Workplace Communication – Learning to Say No
October 29, 2009 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles
This article is for employees and business owners who want to create a workplace that has runs smoothly. Workplace communication is the source of 85% of misunderstanding. Learning how to talk in a way that everyone in the office understands will make happy employees and in turn happy customers. Your customers will be treated well because the employees feel empowered to do so. It will become the culture of your company.
There nothing wrong with asking for help. However, some employees tend to shirk off their responsibilities by asking other employees to help them. What they really want is for the other person to do their work for them. In the guise of asking for help, they get the other person to complete the tasks they should be doing. Most people will help the first few times. Then resentment starts to come in. Everyone wants to complete their own work and not be held back by doing someone else’s responsibility. A recent survey polled says 76% of people know someone at work who does this constantly. It may feel uncomfortable to tell a supervisor about it. It seems like such a simple thing, it’s very irritating yet; no one wants to file a formal complaint about it. After all, they think to themselves, they may need help themselves one day.
In an effort to savor some goodwill for the future, they allow themselves to be taken advantage of. Learning to say no it the only way out of this situation. No one wants to create office chaos with lots of complaints. When people are asked to help with projects that they will not get credit for, this creates imbalance. When each worker can focus on his or her own goals and see that these tasks are not in alignment with them, they will make the right choice. People try to add guilt by saying you are not a team player if you do not help.