When I started my internship this summer, I thought it would be a good idea to jump on every little task that was thrown my way. I think most people, myself included, would agree that working as hard as you can contributes to making the best impression. And while I think it may have been useful to show that I could handle the workload, I feel like I've lost a little respect from my superiors.
I feel that I was seen as a try-hard by my boss. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot I can do at this point, as my internship is set to end within the next week. But looking forward, how should I say no to staffers? Is there a way to indicate that I'm still a hardworking person, without giving the impression of a spas?
Just. Say. No!
Oh hey there Nancy, didn't realize you were a regular on WSO
Someone gets it.
Be assertive and say no, it's understandable you want to pickup every task and look like a super intern/analyst but there is times where you have to say no. When you pick up other peoples work you are just ruining your own schedule and piling onto your workload. If he doesn't understand communicate to him how much work your doing.
Enthusiasm and a willingness to help should never be viewed as negatives. However, quality > quantity and it is the former that is usually what's remembered.
At this point, a sudden change from your side can reflect yourself as bad. So you can complete the internship as how you are now and let this be a learning lesson, which you need not repeat here then.
I'm not sure about the optics at this point but a different tactic may have been:
"If you have something you need done I'm your guy, if I don't know how to do it I'll figure it out and if I can't I'll find someone to show me how, but it'll get done."
Instead of constantly asking for work. Nail the tasks they give you and you will always be employed. I have work to be done, and if you're reliable, motivated and learn from your mistakes...I'm giving you more, not less.
Good stuff, thanks
When I was in banking, no was not an option. Times have changed.
You have a week left. Give 200%. Finish strong. Get recommendations. Get an offer. Its a week.
Give it your best this week, don't say a God damned thing.
In the future, practice what I like to call "tactical unavailability."
"No problem. When do you need this by? Ah I see, hold on, I'm actually flooded and simply won't be able to have it until (insert time they can't work with)."
"I'd really like to help, but your boss has me doing xyz."
This is the correct answer.
Agreed. if you're organized with your tasks its a little easier to articulate. Also, don't proactively offer to do stupid shit when you've got stuff on your plate. Focus on meeting deadlines with quality work. You want to be the intern with the best output, not the most output. It won't make you a hero to take on 4 tasks instead of 2 if all 4 are late and sloppy. Also, always budget extra time for yourself when people ask how long something will take. If you cut yourself short and are late, you look bad; if you underpromise and overdeliver, you're a rockstar. It's all optics my friend.
I like this idea, thank you.
This is a good teaching moment where you can really practice two skills that will make you a successful analyst. The first being the ability to communicate with your staffer about your workload. Always ask what the deadline is for an assignment. Always communicate your current workload. The second skill is expectations management. If you constantly take on work, people will assume this is normal for you and will expect you to be a yes man. You can avoid this by not overloading yourself.
This isn't rocket science. You need to prioritize all the things you're asked to work on in terms of their risk/reward to you (both practical and intangible, immediate and long term, tactical and strategic, results and relationships, etc). Once you've done this priority ranking, anything that's lower priority is something you can't handle because "too busy", "low bandwidth", "urgent deliverables", etc etc. This priority ranking is constantly evolving based on what flows in and out of your workload. So knowing what to do is fairly straightforward, actually implementing this is more challenging but definitely doable. Maybe doesn't directly answer the OP's question, but I guess what I'm saying is that how to say no isn't the hard part
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