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

Re:Give estimates

[Daath]

Yes and no. As another one put this would be a good way to work: Have a project manager assigned. All he does is to keep track of your departments assignments, timetables, deadlines, milestones etc.
All requests go through him. Noone else. He should then get a clear picture of what they're asking, and then come to you to help you estimate the assignment.
If there is a "no", you should always give elaborate reason as to why (i.e. make the customer realize what a bad idea it is).
It's a good thing to do the estimate anyway, in case the customer just says, "I don't care, do it anyway!"...
Oh and the PM should also help the customer prioritize the assignments!

The biggest mistake is to talk directly to the people that do the assignments. A lot of those people don't know how to say no, or have the customer realize that it isn't a great idea.

I've worked in such enviroments for at least 6 years. I was one of those who had a hard time saying no. After I got kids, it got a lot easier ;)