Knowing when to say no to extra work (and how to do it effectively)
I’ll start this week with a question for you.
Consider your average working week, what percentage of your daily tasks fit neatly into your job description?
Like most of us, chances are that you’ve assumed responsibilities that are outside your main scope of work and especially if you’ve spent some time in the same role. But stop for a moment and ask yourself a second question - “How much are these new duties contributing to your development and advancement versus running you into the ground?”
The last couple of years have seen workplace trends that have hit the news such as The Great Reshuffle, Quiet Quitting and rising levels of vacancies or job cuts depending on your sector. Whether you think these are a thing or not, I’m pretty sure that we can often find ourselves being asked to do more with less.
And yes, a temporary increase in scope and responsibilities can boost your profile and development, but in the long term it can lead to burnout and only hurt your team or organisation as a whole. And it’s often high achievers that will be approached first when there are tasks with no obvious home.
Whilst there is nothing wrong with pitching in if your team is short staffed, you need to be sure you are saying yes for the right reasons rather than agreeing to every single thing that heads your way. If you are finding that you say yes to everything, taking on more work in a hurry and overstretching your people pleasing muscle it’s time to take a minute to assess when it's appropriate to say no and how to do it in a way that works for you.
When your core job responsibilities will suffer
If extra work means you end up neglecting your main job responsibilities or the quality of your work will suffer, it’s time to push back. And especially so if there is no obvious opportunity to learn new skills or develop. No one wants to be that person who utters the words “sorry, it's not in my job description” so instead use words that confirm why saying no is not only in your best interest but for everyone else - “If I helped you I might be letting others down” or “I wouldn’t be able to do a great job on your project and my other work would suffer.” Another example could be “I’ll have to say no because if I devoted my time this week to marketing activities, there would be a risk that as a team we would miss several key client deadlines.”
When it’s really someone else’s work
In big, busy teams, it’s all too easy to get sucked into work that doesn’t really belong to you. And far from helping in the long term it can lead to confusion over where real responsibility lies. If you don't mind doing the additional work and have capacity or you feel it will boost your development, take time to speak to your manager about what this could mean for your career development in the future. You could say “For the last 6 months, I’ve assumed responsibilities X,Y and Z. What the best way to ensure that my increased scope is reflected in my development and pay?”
When the task is plain unreasonable
Maybe a senior leader in your organisation asks for something that you know really can’t be done in the required timescale - a business plan from scratch in two days anyone? But what do you do when confronted with this and avoid damaging a relationship that could help your career in future. Try using a positive no which allows you to protect your time whilst keeping the relationship intact. So for this example you could suggest what you can do in time available - “It wouldn’t be possible to deliver the whole report by Friday but I could have a draft of section one - how does that sound?” Or you could adjust the timeline to something that is more reasonable and will have better outcomes - “I understand this is very important but Friday isn’t possible. Would it work if we said Tuesday morning?” Maybe even suggest a colleague who you know has the skills and capacity that could help get the project done to deadline if you worked on it together.
Saying no is not easy for most of us and it's going to be hard if it's something you don’t normally do. And sure enough there will always be times when no just isn’t possible. But with practice and persistence and being sure that you are saying no for the right reasons, it can prove to be one of the most valuable skills you’ll ever learn in your career
And if you want to work on pushing back against work overwhelm, coaching can help. Let's chat about what this could look like for you.