When the Boss Gives You One Project Too Many

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/jobs/when-the-boss-gives-you-one-project-too-many.html?ref=business

by FluidDjango • 15 years ago

23 11 15 years ago

joering12• 15 years ago

its nice when boss give you one project too many. nice, especially when you in my shoes:

- boss does not know how to manage my time. one day he doesnt give any projects then he yells nothing was done then he gives out hundreds of long projects and expect to be done right away. - boss tells you friday morning that there is this huge project we need to finish by tuesday so no weekend (on paper i work in office mon-fri) and no holiday. then leaves to see one of his girlfriends in the middle of the day comes back 3 hours later - boss tells you that people work 20% more time than you and in next 5 days if that would be any other company you would work 100 hours (and he is being serious) - boss has his bonus structured accordingly to his hours he put into work. he constantly brags that he works until 1am and you leave at 8pm, despite that your working hours are 8-5 (when you reply you have family thats is wife and kids, he replies, well maybe you have a point i dont have a family, but when he says that he is proud of it). - you leave for a lunch break for 30 minutes and your boss tells you not a good idea - "look at me, I never eat during the day, so why would you?"

and so on. so you, I would loove to have one more extra project to do, wrap it up over the weekend within couple hours and go home to kids and wife.

andreadallera• 15 years ago

You've got a shitty boss and a shitty job. If you're worth your dime you should start looking for something else right now.

yzhengyu• 15 years ago

People should try negotiating first. If that fails, then start looking for a new job.

Unfortunately, what I gather from the behaviour of my peers is that they lack the spine to do so. They can't muster the courage to draw a line in the sand.

So they keep picking up assignments, fail to do them adequately, and need to perform heroics to cover their ass till some other guy comes along to save them.

Ironically, some of them wonder why they keep getting passed up for promotion. I don't have the heart to tell them why.

rpwilcox2• 15 years ago

From the article:

> Ask what you should do first. Should you stop working on X and Y and finish this new project first?”

How... niave. In my experience, in these situations the boss will say, "Work on Y"... then when X is due, wonder why X isn't done (and blame you).

loboman• 15 years ago

Then say: on date Z, you said I should work on Y. Keeping records of what you are asked to do and of what you do helps.

rickmb• 15 years ago

In reality the blaming part is rarely true (unless the boss is a real asshole), and the rest is perfectly reasonable.

Unless you're the kind of employee that needs constant hand-holding and micromanagement, you're still responsible for your other tasks. If X will slip because of the new work, it's up to you to communicate that clearly to those concerned.

Sure, some people expect the boss to anticipate and keep track of all of that. Usually the same people that bitch about not being given enough responsibility, freedom and trust...

In the end, it all depends on communication: if you don't clearly agree on what will happen to X and Y, both you and your boss will be screwed. Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups.

rpwilcox2• 15 years ago

> Unless you're the kind of employee that needs constant hand-holding and micromanagement, you're still responsible for your other tasks.

The micromangament thing goes both ways: Perhaps you're the boss that doesn't trust their people to do it right [implicitly or explicitly], or create a situation for your employees where everyone is constantly fighting fires (short-term projects) instead of tending to mid to long term objectives. (When "mid term objective" might even mean "a week from now"... depending on how bad it is).

So, even if you're not an employee who needs micromanagement, you may get it.

Then, someone remembers about the X project, suddenly, and it's a big emergency (and probably the employee's "fault", because it "was on your list of responsibilities".

I agree that communication should be clear, but even when it is sometimes you get called on the carpet for not doing that task you were not given time to do. (Although another commenter suggested getting things in writing... which might help.)

j_baker• 15 years ago

Actually, this tactic has worked quite well for me. More commonly, it's a case of person A asking me to do X and then person B asking me to do Y not realizing that I'm working on X already. When this happens, I usually say "I'm already working on X. Are you saying I should tell A I need to do Y first?"

This puts them in a double-bind: do they tell you to work on Y and come off looking like an asshole to person A? If it truly is important (or they are assholes), they'll say yes.

Then it's a simple matter of telling person A that you'll be behind on their project and letting politics take its course. If project X is really important to person A, then they'll go talk to person Y. Either way you're in the clear. Once you've gotten another person involved, it's much more difficult for someone to gaslight you in the manner you speak of.

When the Boss Gives You One Project Too Many

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