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Another option four: They have their own job to do and perhaps your task isn't in their highest priorities? Or perhaps they want to work on it but haven't had t
by misnome 8y ago
Another option four: They have their own job to do and perhaps your task isn't in their highest priorities? Or perhaps they want to work on it but haven't had the time to make proper progress yet.
If it's important enough that it's actually blocking team progress then that's a management problem, but nothing in this seems to indicate it's anything like that.
- rimliu 8y agoHow does this case sit with: > You see them again a bit later, and they insist they're > "working on it". Time passes. Again, you hear from them: > "top of my list".
- misnome 8y agoBeing polite in a world of shifting priorities? Maybe they fully intended to dedicate time to it but another emergency/high priority pushes it down again. Or they want to work on it, and don't want it to be taken away, but haven't had the time yet. All of these seem more charitable, and contribute less to a toxic work environment, than automatically assuming that all of your colleagues are manipulative, dense or flaky because they have more important things to do.
- ared38 8y agoWhile I agree jumping to the conclusion that they're unreliable and flaky is ridiculous, being "polite" like that does no one any favors. Just be honest and explain you've been caught up with higher priority issues and haven't made progress. That gives the asker an opportunity to explain why the task is more important than you thought, find someone else with less on their plate to do it, or at the very least understand what's taking so long.