Heavy Networking 631: Saying No

Today’s Heavy Networking is about time management. Why? Because you’re good at your job. So much so that your boss believes that if there’s something that absolutely must get done, give it to the busiest person on the team—you! You have too much to do. You’re stressed out. You’re thinking about quitting. Does it have to be that way? This endless cycle of starting a job, your new co-workers figuring out you can get stuff done, management realizing you do solid work, and then the dump trucks full of projects keep landing on your desk until you can’t take it anymore and start interviewing again? Our guest Tom Hollingsworth wrote a controversial blog post entitled “No Is A Complete Sentence” about why sometimes you need to say “No,” to even when it’s hard to do. We talk about the nuances of this approach, the risks you take when you say no, time management, balancing workloads, and more. Tom Hollingsworth is an Event Lead for Tech Field Day, co-host of the On-Premise podcast, and a regular guest across the Packet Pushers network. Sponsor: CBT Nuggets CBT Nuggets is IT training for IT professionals and anyone looking to build IT skills. You can sign up for a free CBT Nuggets trial. There’s no credit card required to sign up and you’ll have access to the entire training library. Visit cbtnuggets.com/heavynetworking. Tech Bytes: Palo Alto Networks On the Tech Bytes podcast we talk with sponsor Palo Alto Networks about two topics. First, Okyo Garde, a new wireless mesh product to support remote work. And second, a new bandwidth on demand option for Palo Alto’s Prisma SD-WAN. Show Links: No Is A Complete Sentence – The Networking Nerd The Networking Nerd – Tom’s blog @NetworkingNerd – Tom Hollingsworth on Twitter On-Premise IT Podcast – GestaltIT