It's been 10 years since I started working, and I feel like I've pretty much solidified my own personal tips and tricks for doing my job.
This time, I'd like to write about my thoughts on the importance of the "power to say no."
This will be limited to discussions within the company.
However, this is based on my own experience, so there may be workplaces where the following points are completely irrelevant.
Classification of reasons for asking someone to do a job
It's common in any workplace to be asked to do or assigned tasks by your boss or senior colleagues.
There are several reasons for assigning tasks.
A. If you want to learn the job and grow professionally
B. When you are too busy to do it yourself
C. When it is more efficient to leave it to that person.
D. When the person in charge is different and the task is being delegated.
E. In cases where it's simply too much trouble, or as a form of harassment.
For A through D, there are, to some extent, rational reasons for assigning the work.
However, conversely, if it doesn't fall under categories A through D, then it falls under category E, and I think it should be refused.
A. If you want to learn the job and grow professionally
This is something I often say to new employees or those who are not yet familiar with the job.
Conversely, if you have already memorized and become accustomed to the job, you should suspect that it falls under category E.
B. When you are too busy to do it yourself
Being busy is a plausible reason.
However, this reason is probably the most tricky one.
It's difficult to judge whether the person making the request is actually busy or not.
C. When it is more efficient to leave it to that person.
This is a good reason to ask for something.
There are certainly jobs that go smoothly because you can ask that person to do it while they're out and about, or because they're well-informed about the situation.
However, this can lead to an imbalance in workloads, with too much work piling up on highly capable individuals. Therefore, it's crucial for those being asked to do the work to know when to decline.
D. When the person in charge is different and the task is being delegated.
The reason is that it's the least offensive one.
However, if you overuse this reason, others may start using it to bring it upon themselves.
Even if the responsibilities differ, be careful if you're working on a case-by-case basis, relying on each other for support.
E. In cases where it's simply too much trouble, or as a form of harassment.
This is the reason why it becomes a problem.
Requests that fall under this category should generally be refused.
Otherwise, the person making the request will just take the easy way out, and it will be a waste of time.
Asking someone to do a job for you inherently involves risks and costs.
There are many disadvantages, such as the time cost involved in explaining the handover process and the risk of information becoming degraded due to hearsay.
Only when the benefits of asking for help outweigh the drawbacks should it be considered a job worth entrusting to someone else.
Different ways of declining
It's often difficult to refuse requests from superiors or senior colleagues, so I'll share my own methods for declining and handling such requests as a reference.
A. If you want to learn the job and grow professionally
Once you've been doing something for about 10 years, like me, you can handle most tasks, so you don't get asked to do things for that reason very often.
If you're being asked for this reason, I think it's best to simply accept.
Learning new tasks is beneficial.
B. When you are too busy to do it yourself
When asked for this reason, it's usually reason E.
Therefore, "I can't do it right away either, so by when do I need to get it done?"
That's what I've decided to ask.
If the schedule allows for flexibility, I can accept it. If the schedule is tight, I think it's best to say, "That date is a bit difficult," without causing any offense.
C. When it is more efficient to leave it to that person.
When asked for this reason, I usually find it convincing, so I don't often refuse.
However, if reason E is clearly evident and it seems impossible to refuse,I often ask things like, "By when do I need this done?" or "I think it will only make things more difficult if I do it, is that okay?"
If the deadline is long, you can accept it, but if it's short, it's easier to decline.
D. When the person in charge is different and the task is being delegated.
This is a job that I should be doing, so it's a little difficult to refuse.
You should accept the task and then assign it to them again for the same reason in the future.
If the quantity is really large, I think it's fine to ask for help.
E. In cases where it's simply too much trouble, or as a form of harassment.
If you are asked to do something for this reason, it's a good idea to ask for detailed information about the deadline, method, and how to proceed.
If you ask detailed questions like, "By when do I need to do this?" or "How should I proceed?", the other person might get annoyed and decide to back out.
My boss often follows this pattern.
They'll ask me to do just a part of a task, like "Order the catalog" or "Send it by fax," and then gradually try to leave the rest of the work to me as well.
However, once I started returning the work to the person only after completing the requested portion, I stopped experiencing so much trouble.
Points to note
I realized that when I wrote it impulsively, I couldn't refuse it as directly as I thought.
However, being asked to do something you don't agree with is not good for your mental health and feels unfair.
Rather than refusing everything, I think it's better to only politely decline requests that are unreasonable. This will create a healthier work environment.
The key point is,The goal is to make them think, "Asking this guy for help will just cause him a lot of trouble, so I'd better do it myself."
Be careful not to be taken advantage of by a bad boss.
A compilation of work-related articles published on this blog.