Dealing With: “Can You Do Me a Favor?” Saying No to Effectively Manage Your Time

Have you ever been asked for a favor and before the person asking has even finished their sentence, you already knew that you WANTED to say no? But you said yes instead because you felt guilty, didn’t you? Requests for favors can cause us a lot of stress when we are deciding how to respond. We are navigating feelings of frustration, resentment and guilt while trying to maintain professionalism and manage the relationship. To give you an example, I was recently discussing some projects that I had been working on in a casual conversation with some friends and acquaintances. As I discussed the Career Development projects that I had been working on, one of my acquaintances took the opportunity to tell me about a job that he was planning on applying for. He then said, “Hey, I’m going to email you my resume so that you can look it over and edit it before I apply tomorrow, okay? What’s your email address?” My first thought was, “Excuse me!?” But of course, I had to quickly filter these negative thoughts and emotions, pause for a moment and silently break down this request: First, he was an acquaintance, not a close friend, so I was surprised that he had made such a bold request to begin with.Second, he completely ignored the fact that resume writing was part of my job and something that I got PAID to do. He was expecting this service for free.Third, he really didn’t ask if I could do him a favour, he TOLD me that he was going to send his resume t...
Source: PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: career featured motivation productivity tips self-improvement time management pickthebrain saying no Source Type: blogs