[Deborah S. Hildebrand]

No matter who you are, no matter what your career aspirations, there are certain things that you should never say in the office or to your boss. Learn them now so you don't make a career-ending verbal blunder.
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[clancolin]

I agree with much of this article, but I disagree with never saying "It's not my fault."

Several months ago, a co-worker commited both of us to deliver a project by a certain date. I stated it wasn't possible, and why. They are (allegedly) in charge and overruled me, to get brownie points from our boss.

Crunch time has come, the project is well behind solely to lack of action by that other individual, and now our boss AND the boss of the section waiting on the project are demanding to know why the project isn't ready.

One of us is going to have to admit that thay haven't been doing the work. We both work on multiple projects simultaneously and development work is pooled. The other person is already stating that the delay isn't their fault - so I'm being questioned as to why I let this project slip.

This is business, not the school playground, but sadly sometimes professionals don't act that professionally. Sometimes you DO have to state (and prove) that you held up your part of the bargain and did what you were expected to do, because if you don't then you stand the risk of being blamed by the other party, and suffering the result of their lie.

If that results in a blemish on your record or even possibly reassignment or dismissal, you would be crazy not to stand up and state the truth - "It's not my fault."

[Jodith]

When you're in a crunch and a coworker is going to keep you from meeting a deadline, there are things you can do. My usual response is to first, send an e-mail to the coworker asking for what you need. If she doesn't respond, then I forward the e-mail to her requesting it again, reminding of the deadline to be met, and copying it to the boss. This way, you are covered because a)you have in writing that you are stymied by the coworker, and b)you've warned the boss that the project may be late due to said coworker.

Your main responsibility here is to do as much of the project as you can and to make sure your boss is kept in the loop regarding the status of the project. If you said it once and then just let things move, they'll still blame you because you didn't let them know as the project progressed that there are problems.

We admins often walk a fine line between nagging and communicating, but it's one that we have to manage.

[NanK]

I tried the approach previously of explaining to the boss all the projects I was working on when he asked me to drop everything and do yet another thing. His response, "then you'll have to come in on Saturdays until you get caught up." He's softened that a bit, because I am a valuable asset to him, but he is of the school that an exempt employee works as many hours as necessary to get the job (or jobs) done, with no limit.