Due to the highly demanding corporate life, many of us could hardly have any free time for ourselves. Nowadays working overtime is a common thing. If your boss or coworker is biting into your personal time by giving extra workload, and if you’re burdened with even more responsibilities than what you’re paid for, you should definitely learn how to say a ‘no’. Check out some tips on how to say ‘no’ at work.
Table of contents:
- Stick to your priorities
- Don’t fall into the ‘yes’ trap
- Learn to stand up for yourself
- Suggest some alternatives
- Check your schedule
- Measure the worth of extra work
- Find out who your friends are
1. Stick to your priorities
If your coworker asks you to do something, but you have something very important lined up beforehand, you should tell him/her you can’t cancel the plan because that’s also important. I understand how it’s difficult to say ‘no’, but first of all think about your tasks.
2. Don’t fall into the ‘yes’ trap
Sometimes even the best professionals fall into the ‘yes’ trap since there are many loafers who want to put their work on somebody’s desk. Don’t be naive and don’t say ‘yes’ to such people, otherwise it might become a habit and you’ll always be overloaded with extra work.
3. Learn to stand up for yourself
In today’s fast-paced dynamic business environment, pressure from all ends is more likely. However, if you allow the pressure to take better of you, it will be only your fault. If your personal time is always being intruded upon by extra work, you need to stand up and say ‘no’ unless it’s really important.
4. Suggest some alternatives
This is one of the best and indirect ways to say ‘no’ at work. If your coworker or boss is dumping extra work on you, why not suggest alternatives of rescheduling submission dates, splitting up the work, or even giving it to someone else? You are not the only worker in the office, so you don’t have to do all the additional work yourself.
5. Check your schedule
Before accepting someone else’s work make sure you’re not missing your own deadlines. It’s extremely important to realize that you must do your own work at first, so if you have a lot of tasks to do, just say ‘sorry, I can’t help you, I have lots of work’, he/she will definitely understand you.
6. Measure the worth of extra work
It might sound strange a little, but it’s also vital to measure the worth of extra work. If you know that the additional work isn’t going to help you gain anything or learn otherwise, say a firm ‘no’. There’s no point wasting your time on such things.
7. Find out who your friends are
Finally, you should find out who just your office buddies are and who your actual friends are. It will make it easier to say ‘no’ when it’s necessary.
Do you know some other ways to say ‘no’ at work? Share your thoughts, please!1