Senior colleague hounding me daily… how to establish limits?

[vincentgav]

I do construction and renovation work, I’m a project manager with 15+ years under my belt.

We have problems with our main contractor, they don’t have enough staff, they’re slow, their foreman was sick for weeks, they make excuses. Senior management know the problems, they’re copied on everything I send, I want them to see that there’s an issue and namely that I’m responding and chasing them.

I’m not expecting the contractor to finish all. They’re not going to get all done and tools out by the end of this week. I know them well and unless there’s a miracle, it won’t happen. They’ve already started to wind up for Xmas.

My issue is a senior team leader who works in another department, who’s new in the job. This person has stated to me that they don’t like delays, (who does) and that they want X amount done and dusted by the end of the this week.

They’re copied on all my contact to the contractors, they’re told about any updates, etc. The problem is that I’m feeling hounded by them. I’m showing that I’m constantly chasing, they keep challenging me and asking am I inspecting, etc.

I remember my early 20s when you’d jump up and down and go mental ringing people 4 times a day to look eager, but I’m in my 40s now. I can see when the contractor is going to be done or not. I don’t get worked up anymore, cos it’s not good for my health and I don’t want to fall out with a contractor who, while slow at times, does excellent work for very reasonable costs.

I’m being chased daily by this person who isn’t my boss, constantly asking me for site visits and updates, explaining how urgent it all is, and it’s getting stressful for me. I gave an update Friday evening and I had an email this Monday morning first thing asking for further update..

Getting pissed off now, I don’t know why people don’t see that hounding and pedantry only annoys people. Also, they’re only here a few weeks, I’m here 5 years..

I don’t want to be confrontational but I don’t want to set the standard that I’m to be chased and hounded daily. This person isn’t my boss. I work for my manager and they’re not relentlessly chasing me with ! emails. Also, when I reply I get a follow up in less than one minute. I’m very busy, I have other things to do, it’s not just this single matter on my desk.

I can’t frogmarch the contractor down to site and force them to do X and Y this second.

I want to be careful but I don’t want this to become the norm.

Advice on how to proceed here? How to set boundaries? Should I stop replying all the time?

Thanks guys!

 

[arbitron]

I've worked with a few people like this. As you say, setting boundaries is very important - you don't work for them or on their schedule. I had an issue like this with a senior colleague and I proposed a weekly scheduled catch-up where we discussed all issues/updates. It worked well and the random calls/emails dried up.

As you also mentioned, very important to not reply too quickly. If something can wait, let it wait. Otherwise they will have a distorted view of your work dynamic and it may feed into their sense of urgency. I learned this the hard way with colleagues who seemed to reply to emails almost instantaneously so you could spend the entire day in a continuous back and forth.

I've always found it useful to let my line manager know what's going on in case it comes up in a senior exec meeting. Something like "Sam is very keen to get this completed ASAP. Everyone is busy so to be efficient I'm going to meet with them weekly but will email everyone involved if there are any major updates in the meantime."

 

[vincentgav]

I saw a reply last week from someone external;

‘I’m aware it’s near Xmas and I’ll do my best, but please bear in mind I’ve other matters to deal with other than this’. Good answer.

I think I’m gonna throttle my replies, thanks for that. I don’t need to answer every minute. At this stage of my life I accept when things aren’t going to happen, when it’s out of my control. I’m not gonna jump up and down.

I’ve another colleague who jokes; ‘you’re not excited enough for their liking, they want to see you go mad’.

No.

 

[odyssey06]

Give a general update once a day cc'ing them and your manager. Don't address the email to them.

And if they need more of your time for keeping them updated, that has to be signed off \ go through your line manager.

 

[thedaddyman]

You could try and turn this 360 and ask your colleague for lots of help and just swamp them in things, even if they are pointless.