the boss

[Anonymous]

I'd be careful with the "let me show you my lists and you can tell me what to let slide" approach. My boss would say, "I'm paying you to figure that out - why are you asking me to do it for you?"

Been there - done that - it didnt work...

[kglade]

I can second that opinion. Just today in a meeting with several staff, one of my co-workers made the mistake of saying that he couldn't take on any more projects without letting something slide. My boss's boss gave him a public scolding, told him to work Saturdays or Sundays and be grateful he has a job. It was embarrassing to listen to.

[Bryan]

Ya know, that hacks me. In my past, I've been asked to (and agreed to) work 2 full-time positions, including taking on senior management duties in a global org in a different area of professional expertise (simultaneously with being a first-line supervisor in my "real" field of expertise); I've also worked 90+ hours for months at a time. I'm against neither hard work nor long hours when needed. In both these cases, the need was real. (Gulf war.) Important things got done; less important things got done when possible. And in both cases, management was very reasonable about less-necessary things slipping.

In these cases, II'd acknowledged the working assumption was a not-completely-insane boss. At least we now have evidence supporting the idea that the assumption of common sense and decency was weak...

So, my second set of recommendations:

1) Project: "Find new job" (I'm not being flip; marketability is your best defense)
2) Project: "Buy and read James Loehrer's 'Stress for Success'" (Again, not being flip. This is one of the 3 best books on stress out there; the other two are "Margin" and "Overload Syndrome" by Richard Swensen, but they won't help you as much in the heat of this particular battle.)

'Luck.

[pd_workman]

I think that *if you are working for a reasonable boss* there are better ways to approach this, than "what can I let slide?" which is somewhat confrontational. Asking for further information like:

- Is this urgent? What is our deadline?
- I am working on xyz. Can I finish that first, or is this more important?
- As soon as I do xyz, I will get onto that.
- When are you meeting with abc?
- If I get it done at x:00 will you have time to review it?

Pam

[Bryan]

I'll be more precise next time. "Let slide" was intended to be an amorphous catch all for your far more helpful specific phrases.