I learned this the hard way. Joined a company and was on-site in a different country, for 5 days a week, 8 month and we were doing overtime every. single. day. I'm talking 8am to 1am 3 out of 5 days and the rest wasn't that much better.
I quit. Did something else.
8 years ago I joined that very same company again. I'm still a 'corporate drone', a random developer, but I learned to decline and to say no. Both to your managers and to your coworkers.
That single word saved my sanity and allows me to stay with that company to this very day.
I don't agree that it's a matter of culture (at least not in the culture I am roughly familiar with) if you can pull this of. It certainly might be a matter of culture how you need to phrase it.
Fortunately my employer is rather blunt and open internally, so 'No, I really have no patience for that right now' is - while not the friendliest possible answer - acceptable and possible.
Now I need to learn how to walk the fine line between 'saying no' and 'being old and grumpy' :)
> Now I need to learn how to walk the fine line between 'saying no' and 'being old and grumpy' :)
That's the difficult part in my experience. I say no a lot. Some people have the impression that I'm lazy or privileged because they feel they can't say no. They certainly can, but they don't want to feel like they're upsetting anyone.
But sometimes when I say no, I say it in the wrong way, or don't provide enough context for why "no" is right. This doesn't help me at other times, even when I've (mostly) effectively communicated that no is the right decision for the person that's asking me to do something.
I quit. Did something else.
8 years ago I joined that very same company again. I'm still a 'corporate drone', a random developer, but I learned to decline and to say no. Both to your managers and to your coworkers. That single word saved my sanity and allows me to stay with that company to this very day.
I don't agree that it's a matter of culture (at least not in the culture I am roughly familiar with) if you can pull this of. It certainly might be a matter of culture how you need to phrase it.
Fortunately my employer is rather blunt and open internally, so 'No, I really have no patience for that right now' is - while not the friendliest possible answer - acceptable and possible.
Now I need to learn how to walk the fine line between 'saying no' and 'being old and grumpy' :)