Delegation

[Bread]

As some here might know, recently started working again. The work is not without it's merits, but one thing that bugs the hell out of me is delegation, which is rampant in modern offices. Being the 'new guy', everybody even remotely related to my work tasks tries to take a jab at me and seems to delegate more and more little tasks that they can't be bothered with, to me. I know from experience that giving into this constant barrage of 'coulda' and 'would'cha' leads to people using me like a landfill for their unwanted work, and would love to stop this from happening- problem is, dunno how, tactfully.

I generally don't like to complain, but this is something that always manages to tick me off some. People always seem to be out to ease their own toil at the expense of others, and there's no clear way for me to just say 'I have my hands full with my work, why don't you do yours?' without being labeled as a troublemaker or the likes.

 

[IgnoredOne]

You should just tell them that you have too much on your plate at times; and if they want you to do X, then it might be delayed until tomorrow or the day after. You can be polite and sweet and nice about it, of course - smile and explain how you're busy and be extremely eager to do it, but unfortunately, you're just not capable of accomplishing the task right now. They'll eventually learn that they have to respect the sanctity of your schedules.

 

[Bread]

Problem is, being the new guy and having somewhat unclear subordinate position to these people during my first months, they are pretty savvy on how much work I got, since they were in charge of teaching me the ropes at the job. Now that I got into the routine of doing the basic stuff, they just throw every little bit of stuff they can't be bothered at me.

 

[Lonesome Crow]

Hahahaaaaa.....

Know who ur immediate supervisor is.
If you orginization is well orginized..there should be sometype
of structure or change of command.

Other supervisor used to pull that honeysuckle
on me all the time. Throw their responsobilites and duties on my desk...

While my boss has me working on his **** responsiblities.lmao
I prioritized my work as such..

When other people want me to do their work for them...
' when I get around to it..sure"
In a nutshell...their honeysuckle gose into a stack that will never..ever..look at or work on..
Thats what they get for being lazy.lmao


Ive have people try to throw thier weight around and threathen me to go have confernce with my boss..
Ive walked straight to my boos's office...
waiting for those **** people to explain why in the hell I should be doing thier work for them.Lmao

 

[IgnoredOne]

Problem is, being the new guy and having somewhat unclear subordinate position to these people during my first months, they are pretty savvy on how much work I got, since they were in charge of teaching me the ropes at the job. Now that I got into the routine of doing the basic stuff, they just throw every little bit of stuff they can't be bothered at me.

Are you an intern or a paid employee? If the latter, you should have a definite supervisor that you can explain your issues for. There's usually a tactful way about it.

What is your work, and what kind of extra stuff? Being in IT, I find that I spend two hours a day idling at times, for better or worse.

 

[Lonesome Crow]

The tthing of it is...those other people dont know how much work my boss have given me....Many..many projects will be deligated from him to me. Sometimes many assignments will arrise out of the ordinary...My boss is the only one that knows those things....other people dont.

Im also ex military...responsibilities are stucture as such...I take orders or instructions from only one person..then I deligate the work load to my assistant.

If other supervisor needs work done or thier department is overloaded...They are not allowed to pass the work load without talking to me or my supervior.

Its to protect the little guy from being taken advantage of.

I bascailly follow those same guidelines.
Sometimes Ill have to consel my asistence to not take on work not assign to them by me...Its to protect them. As I would not take on work not assigned to me by my supervisor. This way no body throws their wieght around for being lazy...

 

[TheSolitaryMan]

Since I haven't had an actual job yet, I'm struggling to understand the whole concept for this.

Surely there must be regulations on how much you can "delegate"? Sounds to me just like a method of dumping responsibilities on people that shouldn't be dealing with them :\

 

[Lonesome Crow]

Sometimes...Ill actaully deligate work or task to my assistance That I can get done in an hour myself .but I would give them an entire day or pace it according to the deadline
I protects my workers....they do a good job for me becuase of it.

 

[Naleena]

You should just tell them that you have too much on your plate at times; and if they want you to do X, then it might be delayed until tomorrow or the day after. You can be polite and sweet and nice about it, of course - smile and explain how you're busy and be extremely eager to do it, but unfortunately, you're just not capable of accomplishing the task right now. They'll eventually learn that they have to respect the sanctity of your schedules.

That's some great advice....lol Good job.

 

[IgnoredOne]

Since I haven't had an actual job yet, I'm struggling to understand the whole concept for this.

Surely there must be regulations on how much you can "delegate"? Sounds to me just like a method of dumping responsibilities on people that shouldn't be dealing with them :\

Freeform delegation really shouldn't happen as such; ideally, jobs fall within defined duties, with some elasticity, but not as much as what Bread is experiencing. Unfortunately, in some companies(especially smaller), its not as defined as such. A large part of my job, in fact, is to manage exactly those skills and account for the exact skills of each individual employee and which tasks could be assigned to him/her and expect expeditious completion. Such measurements are also a significant portion of the the ITIL structure for best practices.

There's nothing wrong with delegation per se, but it needs to be kept within the scope of the work and the skills of the employee. Asking your sysadmin to pick up your lunch, for example, is not a good use of your billable hours when he could be loadbalancing the server.

As you appear to be in engineering, like my father was, I suspect the biggest issue that you'll be facing is not as much delegation but people who are eminently unqualified with the job(but who have it anyway) essentially dumping it to you to do their calculations and their work for them so they can take credit later. That's only somewhat avoidable, but it is indeed unfair.

 

[Bread]

Surprised by the sudden surge of replies, but trying to reply the best I can.

Are you an intern or a paid employee? If the latter, you should have a definite supervisor that you can explain your issues for. There's usually a tactful way about it.

What is your work, and what kind of extra stuff? Being in IT, I find that I spend two hours a day idling at times, for better or worse.

The latter, thankfully- problem is, this organization is very poorly managed. We have about 80 people in different cities answering to one person, who is really only interested in the profit margin, not so much about personnel issues. Internal systems are a joke, we have outsourced too much and keep track of every **** thing manually.

Work in a media company, generally making adverts, checking reports and producing graphical content. Extra stuff generally consists of 'keeping an eye on FB bids', 'keeping an eye on projects designated to Producer X, in case there was something you could take care of' and 'keeping an eye on the office mail, just in case there's something there you can pick up' and generally 'keeping an eye on things if there's something you can do in my stead'. Latest development involved me having to keep an eye on the ad bids on daily basis, but I managed to reason it down to twice a week. Thankfully have some spine left, no matter how bad people try to grind it away. *Produces stump of spine*

I managed to get one person off my back with a diplomatic approach in the vein of 'Teach a man to fish', but my other immediate 'superior' is ruthlessly efficient in delegating the small stuff over to me.

 

[IgnoredOne]

Take the opportunity to learn what you can, and get out of that place - that's what I would do. Honestly, the place sounds like its going to be a crapfast of office politics later if not sooner. Keeping on eye on the email 'just in case there is something you can do' is an amazing waste of time.

 

[Bread]

Take the opportunity to learn what you can, and get out of that place - that's what I would do. Honestly, the place sounds like its going to be a crapfast of office politics later if not sooner. Keeping on eye on the email 'just in case there is something you can do' is an amazing waste of time.

I'm planning on going solo or getting alternative employment...eventually.

This place was a blessing of sorts in it's timing (was running very low on cash), but I seriously doubt working here long-term is good for physical or mental health, least of all when I'm perceived here as means for the people above me to buy more free time, while struggling with conflicting orders from the man at the top for his own personal ad campaign.

 

[IgnoredOne]

I'm planning on going solo or getting alternative employment...eventually.

This place was a blessing of sorts in it's timing (was running very low on cash), but I seriously doubt working here long-term is good for physical or mental health, least of all when I'm perceived here as means for the people above me to buy more free time, while struggling with conflicting orders from the man at the top for his own personal ad campaign.

Admittedly, it helps a lot to realize just what delegation is for - time saving when you have skills to use that only you can do, as well as just how much automation and independent systems could help. Definitely things to look into if and when you ever decide to run solo, or even have people of your own. God, you think that some people can learn Excel adv spreadsheets, eh?

But yes, watch out for yourself. No one else in the world is going to do that for you, and it does sound like you're on a proverbial ship searching for her iceberg.

 

[Lonesome Crow]

Thats why you cant take on what's not assigned to you, even if you're not
bussied at that moment. When it gets that way...I'll simply just
tell my assistent to double check or follow up on their work.

You'll never know what's going to come down the pipe.
Lots of little stuff that'll add up over time. Those little stuff can actaully
bite you in the ass if you dont keep track of them. It'll confuse you even more
if you're not good at multy tasking.
What might take 10 mins before might take hours at a different time
becuase of clithes in the system.
Other times...dealine will shift or orders get pulled in.
Other times there's enmergies such as equipment failures..etc..etc
The only person that's going to evaluate you is your immiate supervisor.
And according to your supervisor he/she might not know you're taking had
volunteer yourself to work that you shouldnt have.

Yes he has his personal campain...
I worked directly for the owner of the company.
Is he his own boss??? Yes and NO.
He take orders from our clients...and bascailly kiss thier fucken ass all day
and deligagte some ass kissing my way when things arnt running so smoothly.

Yes, you're new to this company and you're trying to prove your worth.
In a nutshell you spread yourself out too thin.

You're going to have to sit down and make a list of your assignments
and priortise your work and dont take on anymore.

There's going to be your basic routine or work you need to maintain everyday to begin with.

Where you given a job discriptions or your duties?
If you where..you need to read it again and follow those intructions.

 

[Bread]

You're going to have to sit down and make a list of your assignments
and priortise your work and dont take on anymore.

There's going to be your basic routine or work you need to maintain everyday to begin with.

Where you given a job discriptions or your duties?
If you where..you need to read it again and follow those intructions.

Gotcha. I gotta dig up my contract, and take a look at it. And definently need to learn to say 'no' to every **** thing. But as said, yeah, I try to prove myself too much, and end up biting on more than I can chew.

 

[IgnoredOne]

Gotcha. I gotta dig up my contract, and take a look at it. And definently need to learn to say 'no' to every **** thing. But as said, yeah, I try to prove myself too much, and end up biting on more than I can chew.

Nothing wrong with doing as much as you can, just make sure that you're benefitting from it and not being taken advantage of.

 

[Bread]

Nothing wrong with doing as much as you can, just make sure that you're benefitting from it and not being taken advantage of.

My prime concern, that.

I'm not a firm believer in the 'All my hard work is going to pay off' philosophy- been burned way too many times in my previous temp jobs and the like. Too many carrots turned to sticks.

 

[IgnoredOne]

My prime concern, that.

I'm not a firm believer in the 'All my hard work is going to pay off' philosophy- been burned way too many times in my previous temp jobs and the like. Too many carrots turned to sticks.

It won't. There's plenty of hard work that doesn't pay off, obviously. The key is to try to learn from your experience so that you will have skills that you can market later - how to actually do so, which skills those are, etc, is all part of the sometimes tricky strategy of life planning.

I do my best to stay ahead of the curve and try to have niche skills; so far, I've been fortunate. Life is always going to be a challenge with very few reliabilities, unfortunately.

Are you in Finland?

 

[Bread]

It won't. There's plenty of hard work that doesn't pay off, obviously. The key is to try to learn from your experience so that you will have skills that you can market later - how to actually do so, which skills those are, etc, is all part of the sometimes tricky strategy of life planning.

Aye. Got the blisters, but at least I'm somewhat wiser for the future.

I do my best to stay ahead of the curve and try to have niche skills; so far, I've been fortunate. Life is always going to be a challenge with very few reliabilities, unfortunately.

Are you in Finland?

Yup- sadly, the only real perceived skills I got tend to be ignored by my employers, most of the time. This time, I got some lucky break and got to make some ads, but the folks up top are still disinclined to let me have all the tools I need to work my best. At least I got the bare essentials, coupled with my wits and artsy streak, so I'm gonna be okay in that regard.

And, er, yes. But I won't disclose my location further, in case I incur the wrath of the folks at the top. Y'never know. Why'd you ask?