 Saying no at work feels hard, difficult, emotional and fraught with potential danger to relationships and career prospects. And if you don't say no at work, you'll be overrun with work, stressed, unhappy and risk much more serious damage to relationships and career prospects. How to say no at work is the key to being able to deliver good quality work without damaging those important relationships with colleagues and your manager. I'm taking you through what saying no at work gives you, eight very important benefits to you, and then these six factors for how to say no at work without annoying others. And at the end I share where to find examples of the art of saying no at work that will keep managers and colleagues happy with you. My name is Jess Coles, and if you're new here, Enhance.Training shares people management expertise, resources and courses to speed up your journey to becoming a great manager. And I've included the links to additional videos and resources in the description below as well as a video timestamp, so do take a look at these. And please add your examples of how to say no at work in the comments section below. I'll respond to each of your suggestions. Before we cover how to say no at work, let's talk about why you should say no at work. This will help you in having the courage to say no at work more often and practice at getting better at saying no at work without upsetting colleagues. So let's go through what saying a no at work gives you. Firstly, you're going to be under less pressure and a lot less stressed at work. Saying no to work reduces the number of tasks and projects that you need to fit in to sensible levels. And saying no at work creates boundaries, you know, to how long you stay in the evenings and to how many weekends you work. Secondly, saying no at work gives you the space to deliver much better quality work on the tasks and projects that you do work on. You are not spread too thin, trying to do a bit of everything, but not enough of anything. Maintaining your ability to do good work relies on how well you say no to work because you get more requests when you have a reputation for being good. Thirdly, saying no before you end up with too much work enhances your reputation and standing at work. You demonstrate you can judge and manage your commitments and maintain the quality of your performance. Very important qualities in any worker. And fourth, saying no at work gives you the time to plan, organise, consider the bigger picture and all the other factors that go into choosing what to focus your time on for the benefit of your team and organisation. Don't underestimate how important making this time is for how well you can deliver overall in your role. Fifth, saying no at work in the right way increases the respect and appreciation you get from your colleagues and your manager. You are not perceived as a yes person, a walk over or a dumping ground for all the boring tasks. You have a better chance of doing valuable and higher profile work and getting the credit for doing a good job. Sixth, saying no at work gives you the ability to leverage your time and if you manage a team, leverage your team's time. Leveraging time is about increasing the value of your output and your team's output for every hour works. This is key to progressing your career at any level. Seventh, saying no to work allows you to progress your career quicker and more consistently for all the reasons that we've just gone through. That is more satisfaction, more development, a higher standing, nicer holidays and everything else that comes with promotion and progression. And then eighth, surprisingly, I think saying no at work helps you build a stronger reputation as a team player. This is because you deliver on the work that you do do. You are less likely to let team members down because you have the time and energy to do a good job. Your realism and honesty outweighs the annoyance that you have to say no at times. I really don't think anyone can afford to say yes to work when they genuinely can't or shouldn't take on extra work or less important work. Saying yes when you know you should be saying no is very costly to you in the longer term. Don't do it. Learn how to say no without annoying or upsetting the person asking. And how to say no at work is a skill that can and should be learnt and practised by everyone. For those of you that are very relationship focused at work, this applies doubly to you. Saying yes and not being able to deliver well is a lot more damaging to relationships than saying no in the first place. The first step in how to say no at work is always assess the request. Even if it's a slam dunk no, think about what is being asked, what the impact of saying no will be on the other person, on you and on the wider business. You're just going through this thinking process and considering the request demonstrates your respect for the person asking. No one likes a person saying no without thinking through the request. Ask questions about the request so you can assess the priority and importance of the request compared to your current workload. Understand the context of the request and how it impacts other tasks and activities within the business before making a decision. Next in how to say no at work is explain the why. When you have made your initial decision, tell the requester and then explain why. Provide them the context of your decision and the impact of saying no to their request. Here for example, I'm very sorry. I don't think I can say yes to your request. I have four very important projects that I and my team are working on with tight deadlines. I won't be able to give your request the attention it deserves. Saying yes would also impact how well we can deliver on these four projects which in my understanding remain the top priorities for my team. I'm really sorry. Perhaps you can speak too and then try and help them. Your decision should be backed up by reason and logic and a solid business case. You should not say no if you don't want to do the work or don't enjoy it or for other non-business reasons. Always provide the why to your decision when you say no at work. A big factor in how to say no at work is being straightforward and being empathetic. How you say no counts for a lot in maintaining good relationships. Put yourself in their shoes and demonstrate you understand what saying no means for them too. Be honest with your reasons and get straight to the point. You want to make sure the other person is clear as to why you're saying no and understands the reasons behind the choice you've made. If you offer lame excuses or don't share why you can't say yes, they will push back, feel you aren't being reasonable or not a team player, et cetera. You're a sure way to annoy them and upset them. Make your reasons for saying no clear and demonstrate the business case for saying no. Show you understand the position. You saying no puts them in. Try to help them. Yeah, this might be helping them in key parts of their project rather than all of it or organizing help from another part of the business. Be clear and be empathetic when you're saying no at work. Another factor in how to say no at work is body language counts. Managing your tone of voice and your body language while saying no at work is important. You should say no confidently and as neutrally as possible. If you're not confident with your voice and how you hold yourself, the other person is a lot more likely to challenge your decision and the reasonings behind your decision, even if changing your decision is not in the best interests of the company. So be confident when saying no and explaining why. And if you convey happiness, excitement or too much a positive emotion when saying no, then you risk upsetting the individual asking. Yeah, they might think, why are they so excited to be saying no or are they deliberately trying to offend me? You absolutely don't want this response. Equally, if you say no with a lot of reluctance, regret or other similar emotions, the other person is much more likely to try to change your mind. This increases the time spent saying no, which is not helpful to either party. Keep your tone of voice and your body language confident and be as neutral as possible when you say no. The next step in how to say no at work is being prepared to negotiate and compromise. Most of the time after you initially say no, there'll be a period of negotiation. If the other person wants to understand your priorities and workload and you want to understand how important the request is and the impact of saying no or yes. Don't be afraid to negotiate with your manager or more senior staff members when they ask you to do something. Make the time to understand the impact of your decision on what they're asking and your current workload. This will help when you are negotiating and try to avoid being stuck between two more senior members of staff asking you to do tasks or projects. You'll get them talking directly to each other if possible. And being a team player is about understanding, negotiating and reaching a sensible compromise that best helps the team. An example of compromise is agreeing to do the key parts of the project that make best use of your skills but not do the other parts of the project that other staff members can do equally well. Be prepared to negotiate and compromise. And finally, a key factor in how to say no at work is practicing saying no. If saying no well is a skill, to be good at saying no, you must practice to get better. So practice firstly how you assess the request and demonstrate your understanding of both parties' positions. Secondly, practice explaining the why of your decision so it is clear and backed by a solid business case. And third, practice being straightforward and empathetic in how you say no at work. Fourth, practice how you use your tone of voice and your body language to reinforce your decision and reduce the time spent negotiating. And fifth, practice negotiating and reaching compromises that work for you and the other party. Saying no at work is a skill, so practice it. Becoming good at how to say no at work without upsetting or offending the other person is a great skill to have. And I'll put some links in the comments section below of where to find examples of different ways of saying no at work that will not offend. Practice using these different approaches. So in summary, saying no at work is a vital skill to develop, learning how to say no at work is part of being a good team player. Learn how to say no well to keep your colleagues happy with you and for you to enjoy being at work and have manageable levels of stress and pressure. The key factors in how to say no at work are, firstly, always assess the request, secondly, explain the why, third, be as straightforward as possible and be empathetic, fourth, body language counts, fifth, be prepared to negotiate and compromise and then sixth, practice makes perfect. If you have any questions on what saying no at work gives you or how to say no at work, please leave them in the comment section below and I'll get back to you. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.