A client recently asked me, “How can I say “no” to a request at work, when the request is outside of my job responsiblities?”
Below was my email response back:
As with most things in life, the short answer is “it depends.” ?
Some of the things that it depends on . . .
- It depends on who is asking
- It depends on WHY—why are YOU being asked, especially if it isn’t your area of responsibility.
- It depends on the situation (how long will it take to accomplish the request—if not long, consider showing up as a team player and taking on the task)
- It depends on how well others are taking on extra tasks (are extra tasks getting dumped only on you?)
- It depends on what other priorities you have
- It depends on your competence to do what is asked
- It depends on your social capital situation (do you owe the person a favor, or do you want to have them reciprocate a favor in the future?)
- It depends on what you have to say “no” to in order to say “yes” to this request
You don’t want to say things like, “That’s not my job” or “that’s not my responsibility” or you risk sounding overly rigid or someone who isn’t a team player.
If a superior is asking you to do something, the better option instead of saying “no” outright is to reframe your “no” as a request to re-consider your priorities. In this case, you can briefly mention what you are working on and ask if the request should take a priority. If it is a superior, but not in your “chain of command,” (another department head, for example), you can always say you need to check with your boss on your priorities before you can commit to work outside your area of responsibility.
If it is a peer, and you don’t want to do the task, you can briefly give a response, such as:
“Right now I need to focus on X and Y, so I don’t think I’m the best person to do Z”
“I’m swamped and realistically don’t think I’d have the time to give this the attention it deserves.”
(in short, just give a plausible reason for not wanting to do the task)
And, then, if possible, offer an alternative . . .
“Joe, would you be able to set this up this time?” (just ask someone else, add a reason, if there is one, such as, “since you are driving the project.”)
Do YOU have other ways to say, “No”?