How to say "That's not my job"?

“I’d love to help you but I’m committed to XYZ project this week.”

Then walk away. Rinse. Repeat.

That has imbedded in it the message “You don’t assign me work, my manager does.” And of course the coworker is welcome to go up the food chain if they desire. They don’t desire. They were just hoping you’d take this on.

I had a coworker like that. He was new so I tried to be helpful for a while. But all he seemed to learn was that he didn’t have to do anything because I was doing his job and mine. I went to my boss (to whom I’d already complained multiple times) and said “fire one of us. Now.” He got the axe. I got a raise.

Yes. Especially if your schedule isn’t packed. And if you basically like your job, that’s okay. While it’s important to prioritize your priorities, i don’t think it’s great practice to build a narrow box around what your are willing to do.

I’d probably reply with something like, “i have a lot of stuff on my plate, can you talk to my manager about it.”

Unless it was some little quick hit that i had time to do, in which case I’d probably just do it, and hope he repays the favor later.

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Well, that story certainly puts me on notice.

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Also I’m away this weekend. Can you keep an eye on the servers?

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I need a mean girls-esque finger snap emoji to properly respond to this. My situation is not nearly as severe I don’t think. Small tasks, but frequently asked. I could not do most of his job, and he could not do most any of mine.

:rofl:

I’d love to help you but I’m committed to refereeing squabbles this week.

Seems like the best answer to the OP’s question . . .

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That sounds like a dysfunctional workplace. Couldn’t the manager, I don’t know, manage the guy before the need to fire him?

I gave a very abbreviated version of the story. All avenues were tried over the course of a year.

These two are good. Third option seems snarky to me.

Though I suppose it depends on why you think the coworker is going to you.

Does he erroneously believe it’s your job?

Does he not know how to do it?

Is he overworked?

Is he a lazy butt trying to pawn off work so he has more time to post on GoActuary?

Third–and (spoilered) fourth–options were intended to be somewhat snarky and tongue-in-cheek type responses. But there are some people that will get the message only when they’re snarked.

WRT the third option, some people also don’t understand that I have my own list of to-do’s; and asking the question of which one to drop might help convey the idea that I don’t have a say in which one(s) I can drop. You’ll also learn a lot about that other person (in relation the set of questions you posed) by their answer to that question.

But I do agree that tone of voice for that third option will also be critical to help make a distinction between “humor by giving an impossible decision” and being a snarky jerk.

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FWIW I don’t think the 3rd option is necessarily snarky.

I have used this occasionally and snark was the last thing on my mind.

On those occasions, the request was pretty valid (e.g. can you help me out with preparing a demo model for an upcoming sales pitch that the prospect has requested to be set along these lines), but will take a significant chunk of time off work that is on my plate, so my boss is fully in the loop on what I am working on.

I oversee pricing of farm and agribusiness, but our crop department gets occasional filing assistance from me. There is a guy in charge of the crop filings, but i put together the occasional AS/IEE exhibit which is usually only a few minutes of work. Until they ask me to do California which, if you have filed in that state before, you will know what a PITA that is.

This year I got smart. I was still necessary to fill out several exhibits, I’m probably doing at least 1/2 the work. But I told him I would fill out what I was needed for, and I would pass it off to him and let him cope with the rest. And surprisingly that worked well. I doubt it will change the frequency of CA filings, but if I can shift some of the pain that way, they’ll better understand the cost and understand why I can’t always do it at the drop of a hat. So, I didn’t refuse to do it, I just suggested we share the task and therefore only supply what they really needed from me.

TIL. Farm, agri, and crop require different departments.

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I’m thinking about cornering the FCOJ futures market…

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