It’s up to us to fight it out amongst ourselves who is clever enough to keep our inboxes literally and figuratively clean. It’s an art that takes years to master. Doing as little as possible while still looking busy as hell is what every lifer at any big corporation is really good at. I hope that doesn’t sound too cynical. It’s not the coworkers fault. They’re part of the machine. The board of directors demand higher and higher profits with less expenses. And who do those directors answer to? The shareholders… that’s us! I probably hold shares to some of those big corporations in my mutual fund.

The thing is not to blame the coworkers but to learn the skills to survive in that environment so you don’t get overwhelmed (if you choose not to leave that environment altogether like I did).

So, what I find that works best for me is to do as much as I can on a project, then let everybody who needs to know that I’m stalled on it for whatever reason, exactly who or what I’m waiting on and when I’ll follow up with everyone. Then, after documenting all that I can I focus on another project that is in the pipeline. At one time I had thirtyfive cases with dozens of projects in each, all going on at the same time without any real help from staff or supervisors. That went on for about a year before the frustration of too many balls in the air and too many roadblocks finally caused me to look for another job. At least I learned to juggle really, really well.

Thanks for a great topic!