How to politely decline unproductive jobs assigned by my manager?

Question

I'm working on contract basis with an IT giant. Since I have good experience on the project which I'm working now my manager asks me to train the new recruits whenever they join. Giving knowledge transfer (KT) to more than one person is consuming ample amount of my working hours and most of the time I end up working extra hours to compensate the time consumed in KT. Also I never add these working hours ( KT hours ) in my timsheet.

Now, as days goes by my work load is piling up and I'm not able to give my fullest in the project due to these non productive activities. Somebody please tell me a way to work around this situation so that I can politely say or hint my manager that I'm not comfortable on these jobs?

Answer 1

First, you should be accurately reporting the hours you work. Depending on where you work, falsifying a timesheet (even if you're underreporting) could be illegal, and if nothing else you're currently not giving the company an accurate picture of what you spend your day doing.

You shouldn't go to your manager and just say you don't like this work. Everyone has to do some stuff they don't like doing, and the response will probably be "Too bad." What you should do is tell him that you're concerned about your ability to give your best effort towards productive work on the project when you're spending so much time training new people.

If you start accurately reporting your hours, even if you're salaried exempt, you can point to these reports and say "I spent X hours per week doing training over this time period, which lead me to do Y hours of overtime. I appreciate the trust you've shown in me with this added responsibility, but I'm concerned about how these extra tasks are affecting my productivity on the project. Is it possible to get someone else to help out with training new recruits?" However, if your timesheet shows that you're getting all your work done in the normal number of hours, your manager will probably ask why the timesheet says one thing and you're telling him another.

Also, this is based off the assumption that you're okay with doing the work, but it's just taking up too much time. If you're actually just uncomfortable with training people period, that's a different discussion that needs to be had, but it will probably have implications for your future and advancement within the company if you're unwilling to take on this kind of added responsibility.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, you don't get to decide what activities are productive and unproductive - the manager does. The manager thought you would be good for this role and allocated resources (you) according to business need. The idea is that you would be effectively doing the task you were given.

With regard to timesheet, to second the comments to OP, the hours spent on KT should be logged on the timesheet and there should be no need to compensate with overtime to catch up on tasks displaced by KT. If you are not allowed to work overtime and are expected to fill out the timesheet accurately, then do not work overtime, and/or fill out the timesheet to reflect actual hours worked.

With regard to giving your fullest: if this means taking longer or lower quality for tasks with a rigid timeframe, I would suggest to bring this up to the manager in your next status check:

"Hi ___, I feel like I am starting to struggle with balancing KT and my regular project tasks, in a way that allows me to maintain the same level of productivity and pace on those tasks as before. The KT work I am doing averages X hrs/week, which extends my timeframe for completing the other projects by that amount. Otherwise, I would need to work overtime to make up for that. Just wanted you to be aware of this and see if you had any suggestions on how to proceed."

This should get the conversation going and hopefully produce some changes or will at least adjust expectations all around. Good luck!

Answer 3

Friend, you have shot yourself in the foot. "Unproductive"? To whom? Once upon a time, someone had to train you. Now you're the trainer -- so was the training you received unproductive?

You have painted yourself in a corner by not billing those hours, and now that it has become the expectation, you have a problem with a situation that you helped to create. You may have to lose your pride and tell your manager what you've been doing in order for the expectation to change.

Answer 4

Given that you've been under reporting the hours worked the path forward is pretty clear. Come clean to your boss that you've been under reporting. If you don't want the overtime back pay be up front about that, they may be required to give it to you or other arrangement may be possible. Next advise that your under reporting is at an end, if they do not want you to go beyond 43.5 hours per week some load balancing is required (less KT or less project work). This is the most professional way forward.

Answer 5

I think you should discuss with your manager about the KRA and KPI set for your at the beginning of the assessment cycle. Look back and check how much was the weightage for KT and Project tasks. Using that as a background please discuss as commented by Aymor above.

HTH.