Question

7.

As the sales manager, you have eight sales associates and one administrative assistant working for you. You have asked your assistant to make the arrangements for you and your sales group to attend a trade show. The day before the event, one of your sales associates becomes ill and will not be able to attend.  
Your assistant asks if he may go with you. Instead of giving an immediate answer, you ask for time to consider his request. Having everyone out of the office at once is not an option. Who will take any sales calls that may come in? Your department's phones must be covered while you are all away. You have decided not to approve his request.

How do you reject a request? What should you say? What type of buffer can you use to soften the blow of the rejection?

Answer 1

Rejecting a request might be tough especially when the request is made out of sheer goodwill, like the given case. In such a case, as the manager, the request could be rejected on grounds of priority. The situation wherein everyone cannot be out of the office premises needs to be conveyed to the assistant.

Before conveying the rejection, it is important to assess and review the suggestion verbally, so that the assistant does not feel consicous before voicing out his opinions in the future as well.The context behind refusal should be explained well.

As a buffer, the assistant could be asked to maintain certain responsibilites of the office and could later be awarded for his work commitment and performance.