Reply to How to say no to work w/o killing your government lawyer career?

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[quote=Anonymous]Can you sit down with your supervisor to discuss your workload and present a list of the projects you have and their deadlines? You can say you have felt overloaded recently and would hesitate to take on too many more projects at the moment because you won't be able to attend to them adequately. This lets you present yourself as managing your workload and bringing issues to your supervisor before they occur, also giving him/her the big picture, rather than having to say no to projects piecemeal as they come up. Your supervisor ought to know how much more work you are doing than your colleagues, but perhaps they don't -- in which case this will inform them.
 
I agree it is hard to say no to an assignment unless you are given an outright choice. I used to say no all the time in Biglaw because I could document how much I was billing, I had a partner to stick up for me and intercede on my behalf, and I wasn't planning to stay there long term anyway. I have never said no to an assignment in my government job because generally I can get it all done, and frankly, if I can't, no one else can either. Therefore if it really needs to be done, I will push other things aside or work late to do it because nobody else will. But if I really did need to say no for some reason, I would use the blueprint I outlined above. I have enough credibility after 3 years of working my ass off here that I am pretty sure my supervisor would understand and not think I was just trying to get out of working. If you are as valuable to your office as you say, hopefully you will experience the same.[/quote]

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