Can you say no to your boss -

Can you say no to your boss - Are you the yes man or woman at work? Whenever your boss or a colleague needs anything, your name is at the tip of his or her tongue? If you are the go-to person at work when someone needs a  yes,  congratulations! Youve likely secured your place in the office. Who wants to lay off the person who can never say no? On the other hand, its likely you put yourself (and probably non-work relationships) at risk in favor of doing whatever is necessary for your career. That could be a big  mistake. How can you find a balance between maintaining your indispensable status at work and your sanity? Unfortunately, there are no easy answers. Everyones circumstances are different, and if you work in a place where youre only as good as the last thing youve done, not all of this advice may work for you. However, in many cases, once youve created a reputation for being helpful and agreeable, carefully choosing times to say no may not hurt your  work reputation, and may actually earn you additional respect. How can you say no without risking it all at work? Choose the situation carefully. If everyone is stressed to the hilt, youre up for a  promotion  and the boss comes to you with a desperate request for help, its probably not the time to decide youre going to change your reputation as the can-do person in the office. On the other hand, if things are a bit more stable, and it seems like there are plenty of people who could help out, you should have more leeway to indicate if your plate is already full. See the following suggestions for ideas to say no instead of yes. Learn to say no, without saying no. Perhaps your boss forgot about all of the other crucial work you are doing. Instead of saying, No, I cannot take on one more project, say, I can see how important this project is. Can we sit down for a few minutes so you can help me prioritize my work? I want to be sure to focus on the most important things. In this meeting, make sure you dont forget to include any key projects (or even day-to-day work) youre managing. If you can make a solid case indicating that you really dont have time to handle another thing, its possible you can say no without actually uttering those words. Suggest an alternate solution. Perhaps you are too busy to take on the work by yourself, but you can handle one part of the project. If you have a specialty area (for example, youre the best at analyzing data), suggest that you could manage that piece of the project in partnership with someone who specializes in the research piece. No doubt, this is a tricky conversation, as you are trying to deflect pieces of a project away from you. However, if you maintain an enthusiastic, can do approach and  communicate  in a way that will resonate with your boss, its possible you can trick him or her into thinking youre still saying yes, even though you are really saying no. Put your foot down, but have a really good reason. What qualifies as a good reason will vary from office to office. Condolences to you if you work in a place where there are no good reasons â€" perhaps you are in the  wrong job  and it is time to look for a new job that values your time outside of work. If you already have planned time off to attend a family wedding or your childs graduation, and this new project will interfere with that, you may choose to tell your boss you cannot help. Ideally, you wont lead the conversation with the word no. Instead, choose your words carefully, remind your supervisor that you always like to say yes, but the circumstances this time mean youd like to help by coming up with another solution. Originally appeared on AOLJobs.com.