February 24, 2010Success story: Admin gracertively got manager to cut workload
This phrase come from a post on Crucial Conversations. The author’s assistant couldn’t keep up with her expanding responsibilities. She addressed the issue by listing what she does for him that makes the biggest contribution. He agreed with the list. Then she observed,
- If I continue to do X, Y, and Z—I won’t be able to improve my response time and quality in these areas. At least that’s how it appears to me. If you can see something I’m missing, please tell me. I don’t want to shirk my work.
Her manager agreed that the either needed to drop the other tasks or find another way to get them done. She looked even more valuable to him after that conversation than she had before.
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Gee – if I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought this was written by me. So true here too. With lay-offs for the past 3 years and wage freezes, employees (not just me) are over-worked and underpaid. What was her outcome? With me, my supervisor has gotten more receptive to my concerns and needs, but some areas have been completely ignored.
Comments and advice welcome.
Comment by Alice — April 14, 2010 @ 3:13 pm
Well, for starters, I’d say be heavily armed with phrases like,
* If we’re going to meet the deadline on x I need y by Friday.
* I can do x for you, and it will put me behind on the y project. Is that acceptable?
* What is your absolute first priority for me here?
Before I learned Dreamweaver, my assistant put the newsletter together. She’d ask for content in advance, and if I didn’t have it, she’d ask for pieces so she could get started before I had everything. It was her way of easing her schedule without pressuring me.
Ultimately in a hectic world the squeaky wheel gets the oil, and if a manager knows that it’s squeaking in the interest of achieving goals rather than personal whining, the manager is more likely to welcome the squeak.
And, the easier you can make it for your manager to give you what you need, the better. for example, it’s easier to edit than to create – so, say, if you want an updated job description, you’re more likely to get it if you write it yourself and ask them to review than if you ask them to take responsibility for the whole endeavor.
That’s a start – I invite my readers to contribute more.
Comment by merylrunion — April 14, 2010 @ 3:24 pm