how to tell coworkers, “that’s not my job” — Ask a Manager

how to tell coworkers, “that’s not my job”

A reader writes:

I have been employed with my agency for five years. Six months ago, I was promoted, but no one was hired to take over my old job. Some duties have remained with me and others were transferred to other people, primarily a great support person named Robin. We has communicated with the relevant people about tasks that have been transferred.

The issue I am running into is that people are asking me to do things that have either been transferred to Robin, or that they could really do themselves. For the former, a cheerful “That’s actually one of Robin’s duties now!” sometimes works, but other times people will really push back with things like “Oh, I thought since this related to area X and not area Y, you could still do it.” My management always backs me up on these, but is there a way to convey my point a bit more emphatically?

For the people who are asking me things they could just as easily handle themselves, I get flustered. My own manager has made the excellent point that if I agree to help, that reinforces that these are appropriate requests when they’re not, and I get it, but I’m not the best at drawing boundaries without going overboard. Any advice?

I answer this question  over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.

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