I was feeling great Monday morning heading off to work until I walked into my office, now just to let you know I had worked real hard last week to get my work all caught-up after being gone a week to a conference and it was a good feeling on Friday afternoon to leave work with a spotless desk. So when I walked in my office on Monday morning after a nice weekend and saw my desk piled high with work and sticky notes on stacks of paper, I was defeated before I even began. I knew that my boss had been in the office over the weekend because he didn’t have a chance to really catch up after the conference, but I never expected that everything that he had in his office was going to be “dumped” in mine. At first I was pretty angry because I didn’t have a clue what I was going to walk into, and in my mind I was all set to tackle the day fresh, but instead I got blindsided when I first entered the door. After mumbling under my breath, I decided that I was going to explain to my boss how I saw what had happened, how it made me feel and why I don’t do this to the rest of the staff. I went to his office and explained that I was feeling great this morning all ready to make the day a great one and then I was unexpectedly met with the piles of work in my office and I felt defeated, because I had worked so hard to have it nice and clean when I left on Friday and that is what I expected to walk into on Monday morning. I told him that no one likes being met with a mess on their desk which was put there by someone else, and asked if he would like it, to which he said no. I also explained that I never would do that to the rest of the staff because of how it makes you feel “down and defeated” and we need to keep ourselves in the “up mode” as much as we can. I let him know that there is a better way to handle this situation that would be a win-win. First, if you have a lot of work to pass off onto another employee or staff member it is always best to tell them before hand and then show them what you have to pass off to them. If possible, it is great if you can go through the stack and explain what may need to be done instead of leaving “Post its” on everything, but if you cannot, make sure your notes are clear so that they do not have to come back to you for clarification, which wastes time. Let the person know that you understand that you have given them a lot of work at one time along with everything else they need to do, but that you appreciate that they are there to help keep things moving along. For me it wasn’t that I didn’t want to do the work that my boss left on my desk because that is what he hired me for, it was the “way” he left the work for me to find and not say anything to me about it. Once again, communication is the key to keep your business running smoothly and successfully and to keep work relationships on the good side. The next time you have to “dump” extra work on someone take the time to do it right and enlist their help, not just expect it. Put a little sugar on the bitter pill, it makes it go down much sweeter.
“Treat others as you would want them to treat you”
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