My problem is I’ve got a clear job description that management and some coworkers who feel entitled to boss me around oftentimes forget because it suits them to offload what they don’t want to do on me. What infuriates me is, it lasts way longer to argue with them than simply getting the job done, but if I don’t establish a boundary I feel like an idiot, because I feel they offloaded their shit on me, meaning they’ll keep doing that in the future, because I didn’t establish a boundary.
Establishing a boundary sometimes means they badmouth me, complain about me to my superior or yell at me, but I’m in a union.
I’m also not a patient person and arguing with a coworker about job duties when those are clearly written is not my strong suit. I just want to do my job and get paid.
When management offloads like this, I comply the first time, but then I start half assing it, working slower, not doing the job as good as I could.
This is not sustainable and feels like bullying. How do you deal with this?
Don’t argue. No is a complete sentence. Talk to your boss about it if your coworkers have a problem with “no.” Perhaps express mild interest with appropriate additional compensation?
If you don’t enforce your boundaries, then no one will.
Double plus good talking to your boss. One of my people had this exact same thing happen to her. I went to the other dude and told him any requests for my people to do work outside my department had to come though me, end of story.
Nobody pulls that shit on my people.
This is great, sometimes you need to have those solid, clear boundaries.
If you want to be somewhat “diplomatic,” what I’ll do is give a response depending from whom it comes from.
Not my boss: “please check with my boss to see if he wants me to drop anything to help you.”
my boss: “I’m doing x, y, and z. Which do you want me to drop so I can do this new task?”
This is a much better response. In business you have to speak business-speak. This is the business-speak way of saying no.