What do I do when people give me work outside of my jurisdiction? Do I tough it out, or tell them to knock it off?
Hey, I'm an officer at a multinational. Since I do communication, a lot of bosses, one level above me, keep on trying to shove work my way. This puts me in an awkward position. Either I say "no, you're not the boss of me", and the person will hate me and shove the work my way anyway. Or, I do the work and get crushed under the load, working until 2 AM at night. Or, I do no work, which will get me fired in no time.
Somehow, other people seem to have tactics for this kind of thing! And well, I don't. Please help me.
Regards,
Crushed under Piles of Work
The answer is none of the above. Focus on your tasks in your job description, and those assigned by your direct supervisor.
I have been in this exact situation—someone over my own boss’s head was trying to get me to complete all of her work, and suddenly I couldn’t get anything done on my own. But this person did not have the authority to fire me. I spoke with my own boss about it, and he agreed that I was not responsible for any work that he did not personally assign. From then on, whenever this woman tried to pawn off work on me, I shoved it right back and told her to run it through my boss. She threw ten kinds of fits, but that didn’t help her whatsoever (and was kind of fun to watch).
Though the people in question are technically over your head, that doesn’t give them the right to stomp on you. If you aren’t able to do things outside the scope of your job and they fire you, then perhaps you’re better off to begin with.
