Boss is overwhelmed but won't delegate.

[Anonymous]

I've been in a new job for about seven months and am bored out of my mind. We moved and I took a big step back professionally to have a flexible job with easy hours. However, while I'm at work I want to be challenged. My boss is clearly overwhelmed and continues to take on more and more work. She tells me regularly how overworked she is and that she needs to hire another person for our office. However, I'm completely underutilized. I know that this isn't an issue of my performance, as my boss regularly tells me, "You're a superstar." (not exactly professional, but that's what she says) I think it's a personality thing, as she's a crazy overachiever. How can I get her to delegate some work? We're both miserable at the moment, and her delegating work to me could easily solve this issue.

[Anonymous]

Have you asked her for more work? If not, start here.

Perhaps she doesn't think you are capable (i.e. the right resource) to tackle the tasks that she could delegate

Or perhaps, in her mind, it will take too long to delegate so she's better off doing thw work herself (a common trap)

[Anonymous]

You can't. My boss is the same way. Even worse, he has taken work away from me because he thinks I have too much on my plate and need to have more time to focus on a few things. He is wrong, and I've told him, but it doesn't matter. He thinks he knows what is best and no matter what I say we will do things his way. He also complains about being overwhelmed, yet can't delegate. It is a control issue.

[Anonymous]

Nothing like a boss who can't delegate to really stifle your career. Am there. Doing that. Or not doing that, actually, because the boss doesn't trust anyone else to do it.

[Anonymous]

I have worked for people like that, OP. They just love to say "Oh, I have so much work to do!!" and yet are not willing to give up control of anything and let someone else help. As a PP said, ask your boss to give you something to do. "Tell me what I can do to help you" is what some people need to hear. Also emphasize that you have the time to devote to the work and that you will keep her informed of how things are going.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Clearly I'm not alone. I've told my boss multiple times that I'm ready to take on more to help lighten her load. I've asked her to please delegate more to me, and she keeps saying, "Don't worry. I will!" However, it never happens. I think that 10:57 and I have the same boss. I was talking with a former (wonderful) boss last night, and she mentioned that I need to suggest concrete things that I'd like her to delegate to me and to explain how delegating it will benefit her. I guess it's worth of shot, since none of my other tactics have worked.

[Anonymous]

Well, I have been on the other side of this scenario... as the overwhelmed boss.

I often felt like it would take me more time to explain how to do something than to just do it myself - or to explain all of the pieces of the puzzle.

Two strategies - insert yourself into situations where you can learn more about what's going on and, therefore, be more useful. One thing I learned was to let my assistant sit in on lots of meetings, because then he understands the context, what's going on, etc., and it's easier to hand things off to him. Second strategy - suggest concrete things and describe how you'll do them. (I'd be less interested in your analysis of how it will help me -- what your former boss described -- and more interested in you convincing me that you know what you're doing)

I had an assistant who would stand in my office and NOT LEAVE until I had given her something to do. I loved her.

[Anonymous]

Demonstrate that you can take on the work with little supervision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, I have been on the other side of this scenario... as the overwhelmed boss.

I often felt like it would take me more time to explain how to do something than to just do it myself - or to explain all of the pieces of the puzzle.

Two strategies - insert yourself into situations where you can learn more about what's going on and, therefore, be more useful. One thing I learned was to let my assistant sit in on lots of meetings, because then he understands the context, what's going on, etc., and it's easier to hand things off to him. Second strategy - suggest concrete things and describe how you'll do them. (I'd be less interested in your analysis of how it will help me -- what your former boss described -- and more interested in you convincing me that you know what you're doing)

I had an assistant who would stand in my office and NOT LEAVE until I had given her something to do. I loved her.

Ditto on this.
I'm in the exact spot. I am totally overwhelmed and have an assistant who keeps asking for work.
However she has no knowledge of the complexities of the things I need to do. Training her is something I don't have time to do.
So I give her the admin tasks I can but otherwise she's pretty useless to me.
I'd like it if she would get aggressive about learning about what I do, our products and customers and processes and procedures and really dig into my department and our organization. I'd feel much more comfortable delegating.
She definitely pulls the "give me some work and it's going to do xyz for you" but I find it annoying that she thinks my work is so simple that it's a matter of easily handing her a task. It's not.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes people fall into the trap of not planning ahead, so that a given task can't be delegated when the deadline is very close.

You might be able to ask if there are any projects on the horizon that you could start (or start learning about) ahead of time.

Or it could just be a control thing, but then you need to separate yourself from the drama.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Demonstrate that you can take on the work with little supervision.

Agreed

[Anonymous]

If you prove yourself, your boss will eventually delegate.

My boss only delegates to me because he knows I will get deliverables completed. He also had a kid recently so he has been putting in less hours.

I was the one who could not delegate because our staff wasn't very competent. We recently hire 2 new people who kick ass. I know when I give them something, task will be done properly. I worked with this one woman who just never completed a task so I just stopped giving her work. She just coasted by with her flex schedule with her mediocre work. Eventually she was fired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you prove yourself, your boss will eventually delegate.

My boss only delegates to me because he knows I will get deliverables completed. He also had a kid recently so he has been putting in less hours.

I was the one who could not delegate because our staff wasn't very competent. We recently hire 2 new people who kick ass. I know when I give them something, task will be done properly. I worked with this one woman who just never completed a task so I just stopped giving her work. She just coasted by with her flex schedule with her mediocre work. Eventually she was fired.

*has been putting in fewer hours

[Anonymous]

I think with the recession there have been so many staffing cuts, and companies have not re-hired with the economic improvement. That means its very hard to manage workloads-everything is crisis mode, there's a huge inability to plan in advance. Its very stressful.

Adding to that, companies who DID hire seem to have hired at lower experience levels, making assistants relatively useless.

I know this is the case at my firm for me, and many of the firms I speak to who are my clients. Whenever I mention my own workload I am continually offered temps and admin assistants. Thanks a bunch for nothing.

[Anonymous]

When you are overwhelmed, deciding what to delegate and then gathering all the info needed to do the delegation is just one more thing on the list.

Look for something that is just starting up or is in the early stages, and insert yourself as much as possible so you have an idea from the get go.