Free advice from someone who's been at this for a while:...

Free advice from someone who's been at this for a while: when you realize you're going to miss a deadline, send an email to the person you promised the thing to saying "hey, I just wanted to let you know I'm going to miss the deadline."

I know that's a hard email to send. But you need to.

95% of the time, it will turn out that the person is actually fine with you missing the deadline. And the other 5% of the time, you will still be better off than if you'd said nothing at all, or waited till the last minute. The sooner you tell the person that, the less upset they will be.

Pull off that band-aid. Send the email.

Like 27 September at 21:08 | Open on vmst.io

6 comments

Jason Lefkowitz

I am aware that the above is me veering dangerously close to "LinkedIn Enthusiast" content. Don't worry, the dick jokes will resume shortly

27 September at 21:52 | Open on vmst.io

Thomas Sturm

@jalefkowit I was a little worried.

27 September at 22:36 | Open on famichiki.jp

therieau

@jalefkowit I appreciate the help, but I thank the goddess that tomfoolery is nigh.

28 September at 0:20 | Open on bitbang.social

Tom Lorenz

@jalefkowit I learned that lesson years ago when I started doing tech support for real, and I live by it to this day.

This is the way.

27 September at 22:11 | Open on libretooth.gr

malte

@jalefkowit The minimum level of responsibility you can have for anything is to recognize and tell people who are dependent on you that you cannot be responsible any longer. The most demanding people to collaborate with are those you need to check in with regularly to confirm they haven't dropped the ball because they wouldn't tell you if they did.

27 September at 22:31 | Open on radikal.social

Bruce Mirken

@jalefkowit Oh god yes. I used to edit reports for an advocacy nonprofit, and it drove me crazy when colleagues blew off a deadline with no warning. They apparently never considered that I'd organized my week around their big project and they'd just disrupted it all.

27 September at 23:08 | Open on mas.to