You don't simply say "no" in any workplace. A well-functioning team is composed of skilled professionals. If you are being asked to do something, it is because

You don't simply say "no" in any workplace. A well-functioning team is composed of skilled professionals. If you are being asked to do something, it is because someone else has a problem that needs to be solved. "No" is an especially unhelpful response to that scenario. Other approaches can work: - "No, but how about this alternative idea?" - "No, this prerequisite is required. How can we make that happen?" - "Not without causing these other problems – let's decide if it's worth the tradeoff" - "No, that idea is fundamentally impossible. Here's why." If you work in an environment where engineers are never listened to, then it's a bad environment. But similarly, engineering requirements are not the only ones, and it's important to realise that quite often an engineer doesn't have all of the required information to make the correct long-term decision.