Mistake #25: Don’t do what you are asked to do!

Me:  “This is just for 30 days, but if you can work with “Susan” then I’ll have someone trained by then.”

“Betsy:”  “I’m not working with “Susan.” She chews people up and spits them out. Not even for 30 days. Sorry, but I just am not going to work with her.”

I haven’t previously asked ”Betsy” to do anything ‘above and beyond’. But, now she refused to pitch in until I have someone trained. You can imagine what happens the next time we have a project, or a short-term phase where I need help. Can I expect her to pitch in? I don’t think so. She was the least likely person I thought would refuse. What happens when workers do that? It means that you are left to ask the very same people who put in inordinate hours. Again. I refuse to do it.

Remember, although I’m a boss, I have a boss, too, and need to run a department – efficiently and effectively. I can’t do it when people refuse to do something that I ask. After all, could they do what I do?  If so, could they do it better? I even asked for a solution to working with “Susan”, but “Betsy” didn’ have one.

Could you do your boss’s job? And, if so, what would you do?