Stopping Niagara

March 26, 2009 2:39 PM

Help me be a better gatekeeper for my boss.

My boss is the head of the American division of our company (a book publisher). All kinds of people constantly want a piece of him. Lately, things have gotten out of hand—he's constantly in meetings, phone messages are piling up for him by the bucketful, and mail pours into his office in a frightful way.

I've spoken to him about what I can do to choke the flow so he can better accomplish what he needs to do, but he's not the best delegator, and hasn't been able to give me much guidance.

Here's what I do already:

• If it's a question I can answer, I answer it.
• If I can't, but I know someone besides my boss can, I divert the call.
• If a manuscript is unsolicited, I return it unread or toss it if there's no return envelope (sorry slush authors—I feel for you, but there aren't enough hours in the day)
• Anything that remotely looks like junkmail, I toss.

It's clear, however, that this isn't enough. My boss keeps his own calendar, so I can't schedule in a period of empty work time for him, and he answers his own phone unless he's on the other line or not at his desk (in which case I answer).

What strategies I can employ to help give him the time he needs to get his work done?

posted by ocherdraco to work & money (6 comments total)

he needs to give you his damn calendar and phone! My boss has a similar problem. I'm like, um, boss? LOL, nobody else is answering or even READING all that shit that pours in.
posted by By The Grace of God at 3:04 PM on March 26

I worked for someone but she wanted me to do this kind of stuff. Maybe offer him a strategy, and see if he'll try it out for a week. I don't think he should answer his own phone, giving the circumstances you are laying out here. If he does though, there's not much you can do about it.

But if you did it for a week he might see what you could do for him. My boss dumped so much stuff on me, this other office started calling me "callpaul" because she was always saying "call paul" he'll take care of it.

Anyway. If he is not going to delegate, you'll have to push him to let you take on some responsibility and hopefully let him see the benefits for you.

I know from experience that a job like that is a lot more fun when you find yourself essential to your boss.
posted by sully75 at 3:10 PM on March 26

Do you have access to his email account? That's another thing the afformentioned boss gave me and I was able to filter through a lot of her emails.
posted by sully75 at 3:11 PM on March 26 [1 favorite]

I've got a super-busy boss too, and we've recently been successful in getting him more organized since he got promoted to department head while still maintaining his regular duties.

Now he does things like literally scheduling in time to check his messages and emails. His email has finally been organized into different folders so he can have priority messages separated from the other stuff. And his calendar is synced between his computer, his blackberry and his secretary's computer (all recently done, we're so relieved) So now his hectic life is much easier for US to deal with.

now all I have to do is rig up GPS tracking of the blackberry for when he goes randomly AWOL - I don't care where he is, i just don't want to wait outside his office for 20 minutes.
posted by lizbunny at 3:39 PM on March 26

Great question!

Answer his phone anyway - you just have to be quicker than he is (keep hand on phone?) ! Twice a day give him a list of the calls you handled for him.

When you take a phone message - ask the caller if a call back in 24 or 48 hours is ok. Wait 12 hours and call them back yourself - explain that boss is busy/drunk/away/whatever and could they please tell you the call is about. Then you see if you can handle it. Or ask boss for correct response and you call them back.

Ask him to schedule in time in his schedule for you.
Ask him to block out a few hours a week that he will allow you to schedule for him. Eg if it's Friday mornings - then you know you can schedule his meetings/calls/whatever for Friday mornings.

Good luck.
posted by Xhris at 5:02 PM on March 26

Thanks folks. These are all helpful.

I've got a question about another aspect of gatekeeping: at work, people often vent to me about things in the company (perceived favoritism, interpersonal quarrels, people not doing their jobs, etc.). Many of these things are things that my boss probably ought to know about, but I'm certain that some people speak to me because they know I'm discreet. It's difficult for me to know what I should pass on to my boss and what I should keep to myself. Any ideas?
posted by ocherdraco at 6:59 AM on March 27