Oh ayuh, but the threat, though. See, that whole being-understanding thing doesn't work in an office environment, not as default behaviour. They don't give a good goddamn about your problems, and it's not malicious, it's just absense of care. When you show you have any inkling of giving a damn about what's going on with them, you've shown your hole card.
Again - this isn't for everybody, I've worked with kickass people, just it's better default behaviour.
P: I need this photocopied immediately. Y: I have $xyz to do first for $others, but as soon as I'm done, I'll get right on yours. P: But I need mine done before the end of the day! Y: That is a problem, since [go into the intricate details of why each person needs each thing done before P's thing gets to get done] and so you can see my dilemma here! Now, I figured I'd do your copy job at the same time as this thing here, so as to save myself a trip, so that I get your thing done plus I'm not wasting $others' time. What would you suggest?
By this time, the person has ideally fled the scene. More realistically, they say something like "Well, you can do mine now, and it only takes five minutes!", in which case you launch into it again. If they continue to push, I still say you pull out the "I need assistance prioritising things" - the threat of bugging your manager because $asshole can't be fussed to wait an hour usually stops most of them.
The essence to pulling this off without charges of insubordination is understanding. Understand completely that $asshole is probably just wrapped up in their own world, and to them, your issues aren't theirs. You're not someone to be mistreated or treated well, you're a resource that they can use to get smaller stuff done so they can get bigger stuff done. They're not being malicious, most of the time.
That way, you can pull off the "But I want to help!" tone without dying of internal giggling. :D
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Date: 2005-10-26 03:29 am (UTC)Again - this isn't for everybody, I've worked with kickass people, just it's better default behaviour.
P: I need this photocopied immediately.
Y: I have $xyz to do first for $others, but as soon as I'm done, I'll get right on yours.
P: But I need mine done before the end of the day!
Y: That is a problem, since [go into the intricate details of why each person needs each thing done before P's thing gets to get done] and so you can see my dilemma here! Now, I figured I'd do your copy job at the same time as this thing here, so as to save myself a trip, so that I get your thing done plus I'm not wasting $others' time. What would you suggest?
By this time, the person has ideally fled the scene. More realistically, they say something like "Well, you can do mine now, and it only takes five minutes!", in which case you launch into it again. If they continue to push, I still say you pull out the "I need assistance prioritising things" - the threat of bugging your manager because $asshole can't be fussed to wait an hour usually stops most of them.
The essence to pulling this off without charges of insubordination is understanding. Understand completely that $asshole is probably just wrapped up in their own world, and to them, your issues aren't theirs. You're not someone to be mistreated or treated well, you're a resource that they can use to get smaller stuff done so they can get bigger stuff done. They're not being malicious, most of the time.
That way, you can pull off the "But I want to help!" tone without dying of internal giggling. :D