How do you deal with manufactured emergencies in the workplace? eg someone wants something done, and they think that you should drop everything you are doing, because they expect you to act on their request immediately, even though it’s not a high priority. It’s only a high priority because they think the world resolves around them. Or they sit on something for weeks, then when they come to you, they expect it fixed asap because it’s due in the next day, or within the next hour! It’s happened a few times recently with someone I work with. I hate contacting the external service provider and telling them it’s urgent, when it’s something that my coworker could have managed better. One of the “emergency” wasn’t actually an emergency - they were going to run out of work for a new person to do. They could have acted and sent their request 3 weeks earlier. I don’t think I will achieve much by going to our manager, as I can see it resulting in occurring more often. However, I do want to voice my concerns to my manager - just not sure how to word it properly. It’s doing my head in, especially their passive aggressive comments about what the consequences will be if it’s not done asap. I am trying to remind myself “Poor planning on your part does not necessitate an emergency on mine”, as it is something I read on eb some years ago.

I’m pretty blunt these days….. “I have a deadline myself which is my priority to meet this week. Next time please give me one week’s notice so I can help you meet yours. I can deliver this on xday.” Generally I do have more important deadlines so if they do escalate they just look like an arsehole and disorganised to boot. I’m blunter still if I know exactly how long they’ve sat on it for, or if I know they are giving me hours or days so they can take days or weeks to the review… nope nope nope.

Yeah, I’m getting better with being assertive and saying no. I am finally getting very tired of carrying those who for whatever reason, consistently don’t do what is required of them (exceptional circumstances are different of course.)

Its an ongoing problem for me and I hate it. I push back, I ignore, I escalate… but none of that removes the confrontation of dealing with it though. Sometimes I find it helps just simply telling them when it will be done by. “I need it by this Friday” - “we can get it done by Wednesday next week”. Often they’ll just grumpily accept, which then tells me it didn’t need to be done by their arbitrary deadline after all. Still makes for a shitty situation. I find the biggest problem I have is that we get these “emergencies” so frequently that its not really about whether we can do a “once off” delay of other work, it just continuously delays things for us. I’m actually being pretty hard lined about something atm because of this. I hate it but I don’t feel I have any other options. If there are repeat offenders then theres probably something that can be escalated up to deal with longer term. I find though that its anybody and everybody. Its a company wide problem for me.

I hate this. We have an employee at our work who does this stuff all the time. Sits on files for weeks and when they finally get passed to admin everything is urgent and if things happen late it’s always our fault and never his. He also catstrophises everything, ie a client will ask a question something and he will take that as a complaint (apparently if we are doing our job properly then nobody would have any need to question anything) so he will then demand that all our procedures need to be changed so that nobody every questions anything again. It is tiring but I can’t give any advice on how to change things.

Manufactured emergencies in the workplace

OnFire

How do you deal with manufactured emergencies in the workplace?

eg someone wants something done, an...

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CoolasaCucumber

I’m pretty blunt these days…..

“I have a deadline myself which is my priority to meet this week. Ne...

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Heyho2

Yeah, I’m getting better with being assertive and saying no. I am finally getting very tired of carr...

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wannabefree

Its an ongoing problem for me and I hate it.

I push back, I ignore, I escalate… but none of that re...

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hillsmumbec

I hate this. We have an employee at our work who does this stuff all the time. Sits on files for w...