From the perspective of the person receiving the request, this is just yet another request in a minefield of random tasks, all which have varying priority and d

From the perspective of the person receiving the request, this is just yet another request in a minefield of random tasks, all which have varying priority and deadline and complexity. Even if all the things they have to do are easy, just juggling them all is logistically challenging. Without the right process or motivation, there is nothing making the author's "nothing task" require immediate attention. It is common for a "simple" request to end up taking 3-6 months, because there's no obvious way to balance work on that task against all other work. The hope is that team integration paradigms like DevOps can help identify and alleviate them. Take these blockers (that's what they are, not "canary macguffins", just old blockers) and automate them or remove them entirely. If you can't, add a step that allows your request to jump the line. Involve your managers, but use empathy and open communication.