A reader writes:
I’m helping a colleague, Lucinda, with a project – one thing we have to do, but it surely’s tedious and by no means pressing so it’s dragged on. Lucinda is vibrant and does nice work, however now we have totally different kinds. She talks a lot with out saying a lot, whereas I choose a quick, direct e-mail. I’ve heard that Lucinda will be possessive of her work, and this is very a lot her project.
She’s very busy and I’m in a little bit of a lull, so it could be straightforward for me to maneuver this project ahead besides that she needs dialogue and consensus on each little factor. I’m tempted to simply determine that if it will get slowed down as a result of she needs to be concerned in each determination, that’s as much as her, and if conferences sometimes run lengthy as a result of Lucinda’s chatty, properly generally you make chitchat so your coworkers such as you. But on the identical time, Lucinda appears to be performing like she thinks she’s managing me, and she or he’s doing it actually ineffectively.
The elements of the project she asks me to do are actually fundamental. After I end these easy duties, she evaluations my work and books hour-long conferences to debate it – a week after our final hour-long assembly about the identical easy job. She’s repeatedly prompt that we do the identical work in parallel, then examine our outcomes afterwards, regardless of me explaining that that’s not a nice use of our time. She appears to have a sturdy desire for a way we strategy the work (there are a few methods and no proper reply), however she received’t say what it is and I can’t inform. She needs us to work up a few totally different approaches and seek the advice of the remainder of our crew, who’ve already been consulted and aren’t affected in any respect by this. I simply need somebody to make a determination so we will begin the precise work we have to do.
Really, it’s no pores and skin off my again if she needs to maintain the project and it by no means will get completed. But it is pores and skin off my again to have weekly hour-long conferences with a peer to debate variations of the identical work, or to be pressured into infinite consultations and conferences the place nothing will get determined.
I attempted to e book a shorter slot for our subsequent assembly however she re-booked it for an hour, and I’ve tried asking her straight if we want that lengthy and explaining why I don’t assume we do however she appears to have ignored that e-mail. Help!
I reply this query over at Inc. as we speak, the place I’m revisiting letters which were buried within the archives right here from years in the past (and generally updating/increasing my solutions to them). You can learn it right here.
