Love #5. At Palantir we called this NACK, as in "Please NACK this by 5pm" and implied if you didn't get a response you were going to move forward. (This was in contrast to requesting an ACK, or affirmative thumbs up.)
Its not directly to your point, but my manager loves to message me "Hey, can you jump on a call?"
And my first thought is always "Oh no, what did I do wrong?"
I go on the call and its always like "Hey, do you remember when you did X? I think it can solve a problem I/[other person on my team] is facing right now."
Its just his communication style, but I always wish he was a bit more descriptive before the call.
My first boss used to ask 'when can you have this done' after setting tasks and priorities. It gave me a sense of control instead of imposing a deadline. Of course, if I was too conservative she would state it and we'll negotiate a shorter timeframe.
This is spot on @Wes Kao - 'ASAP' is often just anxiety disguised as a deadline.
I’d love to hear your take on the flip side please. When a project is truly on fire, how do you signal 'emergency' without sliding into high-strung language? How do you keep the intensity high but the stress low?
Love #5. At Palantir we called this NACK, as in "Please NACK this by 5pm" and implied if you didn't get a response you were going to move forward. (This was in contrast to requesting an ACK, or affirmative thumbs up.)
Time perception is hard. I always struggle with the ASAP as well. Does it mean over what I'm doing now? I mean after it?
To me, "I need X today by EOW." is a bit confusing. Do you need X today or by EOW?
That was a typo! I meant “I need X by EOW.” Fixed it in the post. Thanks for catching that, Andrew.
ASAP is the trigger word for me to don my annoying orange T-shirt and start asking annoying questions about documentation.
Its not directly to your point, but my manager loves to message me "Hey, can you jump on a call?"
And my first thought is always "Oh no, what did I do wrong?"
I go on the call and its always like "Hey, do you remember when you did X? I think it can solve a problem I/[other person on my team] is facing right now."
Its just his communication style, but I always wish he was a bit more descriptive before the call.
My first boss used to ask 'when can you have this done' after setting tasks and priorities. It gave me a sense of control instead of imposing a deadline. Of course, if I was too conservative she would state it and we'll negotiate a shorter timeframe.
This is spot on @Wes Kao - 'ASAP' is often just anxiety disguised as a deadline.
I’d love to hear your take on the flip side please. When a project is truly on fire, how do you signal 'emergency' without sliding into high-strung language? How do you keep the intensity high but the stress low?