沒時間？如何讓老闆幫你減少工作量

If it seems like you never have enough time to complete your work before three new projects are handed down to you - always with the instructions that they're high-priority - you probably need to talk with your manager about your workload. But with more companies expecting people to do more with less, how can you talk about this in a way that your manager will listen to? Here are five steps to talking to your manager when your workload is overwhelming.
如果你好像從來沒有足夠的時間完成工作，三個新項目又交給你了——上級的指令總是說這些項目是很重要的——你可能需要和經理談談工作量的問題了。但隨着越來越多的公司希望人們用較少的資源做更多的事，你怎麼能用經理聽得進的方式談論這個話題呢？當你被工作壓得喘不過來氣時，這裏的五個步驟可以幫你跟經理談談。

1. Don't assume that your manager knows how high your workload is. Your manager can't help you if she doesn't realize that there's a problem. A common mistake in this situation is to assume that your workload is so obviously high that there's no way that your manager doesn't know, and so therefore she must not care or can't do anything about it. But in reality, you're the person paying the most attention to your workload, not your manager - and she may assume that since you're not speaking up, there isn't a problem. So…
1. 不要以爲你的經理知道你的工作繁重。如果你的經理不知道有問題，她也幫不了你。在這種情況下一個常見的錯誤是你認爲你的工作量太重，經理不可能不知道，所以她肯定是不關心或者無能爲力。但在現實中，你是對工作量最關注的人，而不是你的經理——她可能會假定你沒有說出來就是沒有問題。所以…

2. Talk to your manager about the situation. Pick a time when your manager isn't rushed and ask to talk about your workload. Explain that it has become unmanageable and why (for instance, that you've taken on the responsibilities of someone who left without anything being removed from your plate, or that a particular account has doubled in size). Explaining what's behind the workload increase can help because your manager may not be focused on the facts as you.
2. 和你的經理說下情況。選一個經理不忙的時間和他談談你的工作量。說明它已經無法被掌控以及解釋下原因（例如，你承擔了別人的工作，但自己的工作沒有任何減少，或者某個賬戶的規模翻倍了)。解釋工作量增加的背後原因會有幫助因爲你的經理可能不會和你一樣關注實際情況。

3. Suggest options. You're most likely to get the help that you need if you come prepared to talk about options. For instance, you might say, "I can do A and B, but not C. Or if C is really important, I'd want to move A off my plate to make room for it. Alternately, I can act as an adviser to Jane on C, but I can't do the work of C myself if I'm also doing A and B."
3. 給出選擇。如果你準備好幾個選擇方案，那你很有可能得到你需要的幫助。例如，你可以說：“我可以做A和B，但不能做C。或着說如果C真的很重要，我想把A放一放來騰出時間給C。又或者我可以在Jane做C時給些建議，但我不能在做A和B時還做C的工作。”

4. Frame it as a matter of making the best choices. If your manager resists making these kinds of trade-offs, you need to keep pushing the issue. Say, "I hear you that we want it all to get done, but since I'm never going to be able to get to it all, I want to make strategic choices about how I should be structuring my time, and make sure that you and I are aligned on those choices." If your manager won't help you prioritize, then come up with your own proposal for what you will and won't prioritize and ask her to tweak it or OK it.
4. 爲做出最好的選擇列個概要。如果你的經理不願意做這些權衡，那你需要主動推進這一問題。你可以說“我明白我們都想把所有事情做好，但我不可能一個人做這麼多事，所以我想在時間安排上做些取捨，並確保我們都同意這些選擇方案。”如果你的經理不幫你安排事情的優先次序，那就提出自己覺得重要和不是特別要緊的事，然後問她是要調整還是執行。

5. Enforce boundaries. To take on something new when your plate is already full, you need to either get rid of something else or at least push it back. So if a new project comes your way, go to your manager and ask about trade-offs: "If I work on this now, it means that X and Y will have to pushed back by a week. Is that OK to do, or should we put this new work on hold until X and Y are finished first?" Or, "I can do this new project and X, or this new project and Y, but not all three in the time frame we have."
5. 明確承受的底線。當你忙的焦頭爛額又要有新任務時，你需要停止其他事情或者至少把新任務推後。因此，如果你被安排做一個新項目，去找你的經理詢問有沒有折中辦法：“如果我現在做這個工作，那意味着X和Y將不得不被推遲一週。這樣可以嗎？或者我們是否應該先把新工作放放，等X和Y做好了再說？”也可以說“我能做這個新項目和X，或者這個新項目和Y，但不是在現在的時間安排裏把3個都做好。”