Good Morning,
Yesterday I read a Dilbert comic strip where the boss comes up to an employee and basically says “I know you said that if I asked you to do one more thing your head will explode, but…” and the employee’s head explodes. It was a funny comic, but underlies a big problem we have today.
We have been doing more with less and have not seemed to stop. Less people are doing more and more work. The volume is increasing and quality is suffering. In the end, the business which pushes doing more with less get’s hurt because of the lower quality and growing urge to cut corners to meet the every shortening deadlines and growing volume of to dos.
Back in the 1980’s and 1990’s we used to talk about corporate clones who seemed to become the person the companies wanted them to be so that they could move up in the company and keep a constant stream of future leadership. Corporate clones would buy better cars, bigger houses, and do other things as every other corporate clone did. They worked ungodly hours and did what was expected of them.
In today’s business landscape we have a new type of corporate clone: people who acquiesce and take on more and more work when they know that they will not be able to do the job to the level of performance necessary. They want to impress the boss so they take on more and more. The word NO does not seem to exist in their vocabulary when they take on the jobs. Often, though, it does seem to exist quite often when asked about the quality work and the lost projects that were buried when taking on new work. ‘Did you get this done the way I asked?’ …. ‘No, not quite…..’
To save ourselves and our companies a lot of problems, we need to know our limits. Sure we need to be stretched to help us grow and be ready for our next challenge, but there is a limit on how much stretching we should be doing at any one time. Someone who manages a team of 4 and is asked to take on a team of 4,000 has a lot of stretching to do to be ready for that new infrastructure. It can be done, but at what cost? Doing five projects may be fine, but trying to do 20 may be just a bit beyond the scope of one person.
If you can manage to work in teams and spread out the work, great, but even teams can be overwhelmed.
You are actually doing yourself, your boss and your company a favor when you tell them that you are at your limit of work and cannot take on anything else. Maybe offer to divest yourself of some work or projects in return for taking on the new ones. Be flexible, but be realistic. While your head may not explode, taking on more work may and often does cause other work to suffer or be lost in the shuffle.
Say No, and be more productive!
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
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