How do you manage a work environment where everything is an emergency?

[Anonymous]

My questions sums it up. How do you manage your schedule and your sanity and your workload when people are constantly dumping things that need to be done right away and given to you with a deadline of less than one day or immediately.

[Anonymous]

Do you have a manager?

Sometimes this is not fixable and you need a new job, but if you have manager support in telling people "no" (or in delegating to someone else) you can bring it under control.

[Anonymous]

If everything is a priority then nothing is

[Anonymous]

Honestly, if it's not an actual emergency, like no one will die or starve or lose their home, this is one of few things I would job hop over. One person won't change a work environment like that and it will wear you down.

[Anonymous]

What industry?

[Anonymous]

I had a job like this. The key things is communication.

I had a weekly meeting with my boss, and I would present him with a list of the tasks on my plate. I would focus on stuff with due dates this week or next week, or big looming projects, and I would put estimated level of effort, in hours next to it:

Task A - Half a day
Task B - Two days
Task C - One day
Task D - One day
Big Project E to stay on our timeline - Two days

And I would make him pick. What do you want me to do this week? I've got five days.

Let's say he says Tasks A, C, and D, (in that order) and whatever time's left on Project E.

Then I'd say, okay, I'll let Larlo know that Task B is not happening this week. This will also make us half a day behind on project E, which means Benchmark F is probably going to slip a day or two.

Then, later in the week, if someone walks up to you with Surprise Urgent Task X, you can immediately go to your boss and say, I've gotten a request from Larla to do Surprise Urgent Task X, it will take one day. If I do this, project E is likely to slip another week, or I can push Task D to next week.

My attitude remained calm, firm ("is there anyway to get them all done?" "unfortunately no"), clear, helpful, and flexible - I was happy to take on any task, but there are only so many days in the week. This moves the decisions and issues where they belong - with management. Remember - if more of these projects are critical than can be effectively done by you, they can hire another person. They always have that options. If they're choosing not to, then those tasks are not actually critical.

[Anonymous]

Who are these people? Are they other members of the team who did not meet deadlines, so your work is delayed? Make sure they know you need two days to work on the product once it is given to you and then make sure your manager knows they got it to you late.

Your supervisor? Use the strategy above.
But also it seems like you need to recommend a process -- do you have a team calendar for dates? Do you have a backward mapping and work distribution meeting? Do you have a weekly standup to talk about what people are working on and the deliverable dates?

Processes and procedures will help you a lot.

[Anonymous]

New job. Sounds like a broken culture.

Unless you actually work in an ER

I hate fake "emergencies" for BS work.

[Anonymous]

Keep a 2hr emergency block on your calendar time, use it for this garbage

[Anonymous]

I wonder if you’re my co-worker. Same culture at my fed agency. It’s ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

I had a job like this and enjoyed it, but it’s because I had autonomy and the discretion to determine which “emergency” needed to be handled first. My boss trusted me and could get me back-up if the workload got too high. I also had no other deliverables, so nothing ever slipped.