Asked to do work by another manager

LegacyUser

Hi,

Just going anonymous for this. I'm currently splitting time between two teams in work, but I still report to the manager I've always had and get assigned work from her barring the one task I'm working on with the other team.

Now one of the managers on the other team has asked me to do something outside what I do on my original team or the task I'm working on in the new team. That job is generally dealt with by a different team but they're backlogged atm, and can't get to it.

When asked by him, I said yes (I'm really bad at saying no even when I know I should be), and started it a bit before deciding I should cover myself incase I'm left out to hang later on, so I mentioned it to my original manager, who said I should not be doing that work, other manager was going around the established process in the company and I or the team would not be able to stand by the work as being properly done.

Did I do the right thing? Should I have just gone and completed the task (I can do it, just company policy is any information going external has to be validated by a data validation team) or should the other manager never have asked me to do it without having it cleared?

Just makes it awkward as I work with him and his team on other stuff, and not sure have I messed that relationship up by reporting to my original manager.

seamus

The other manager should never have asked you to do it. He's aware that you're a soft touch and reckoned he could get it done quicker by ignoring the processes and going straight to you.

Happens all the time.

The manager you report to has a need to know everything you're working on so that he can manage workloads, backlogs and delivery expectations effectively, so you were right to let him know about this.

I very much doubt that you've damaged any relationships. The other manager would expect that your manager would find out about it one way or another, and was hoping it would just sneak through the net.

The only thing you did wrong was not saying no in the first place. The best deflection I always find is, "I'm happy to do it, but I don't have time. If you speak to <my manager> he might be able to free up some of my time". As a softie you'll find this much easier to say because you're not actually refusing the request or being negative about it.

LegacyUser

Thanks for that. Ended up having to do it anyway as a senior manager intervened, as the other manager was still out, and said it had to be done. Annoys me the other manager is getting his way but I'll be wary of him in the future.