Saying no at work is hard, especially when you are early in your career or you are really passionate about what you do. Often there is a huge amount of guilt attached, questioning whether you are a team player or not wanting to let your manager down.
But learning when to say no is one of the most important skills to learn in the workplace. Not only does it protect you from being overworked and taken advantage of, but it also helps protect the passion and drive you have for your job. Too often, eager employees are cursed with saying yes to everything, leading them to be exhausted, frustrated, and resenting the job they once loved.
Other times, you may find yourself subject to poor management or unethical behavior if you are asked to complete a task that you know you shouldn’t be doing. Saying no sets a strong boundary with the asked and reinforces that their request is wrong.
Below are some scenarios where you should say no at work and how to do it.
The task interferes with your actual responsibilities
Before saying no to a task, it’s important to have a clear understanding of your actual responsibilities. Review your job description, talk to your manager about priorities, and ask for clarification if needed. Make sure you’re not simply hesitant to take on a new task because it’s unfamiliar or challenging.
How to say no: I would love to help, but I don’t have the capacity at the moment.This response acknowledges the request while also setting a boundary. It’s important to be honest about your workload and priorities, and to avoid overcommitting yourself. This response also shows that you’re willing to help in the future when you have more capacity…..
Workplace communication is the process of exchanging information and ideas, both verbally and non-verbally between one person or group and another person or group within an organization. It includes e-mails, videoconferencing, text messages, notes, calls, etc. Effective communication is critical in getting the job done, as well as building a sense of trust and increasing productivity.
Workers may have different cultures and backgrounds, and may expect different ways of working and understanding how things should be done within an organization’s workplace culture. To strengthen employee cooperation and avoid missed deadlines or activity that could affect the company negatively, effective communication is crucial. Ineffective communication leads to communication gaps, which causes confusion, wastes time, and reduces productivity.
Managers and lower-level employees must be able to interact clearly and effectively with each other through verbal communication and non-verbal communication to achieve specific business goals. Effective communication with clients also plays a vital role in the development of an organization and the success of any business. When communicating, nonverbal communication must also be taken into consideration. How a person delivers a message has a large impact.
Another important aspect of effective workplace communication is taking into consideration the different backgrounds of employees. “While diversity enriches the environment, it can also cause communication barriers. Difficulties arise when a coworker’s cultural background leads him or her to think differently than another. It is for this reason that knowing about intercultural communication at work and learning how to treat others without offending them can bring several benefits to the company.
Workplace communication can be more than the transmission of facts and direct expectations. This communication can be about the forming of relationships amongst the staff and stakeholders, i.e. those inside or outside the organization that are affected in some way by the organization (a simple example would be stockholders). The communication that builds relationships can form or be affected by organizational culture
Businesspeople discussing business on virtual staff meeting during pandemic...getty
A new study by Logitech of 3,000 employees and 1,000 IT hardware decision makers in large organizations found that 89% struggle with video and 85% with audio in their work from home office. Less than 40% received accessories other than mice and keyboards from their organizations.
While these results are concerning, I didn’t find them surprising. When working with client organizations to help them figure out the best hybrid work arrangements, I invariably get pushback when I bring up investing into hybrid worker home offices. CFOs don’t want to “waste” money on employee home offices after already paying for a set-up at the office; in turn, IT and facilities directors express reluctance to stretch their already-thin resources to support the tech and ergonomic needs of staff working from home.
After all, these leaders say, we already gave in to employee demands for flexibility and allowed them to work from home part of the time. They can pay for their own equipment and furniture.
The Reality of Work From Home Office Setups for Hybrid Employees
In reality, the large majority of workers don’t pay to equip their home offices. When I ask about this issue in focus groups for my clients, employees tell me it’s the company’s job to fund their work from home needs. They feel it would be unfair for them to buy whatever they need for their home office just for the sake of doing work for the company. Indeed, in a survey I ran on LinkedIn with over 200 respondents, over two-thirds of respondents believe companies should cover the costs of equipment.
So they end up struggling with technology and ergonomic challenges. Doing so harms their productivity, since they can’t work as effectively. It undermines their wellbeing, due to physical discomfort from lack of ergonomic furniture and mental discomfort from concerns about how they appear on camera. It undercuts retention, because staff feel frustrated and resentful over not having the equipment they need to do their job well.
And it hurts their collaboration and communication: poor video and audio quality are a bigger problem for those the employee is communicating with rather than for the employee themselves. That involves other employees, but also external stakeholders, such as clients, vendors, and investors.
All of that harms company bottom lines: as I tell leaders with whom I work, do they really want to lose a sale because they didn’t get a good microphone for their sales staff? That’s not an exaggeration: the Logitech study found that 37% of respondents hold video calls with clients.
With 79% of companies switching to a hybrid work modality, according to the EY Work Reimagined Employer Survey, a large portion of the work employees do for a company will be done from home offices going forward. Given that, I tell my clients that it’s imperative to invest in equipping staff for work from home.
Logitech Insights on Challenges and Opportunities for the Work From Home Office
To find out more about the challenges and opportunities of equipping hybrid workers, I interviewed Simon Dudley, Head of Analyst Relations at Logitech, about the release of their study. He told me that Logitech discovered a common experience among most survey respondents.
At the start of the pandemic, companies told staff to grab whatever they could from the office in the transition to remote work. And that’s what staff mostly ended up using for their home office, along with whatever additional equipment more tech-savvy staff had at home or, in some instances, chose to buy online.
IT departments adopted a reactive posture: as Dudley stated, “IT departments sit there and basically wait for the phone to ring for someone to complain, on which point they go and try and fix that problem.” The problem with that posture? Most staff members “don’t even know what they could do to make their life better. But they do know what they’ve got today isn’t great.”
The Logitech study confirms employee concerns: 64% struggle with poor or inadequate light in their homes; 60% have poor sound quality through computer speakers; and 58% need to sit in an uncomfortable position to be on camera. They waste valuable work time figuring out technology: 53% check if their speakers and microphone are working, 41% fiddle with the viewing angle of their camera, and so on.
Yet staff don’t feel it’s right or fair for them to purchase better equipment and furniture themselves, and don’t feel empowered to reach out to IT or facilities to fix these problems. As Dudley said “the users are like, well, I assume this is the best that’s available. I mean, they’ve given me a laptop. I’ve got all the things, how can I say to the IT department, I want better when they don’t even know better exists?”
Of course, it’s not only IT and facilities that need to step up. Dudley pointed out that HR needs to get involved. After all, they are responsible for talent management. Optimizing employee productivity, wellbeing, and collaboration through support for worker home offices should be a major concern for them.
Dudley told me that it’s simple: just go to HR and ask them “how much does it cost you when your workers are off sick with RSI issues or with eye strain or with migraines.” By comparison, the cost of equipping a home office is small, and this wellbeing benefit doesn’t account for boosted productivity and collaboration.
First, we surveyed staff to determine their needs and concerns regarding technology and furniture, focusing on how we can help them be more productive and have better ergonomics and wellbeing. We encouraged employees to volunteer any suggestions on specific technology and furniture solutions they found to be a good fit for their needs. We also had the Institute’s IT and facilities staff conduct in-depth research of market options based on survey results.
Then, we determined an initial list of standardized equipment that IT and facilities felt comfortable they could support in employee home offices. We shared the list with staff members in another survey, and revised it based on their responses.
Next, we purchased equipment for staff members and shipped it to their homes. For anyone who needed help with the equipment, we arranged for home visits by IT and facilities staff. To address tax concerns, we developed a policy asking staff members leaving the organization to donate any bulky furniture that was impractical to return to facilities. Finally, we covered the costs of fast broadband for staff.
Dudley applauded this approach as exemplary. He did highlight that sometimes staff don’t know what they need because they may not be aware of relevant capabilities, and thus encouraged providing more hands-on guidance and expertise. I integrated that approach into my work with future clients.
Conclusion
In short, failing to invest in hybrid worker home offices is penny wise, but pound foolish. We know that much if not most of the work done by staff members for the large majority of companies going forward will be from home offices. And the large majority of employees won’t buy quality tech and furniture:
They feel it’s not fair to ask them to do so. Companies that fail to invest in home offices will lose out on productivity, wellbeing, retention, collaboration, and communication, all of which will reflect poorly on their bottom lines.
I help leaders use hybrid work to improve productivity and retention while cutting costs as the CEO of the boutique future-of-work consultancy Disaster
After being scammed for over $500,000, one man paid one such company $6,500 to recover his stolen savings. A year later, he’s received nothing — and he’s not alone. Like countless other cryptocurrency scam victims, this southern California man’s story began the same way: an unsolicited text message from someone who said they had the wrong number in late 2021.
Weeks of texts later, the man, who Forbes agreed to identify by one of his initials, “M,” realized that he had been conned, and had lost over $500,000 – 10 years worth of his financial savings. Immediately, M went to his local police department, which he says declined to take a report, telling him to go to federal authorities instead. After a few more weeks went by, M was feeling frustrated that his case wasn’t advancing quickly enough with conventional law enforcement.
So he turned to CipherBlade, a company that claims to have recovered “millions of dollars of stolen cryptocurrency.” M signed a contract with the company, agreeing to pay $6,500 for “up to” 10 hours of work. If CipherBlade helped recover any of his money, they would also get 12.5% of that, too. But now, more than a year has passed, and M hasn’t gotten a dollar back.
“Practically all such private services require upfront payments regardless of the outcome. The reason is obvious: if they were to receive funds only when the victim actually recovers losses, most of them would be out of business very soon.”…..Binance
Pig butchering, as it’s known, is a new type of online con perpetrated by overseas scammers who “fatten” up victims – making them believe they have made boatloads of money in cryptocurrency often using manipulated apps and websites – before absconding with all their money. Experts say billions of dollars are lost to this type of pernicious scheme each year.
The hard truth is that recovering money lost to crypto scams is extremely rare, even when law enforcement does take up a case. But in recent years, a nascent industry has cropped up, offering services that promise to do just that. These companies convince consumers to spend more money in order to recover their already-lost sums, with scant evidence that they regularly work as advertised.
Multiple U.S. financial and law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, generally tell scam victims to treat these services with a healthy dose of skepticism. That’s because even if one of these companies is involved, law enforcement still has to do its own independent investigation — for which victims aren’t charged. Plus, no private company has the authority to compel the freezing, much less the seizure, of crypto assets held at an exchange.
It shocks me to see how many entrepreneurs continue to get in their own way by focusing on the wrong things in business. There’s no reason to make success hard when it’s easy.
Don’t focus on what you don’t know at first you’ll just get frustrated and stuck. Focus instead on what you can do and keep going to gain momentum. This means focusing on the easy parts first, then coming back to the more difficult aspects of building your business. Hopefully, by then you’ll have built up enough momentum that it won’t break your productive focus.
The following are some of the basic business skills (especially soft skills) that drive you to success with ease. These basic skills are what truly set you up for success.
Focus on what works for easy success. Many entrepreneurs believe they’ll succeed, but they lack the basic business skills and common business sense to back up that belief. They waste a lot of time focusing on expensive details.
For instance, when I work with entrepreneurs in building or reinventing their businesses, I help them develop or re-create their branding. Occasionally, I get a client who gets stuck on such details as perfecting the font on the logo when he should be focusing on areas of the business that generate profits. People like this make it hard for themselves, instead of making it easy by trusting the process.
Obsessing over perfection or the wrong details isn’t cost-effective. You must learn how to prioritize. Know how much time to spend on each aspect of your business, and don’t waste time on less important tasks.
Avoid “Squirrel Syndrome.” It’s not uncommon for a business owner to spin their wheels and lose focus. When this happens, many people start looking for the next bright, shiny object to grab hold of. This is called Squirrel Syndrome.
Squirrels have a severe inability to focus.
Squirrels often dart back and forth—doubting their decisions—unable to choose a direction.
Squirrels have something to teach us: what not to do.
The Squirrel Syndrome may cause abrupt dashes from one idea to another or one project to the next. When this happens, you become unfocused and may even become frantic about not getting things accomplished. The result is, you delay or never complete important projects to reach your goals.
You can avoid Squirrel Syndrome by learning to recognize when a squirrel shows up in your life. Refocus by taking the time to define the project or direction in which you need to go. Then stay on task and turn off all distractions. Remember, every time you stray off course, it takes that much longer to reach your goals.
Focus on activities that create results. Focus is one of those basic-but-critical, habits you need to master if you want to be successful. Improve your focus on the day-to-day basic business activities you do best, and from which you produce extraordinary results. If you don’t, you’ll create higher stress levels and may experience burnout. When you spend most of your time and energy doing the business tasks you’re brilliant at and allow others (like employees or subcontractors) to do the rest, you reap the biggest rewards.
For example, don’t try building a website unless you’re a webmaster, and don’t try learning technical skills if that isn’t the best use of your time. Outsource those things instead, and focus on running your business so it can grow and prosper.
Multitask mindfully. The key to multitasking is to do it strategically and mindfully. Mindful multitasking means that you check in with yourself and determine how you need to focus in each new situation.
Mindful multitasking allows you to stop reacting to distractions, such as the automatic reflex to answer the phone or read an incoming text. It allows you to focus on the actions that provide the best results and disregard everything else. After you set your intentions for the day, create a to-do list that you can tackle using mindful multitasking, allowing yourself to be present in each action you take for the day.
Focus on developing one big project at a time. Don’t try to start multiple projects at once—it fragments focus and time. Entrepreneurs are creative people, often with many good business ideas. And it’s hard turning off the desire to act on multiple ideas at one time. But if you split your attention between more than one big project at a time, you’ll run into trouble completing anything at all. You’re going to need all your energy and focus to get your one new project off the ground.
Here are five ways to remain focused on whatever your task at hand may be:
Write out what you need to accomplish each day so you don’t forget important tasks. When a new idea comes to mind, don’t stop what you’re doing. Simply make a note of it and come back to it at a more convenient time.
Focus on your overall ideas and then implement an effective action plan. Keep your top three goals in mind and commit to achieving them each week. Write down the specific actions you need to take to achieve those goals.
Tackle creative work first. Mindless work will drain your energy, lower your focus, and waste your time. When you start with creative work at the beginning of the day, you can work on the most complex projects when your energy is highest before moving on to simpler tasks, such as answering emails or returning calls.
Understand what’s worthy of distraction. Don’t allow last-minute, nonemergency issues to kill your focus. Stay on task and stick to your commitments. Prioritize other tasks and put together a timeline so you’re not needlessly distracted.
Unplug from email, social media, and phone calls. Take a break from all outside distractions and focus on the task at hand. You’ll get a lot more done when you’re not constantly interrupting yourself.
If you have money, property, or other assets to pass down when you die—or if you’re a beneficiary expecting an inheritance from a relative—you want to make sure all gets distributed according to plan.
But it’s not unheard of for family conflict to complicate or completely derail the allocation of an inheritance—and this can even devolve into a type of theft known as “inheritance theft,” or “inheritance hijacking,” which could be charged as a misdemeanor or a felony. So what exactly does it involve, and how can you protect your money?
Charging excessive fees for services related to executor or trustee duties.
Marrying under false pretenses for the purpose of benefiting from an inheritance.
While inheritance theft can be perpetrated by professionals aiding in estate planning or execution, it’s more likely to occur within a family or among close caretakers. Emotional manipulation is one common tactic, and usually involves a family member who is after someone’s assets trying to get closer to that person, often by doing them favors. Similarly, family members may bad mouth each other to convince the person to reallocate their inheritance.
Note that stealing assets from an older adult or forging documents related to finances is considered a form of elder abuse.
How to protect your assets from hijacking
First and foremost, start your estate planning process early, and with the help of a lawyer who specializes in this area. An experienced attorney can help you draft a sound estate planning agreement. Keep multiple sets of extensive records of anything related to your estate, and discuss your wishes clearly with those involved.
You may also consider distributing assets early so they are dispersed the way you want, says Jason Porter, a UK-based senior investment manager with Scottish Heritage SG. This could prevent coercion or diversion, though you’ll want to work with a tax prep expert to understand the impact of large gifts.
Again, because emotional manipulation among relatives is a more likely scenario than any sort of professional theft or fraud, employing legal and financial professionals who specialize in estate planning can be your best protection. You may also consider having multiple executors who are accountable for distributing your assets according to your estate plan.
How to protect your inheritance
Let’s say you’re an heir, and we’ll assume you have the best intentions to honor a relative’s wishes and be above board legally. You can watch for family members acting weird or cozying up to a relative they’ve had a lot of conflict with. Financial abuse and exploitation—mismanagement or misuse of money—can be difficult to spot, but warning signs may also include sudden changes in banking, large or unexplained withdrawals or asset transfers, and unpaid bills.
The laws governing inheritance theft and the penalties for violations vary by state, but if you suspect this is occurring, an estate planning attorney or forensic accountant can help you pursue these concerns. You can also report elder abuse to your state agency.
The reason we create estate plans and wills is that we want to feel assured that our assets will pass on to the intended recipients. Unfortunately, our best-laid plans can go awry when Inheritance Hijacking occurs. One of the most frustrating things about inheritance theft is that it is often committed by relatives. This not only means that their actions can ruin family relations, but also that they are likely to get away with it if no proper measures are in place.
You can increase the odds that your assets reach the intended parties after you die if you take certain steps now. For example, it can be useful to discuss your estate plan with all your intended heirs present at the same time. This way, you can ensure that everyone is on the same page, making it much more difficult for the various forms of will hijacking to occur.
Ensuring that you have an attorney involved who will also be able to assist the family can help keep conversations consistent, and diminish the ability for anyone to fabricate what was said or what was intended.
You may also want to appoint two executors to your estate. This can reduce the chances that anyone will abuse their position. It can be especially helpful to nominate a non-family professional as one of the two executors.
It is also worth considering giving assets to your heirs before you die. Not only will this keep family members from fighting over them after you are gone, but you will also get to witness your heirs enjoying your gifts while you are still around.
It can be quite difficult to prove your case if you don’t know when the theft happened or aren’t sure who is to blame. You will need to do some detective work to get the evidence you require to prove your claim in court.
If you suspect something has been stolen but aren’t sure what it is, you’ll need to conduct your own inventory of the decedent’s estate. You may notice large withdrawals from bank accounts or changes in beneficiaries with life insurance policies, retirement accounts, or of other assets. If someone else is named as the beneficiary instead of the family member or if a title was transferred to another person, you will likely need to prove that the decedent was coerced into making those changes or manipulated by someone stealing your rightful inheritance.
If the theft was of money from a business or other fraudulent activity, you may need a forensic accountant to go through the records. Of course, you won’t need to take care of all this yourself. Your probate attorney will hire someone with experience in this area.
For physical items, you may have difficulty proving the person has possession of it. If the theft is of real property or large items, such as their classic cars, the title or deed would have to be changed. You would need to prove that the decedent was manipulated or threatened into giving them the property.
For smaller missing items, you may have difficulty proving they exist. If they have significant value, these items may have been insured, such as with expensive jewelry or artwork. Many times, the thief will sell these assets quickly to get the money and remove the item from their possession.
An estate plan that is prepared in collaboration with an experienced Santa Cruz will and trust attorney is much less susceptible to inheritance hijacking than one that you prepare yourself. A seasoned lawyer can help you arrange your estate plan in a way that protects your interests and those of your heirs, leaving far less room for confusion and making it much less likely that your will could be successfully contested.
If you would like professional assistance with this process, we invite you to contact our Santa Cruz office or one of our offices located throughout the state of California by calling (800) 244-8814.
Anete Lusina/Pexels
Below are some scenarios where you should say no at work and how to do it.
Managers and lower-level employees must be able to interact clearly and effectively with each other through verbal communication and non-verbal communication to achieve specific business goals. Effective communication with clients also plays a vital role in the development of an organization and the success of any business. When communicating, nonverbal communication must also be taken into consideration. How a person delivers a message has a large impact.
