Imagine that you come to work like every day, but from the very beginning you feel that it will be an intense day. Your schedule includes many tasks and you don’t know if you’ll be able to complete them. Furthermore, your supervisor or colleague comes to you and asks you to do another urgent task. Will you refuse or accept it?

Assertiveness at work is an extremely important feature of a good employee which might be defined as the ability to set boundaries, priorities and skillfully argue why one refuses in a given situation.

Being assertive, which undoubtedly also involves saying no to others, is not intended to cause distress to people but to take care of oneself and one’s own needs.

Why is it worth being assertive at work?

• Has a positive impact on interpersonal communication;
• Reduces stress levels in the workplace;
• Allows you to define your boundaries;
• Creates friendly working conditions in a team;

The “3J” Rule

Lack of assertiveness at work may result in taking on tasks that the employee does not feel comfortable with, or which he or she will not be able to perform. In order to facilitate the analysis of commands, it is recommended to use the “3J” rule, which consists of questions:

• How do you feel about being asked to complete another task?
• How does this impact your workload?
• What do you wish for the future regarding situations like this?

Being assertive has both advantages and disadvantages, and the result of such actions depends mainly on the work environment. One of the undoubted advantages is improving self-confidence by an employee who is assertive and realizes his or her value as an individual, whose opinion must be taken into account. Moreover, refusing to do a problematic issue reduces the stress associated with it, which has a positive effect on the employee’s mental health. On the other hand, being an assertive person requires practice and learning new skills, which can take time. Finally, it may be associated with stress and anxiety related to confrontation and communicating the refusal to the person who assigned the new task.

There are several assertiveness techniques that can help any employee learn and master this skill:

• The “broken record” technique – involves consistently repeating one’s position to the other party as a response to pressure;
• Assertive postponement – ​​this is an expression of initial interest in considering the proposal made by the other person when one doesn’t want to cause a direct conflict;
• Smokescreen – an attempt to change the topic of the conversation to another in order to avoid conflict and ease the atmosphere;

Many people believe that assertiveness means reacting aggressively, which is undoubtedly a misconception. Assertive people communicate directly, letting others know their opinions and needs. Learning this skill may be particularly important, so it is worth working on it now in order to be able to overcome a difficult situation if necessary.