When I work on consulting projects, I usually work with and within client teams. These people are colleagues to me. There is no hierarchy. We are more or less equal.
This event inspired me for this post. Sometimes you also work with people from other departments, even if it is only occasionally. With some, you may only exchange two or three messages in months. And just this type of person from a department that has nothing to do with mine asked me.
This question a few minutes ago
Colleague from another department: “Can you tell me who is in charge of this task?”
Me: “Antonio Jimeno.”
Colleague from another department: “Oh, okay. Can you please tell him when he can finish his task? I’m going crazy with a lot of tasks right now.”
After being surprised email data and letting a few minutes pass, especially so as not to have to do someone else’s work.
Me: Is he not answering you?
Colleague from another department: “Oh, sorry, I thought he was a colleague of yours.”
Me: “He is, but I’m not in the office today.”
Colleague from another department: “Ok, I’ll write to him directly.”
I like to think that I like to process time-consuming help people. But I also think that I shouldn’t do someone else’s job for no reason. Plus, it creates more work. It doesn’t make sense for me to get involved in creating a situation of communication triangle.
Something similar has happened to me in my vietnam data own company. People talk to me instead of talking directly to the person affected. I don’t want to be the one who has to communicate in a triangle. Talk to each other directly, it’s not that complicated!
It has also affected my personal life
My older brothers don’t talk to each other anymore. Guess what happens! Communication triangle of course. Now I have managed to get out of it by creating a WhatsApp group for issues that affect all three of them. Even if they always try again, I always tell them the same thing. “Write it in our group, that’s what it’s for.”