to work - and to avoid the bad blood that a "sure, but it'll be ten weeks and $9000" will generate - you must get everything in writing!
i can't stress this enough. a lot of clients don't really understand what they are dealing with and thus forget what exactly it was they requested. for your benefit and theirs make sure you get it all in writing! take minutes. do as much via email as possible. get a written specification before you start. that way you can always remind the client of what they originally spec'd and the changes they have made and how it is affecting time and money.
2 1337 4 u!
I can't agree more here. The only difficulty with this approach is that in a service industry the number of requests typically far outweigh the number of times or emails you can take to your boss.
If you make sure that everything you are given is allocated a priority, though, then you'll be getting well ahead in the game. The key thing is to define in black and white what those priorities mean
Once you have agreement on a set of PUBLISHED priority definitions, almost nobody will argue with you when you tell them that their request will be performed AFTER some other request. What's more, if they complain you can simply direct them to your manager for an exception (raise the priority based on an ad-hoc decision).
For example:
Critical = More than one employee/system unable to perform their primary business tasks. No workaround is available.
Very High = One employee/system is unable to perform their primary business tasks; OR More than one employee/system unable to perform their primary business tasks but a workaround is available.
High = One employee/system is unable to perform their primary business tasks but a workaround is available; OR More than one employee/system unable to perform their day-to-day business tasks and no workaround is available.
Medium = Employees or systems are unable to perform their day-to-day business tasks.
etc.
/* affect != effect */ void affect(int *thing,int effect) { *thing += effect; }
Entry level jobs on the other hand are very scarce. I would not want to be a college grad right now.
Now amount of stability is going to save you from burnout. You have to be your best advocate of your interests, health, and safety. Employers often rely on you to let them know when enough is too much. Great employers never let things get that far. Places to leave are the ones that ignore your needs.
And I don't buy for a minute that the economy is that bad. Especially for network admins. Just pick up the want ads.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
I was in your situation about 10 years ago with my first ever IT job. I agree with posts recommending a project plan, keeping your boss informed of what you're doing, and also escalating impossible work requests to your boss to manage so that you do not look like you are being overly obstructive (just busy!).
:) This CAN backfire if you do it too consistently, as people will start to think you don't have enough work to do, or that you are pretty poor at managing your time... but if you have 100 users, you can try it at least once on all of them :)
At the end of the day I tend to forget what I just spent 12 hours doing, so write everything down as you go along, and mail this to your manager at the end of the week, so they are aware just how busy you are.
BUT - my main area of expertise is DEFINITELY the route of underpromise and overdeliver. This is a technique for making yourself look more efficient than you really are. So - a user asks you to come and troubleshoot - say a missing share they used to have set up on their workstation. You know you can get round to them in 1 hour. Tell the user you will definitely come to see them in 2 hours time. Turn up in 3 hours and the users unhappy. Turn up in 2 hours and you've met expectations. Turn up in ONE hour, and hey - you're an hour early - RESULT! The user is v pleased that he is important enough for you to see quickly! User is happy. Now you knew all along you'd be one hour... but you've managed the perception of the user effectively, and he's a lot happier because, at the end of the day, you've psychologically out-manoeuvred him
Couple more things - when you helldesk phone rings, smile when you answer. You can hear it in your voice, and you will come across as a happy + confident employee, even if you're the opposite. This gives people confidance in your abilities, and they will enjoy dealing with you - and this costs you no time or effort. The more highly people think of you, the better your life will be.
Remember people. This is easy for you - I work with 5000 people, you only have 100. Bear in mind that at the end of the day, everyone wants to be adored *no, really they do!*, so you can use this to your advantage in a smaller way - treat users nicely, ie: as if you like them, and they will generally like you back. People who like you generally will let you get away with more... how much more quickly would you forgive your best mate letting you down, compared to a stranger?
I know none of these are super-practical tips, but you've already had tons of them - I promise they'll all make your job more enjoyable!
Good Luck.
Although my experience is slightly different because we are customer-based and not internal, our approach is to say "it will cost you". Then, if they insist it can be done faster you outline the risks. If there's money at risk they usually capitulate, but if they make unreasonable demands, the only thing you can do is go along with it making it clear you're not comfortable. At the end of the day it's 'their' money and 'their' responsibility. If the problem is that they expect you to do more hours than you think is reasonable and won't hire help then the problem is not how to say no - it's your unreasonable employers.
I've worked at a company like this. The problem started because there are so many layoffs, that you end up getting overwhelmed trying to do your job, and then the jobs of all the people who got laid off.
The problem is that there is not enough money to pay for the people that are actually necessary to get the job done. It's not that the things are unimportant, they are all important, and there should be more employees on the job handling the requests, but there are not because people can't afford them. I think in this situation it sounds like the company knows that they need to hire more IT staff, but they are not doing it because they can't afford it.
I don't know if there is really any good way to deal with this problem other than get another job - depending on how much you care about your sanity. It's amazing how it all tends to get done at the end of the day!
My greatest concern with this kind of thing is that when being short-staffed is a modus operandi, the employee is never able to excel - the employee is never able to really do their best, it's like being "set up" or something. This might leave you with references that are not 100% of what they could be, and it certainly may lead you to a situation where you are not leaving the positive impression on others that you are capable of leaving on others.
A long time ago, I worked at a limousine company, and we got a new manager (the drivers made more money than the managers) who was fairly overzealous when it came to taking orders. We got to a point after a few days of this guy working for us where we were about 25 minutes behind on every order. 25 minutes late for a pickup, you can forget about a tip. You can't do that. You take as many orders as you can, and then you don't take any more. Sorry, we are booked up. That way, everything you do is done on time and done properly and done well. Overbooking yourself is pointless, you try to do too much, and none of it ends up getting done on time, or being done well. It's not worth it!
A hairdresser is another good example. How many hairdressing appointments can you schedule? Only so many. After that, forget it. Booked up. And the nature of how hairdressers get paid means they get paid more if they work more. More appointments equals more money for them. In many of these new dot com jobs and jobs like the one in this article, there is no "appointment book" and an employee's time is easily misunderstood. Right now, in jobs like this, it's learning who you can blow off and who you can't, who you can string along and who you can't - lots of people will just not say anything, and some people will bitch all the time. Those are the ones that get their stuff taken care of. It's the only way to do it. In this case, the timid get blown off. It's a horrible thing to do, some of the nicest people being ignored because they are not being difficult.
Companies have been doing this recently, and it is very irritating. It's almost to the point where going independent, selling some gadget on Ebay, or landscaping, or some other self-employment kind of thing is going to be easier than it is to work that hard for someone else. If you are going to do the job of three employees then why not open up your own small business?
This issue is really about the proper management of your own human resources. You have to be your own agent, and make sure you are not getting taken advantage of. How do you 1) pay your bills and 2) not get taken advantage of at the same time? Much harder than walking and chewing gum, especially in this time of economic hardships and crappy economies.
Even if you did document how much time you spend doing this or that to prove that you need assistants, the company knows this already, but they won't hire someone. Makes you wonder why we have these blackouts. It's irresponsible from the employer's side.
Thanks for the great story, and dead on to boot. Upper management types are usually not planners per-se, they are *negotiators*, and unless you find a way to push back you're going to get fsck'd.
stirring the pot since nineteen mumblty mumble...
If you get in trouble for saying "No" to unreasonable requests, maybe it's time to find a new job. If you can't do something you have to flat-out say it can't be done, and why. If you can't do something under a clear conscience, then you have to tell them no, and why you can't do it.
The crappy economy forced me to essentially become an IT contractor, which, let me assure you, beats the hell out of "would you like fries with that?" I worked at small organizations that had a max of 2 servers and maybe 10 workstations, all running a version of Windows. The longest I had stayed in one place was 3 weeks, and that was due to numerous problems left by the IT guy they recently fired. At several points in time, I was told to make all the administrator level passwords the name of the company because that was easier, and that I should do the same on the server, which holds all their client billing information, basically everything important. They also wanted the server accessible from the outside easily, so they wanted me to install a remote desktop server on this ancient NT server. When I started there, I basically told them they were wide open to an attack and to secure the computers with the name of the company as the password is asking for problems. This wasn't what they hired me for, but I could not, in good conscience, leave things the way they were, and they were glad to pay me to fix the problems they didn't know they had.
There were also several things they wanted fixed that I just could not fix. They wanted me to fix printing problems their custom software was having, and make it stop constantly crashing. Not having the source code, and being a not-too-great programmer anyway, I could not fix coding problems and told them flat-out, "There's nothing I can do to fix that problem, I can tell you why it's not working, but there's not a thing I can do about custom software." They understood this and contacted the guy who wrote it, end of problem for me and the company.
Many times (let's be realistic, 99% of the time) people requesting different IT related things have no idea what they're talking about or how to use what they're requesting should you tell them they can have what they want. In my scenario I suppose I had it easy at a couple organizations since they were contractors too, and basically understood that when you don't know how to do something, you pay someone that does. It took several days to get them to accept that they'd have to remember 8 different characters if they wanted to be secure.
That was just one problem though, I pointed out they had no backup plan and that a fire, or a malicious 12 year old on the other side of the world, could essentially shut their business down in a matter of minutes. This was what convinced them it was something to take seriously, and they started to listen when I said "no, you can't do that, you're asking to get screwed by doing that."
If you're having a problem telling someone you can't do something, or that they have unreasonable expectations, you need to relatively quickly find a weakness in the plan and tell them why what they want is bad. If the people have no idea what you're talking about when you say "leaving protocol/program/box X open like this creates a security flaw," then tell them the same thing in terms they can understand, such as "if you leave this open and something happens, you could lose all your billing information and you wouldn't know who owes you money." or "This could put you out of business if you leave it the way it is."
What's dangerous is saying yes to every request, reasonable or unreasonable. If you adopt the attitude that "eh, it's not my problem if they get cracked" then you're potentially risking the jobs of everyone employed at that company, yourself included. If you don't see a problem with that, you must be one of the people who developed security for Microsoft.
Please excuse any poor wordings of this, I just downed a double dose of nyquil because of the damned flu.