I have a colleague who is very capable and gets his work done. However, he is a pessimist. Every time his superior has a job for him, he will 'warn' the boss, "I'm afraid this is quite difficult. We have a shortage of time and manpower..."

Without fail, his superior will get angry and impatient even before he finishes speaking, "If there are problems, get them solved! Whatever it is, get it done by next Monday!"

My colleage would accept the task grimly, but complain incessantly about it. However, he will work hard to finish the task and always completes his task within the designated deadline.

Although he never failed to meet the deadline, his boss was displeased with his pessimism. At the year-end review, he failed to reap what he sowed and complained about the injustice of it.

I told him, "In your superior's opinion, completing a designated task is your duty. You will not be given additional bonus for that. However, if you adopt a pessimistic attitude, he will deduct points for your poor attitude. No matter what duties you are given by your superior, you must be prepared to complete it. Since this is the case, why not adopt an optimistic attitude and accept it readily?"

Superiors never like hearing things like 'I can't do it' or 'It is very difficult'. Even if it is true, they do not like to be 'warned' about it by their employees, as it only implies that their employees think they are stupid and do not understand the difficulty of it.

If you use a warning tone to reject your superior's proposal, he may feel embarassed and provoked to use his power to force the task on you instead. Work has to be done, so unless your superior is a very compassionate and broad-minded person, do not attempt to defy him under such circumstances.


I hope you have learnt something useful from this!

 

 

 

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OH good article~~

Yes , we should do our work " No Excuses"!

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Well I believe that your friend should change his stance and instead of complaining about it, ask his superior to see if it is possible to get extra personnel to help out with the tasks. I don't think it would hurt to ask for support unless its one of those jobs that require people to a ton of work all by themselves and if thats the case labor laws if any could be broken.

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Well you see, he still got the job done properly. The main point about this is that he had the full capability to do the work, but he chose to be pessimistic about it.

I'm not saying that we should allow our superiors to be slavedrivers, but bosses obviously like their work done with as low a budget and time limit as possible. If you have the ability to do what the boss's wants without overexerting yourself, then why not show your confidence and professionalism by accepting it cheerfully? Also, notice the boss said 'Get them solved!' So if the employee really needs extra manpower, he can always ask Human Resource to get him some extra help, or get help from his colleagues, instead of complaining about it. It is better to show how to solve your problems without complaining, rather than complaining first, then solving them.


However you are right that employees have to speak up if the task is really too huge for them to manage. Instead of using a warning advice, one could make it seem more like a suggestion, such as 'Could I get some extra help? The task may be too complex for me alone to manage within the time limit.' Notice how different the tone sounds from 'This is too difficult for me. You should get some extra help.' The key is never to use assertive words or present yourself as someone who is afraid of difficulties.

 

 

 

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