We all have that will to please when we get a new job. Yes, sure, understood – most of us are freshers and need to prove ourselves and all that jazz, but at what cost?
Did you ever make coffee for someone you didn’t have to?
Went out of your way to give someone a ride?
Agreed to an impossible deadline?
Taken on more than you can deal with?
Felt demeaned but brushed it off just because you can’t say no?
Breaking news – you aren’t obliged to do that all of that sugar!
Assertive, assertive.
Here are a few tips for saying NO.
- Smile
Believe me, smiling really is the solution to almost everything! If leaders of the 2 blocks had smiled more often, the cold war could’ve been avoided. Refuse the order to make that coffee, with a smile. In today’s generation people don’t realise that smiling works like smileys.
“Fuck off :)” See what I mean?
- And give a believable excuse
“I’m feeling a little sickly and am off to make the world’s worst coffee, hoping I’ll feel better.”
- Apologize
“I’m sorry, really am”
- Compensate
“…But give me until tomorrow, and I will make you a mean cappuccino to make up for it!”
Don’t worry, we’ll deal with what happens tomorrow, tomorrow.
- Sail to the wind
Of course you can’t always be giving excuses. At times you can just give the truth.
“I’m in a rush and will not be able to give you a ride today.”
“Completing the project by that deadline is frankly impossible. Can you give me until ___”
“I’m currently handing this and that. Can either be kept on hold so I can complete what you seek?”
“I don’t like your face, it makes my skin crawl. Plus you stink.”
Ok probably not that.
Only remember, you are allowed to say no. Sometimes, you’re even expected to, and asking you is simply wishful thinking on their part. We’re humans after all, and have our own personal bandwidth, and stretching that is called exploiting. We’ve all been that unassertive idiot a few times. Don’t let it continue.
Corporate Balderdash 