Anyone got a clever retort for a junior member of staff constantly demanding updates on your work progress

[SirChenjin]

A new member of the team is currently winding everyone up with his demands/requests for updates on other people's work. We're a small team, and he's out to prove himself (or something), and while I'm more than happy to update on my work where appropriate, being asked to let him know where I am with X in a team meeting by a junior member of staff is starting to grate. Manager is useless - seems quite besotted by him. He's not asking out of interest, he seems to be using every opportunity to establish himself as some sort of top dog. It's very weird.

I don't want to come across as negative, and I don't want to let him see he's getting to me - any ideas for a clever comeback and how to deal with him?

Could you ask him for updates on his work too in the same style?

So he's junior to you, can't you just look at him and ask why he needs to know, or say excuse me why would you need to know that

What is his role?

Our juniors do ask people for updates - that's their role.

I'd just say that you will provide a weekly summary of work done and actions for next week, together with dependencies by email. Then in meetings, you simply say, progress as per my email of x date.

Are you SURE he's not keen and asking to try and form a relationship? It can be intimidating in a junior position when you're not quite sure how best to bond with more experienced team members.

Hm. I think we need more context.

How about .....piss off!

Oh believe me - he's no shrinking violet, and wouldn't know the feeling of intimidation if it jumped up and bit him on the bum

It's possibly the way he's asking for the information iykwim? I feed back the stuff that needs to be fed back, but there are ongoing projects that I don't feed back to the wider team - that gets fed back to my manager and counterpart. I wouldn't dream of asking my boss for an update on every project or piece of work they are involved in, for example - and certainly not at a team meeting.

Actually, I'm not being asked for an update - "and where are you with X, Chen" by a junior member of the team (and a very new one, at that) isn't really being asked

How about 'that's not relevant for this meeting, I'll update [boss] separately rather than waste everyone's time here' ?

OK, I know the type.

Could you give him constant updates on everything you do?
"I'm just switching on my PC, I'm opening Excel now, I'm just popping to the loo"

"How long is a piece of string?" can be a good answer.

Is he having trouble getting stuff done because he's waiting on others? This happens to me a lot.

Can you give him dates when to expect tasks done by, assuming he actually needs to plan ahead? He can stick your info in his outlook calendar & ask again only after you're late.

'Why do you ask?' is surely the perfect reply?

The thing is, in a team, nobodies work is a secret (unless it should be for business reasons), and if you appear reluctant to share without having a good reason, you'll look like an insecure twat. So you have to find a way of knocking him down without appearing prickly. So either feign fascination with every detail of his job, or say you're happy to chat to him, but don't want to waste the whole team's time with stuff that's not relevant to them.

Like the ideas of constant updates . I had to have Words with him about his demands for weekly updates to show some menial new admin task he had instigated had been done by one of my team. In the end I said that it was now a routine task and as such no weekly updates were required - it was a waste of everyone's time.

He's having trouble getting stuff done because he's rubbish at his job tbh. No-one is actually accountable to him, but he seems to have taken it upon himself to try and position himself otherwise. As I said, boss seems besotted by this rather flamboyant character.

The direct approach might be the best, I think. It seems to be a long list of direct conversations that I'm having to have with him.

I like ReluctantCamper 's suggestion.

I would just say "it's going great, thanks for asking" with a big smile and leave it at that. Every single time.

Drives me crazy. I am the last person to pull rank but I have something similar at work - a person several rungs below me on the old ladder tries to order me to do things. These things are peripherally part of my job, but entirely up to me how and when I do them. It's not up to her.

I just smile and nod and then don't do whatever she is asking

Or you could say - "at the moments there's nothing going on with project X that affects what you all are working on, I'll let you know if it does"

Hearts - that's exactly it! I have to fight the urge to grind my teeth hard whenever I'm in the same room as him.

Really brilliant suggestions on here - MN is wonderful .

"Why? Do you not understand what I'm doing on xyz?"

"Don't worry, this isn't something you need worry about" patronising smile

"Ah yes, that reminds me how are you doing on XYZ? Do you feel you need more support there? Ah okay, I thought you seemed to be struggling"

'Tickety boo thanks. Why - are you looking for something to do? I have a stack of filing that needs seeing to, i will leave it on your desk'.

Oh, people do this to me sometimes because of the type of job I do (having to bring together a number of different groups to produce a Thing).

They try and make their actions mine by pretending that the update they are meant to give as a project manager equals the thing I am meant to do as a result of their work. So, for example, they get asked for an update and their response is 'waiting to hear if Flagons has sent x report'.

I always bat it back by pointing out that I am still waiting for their update or saying 'as we discussed the other day, I've sent X out, do let me know if you want to amend X'.

Film him in full flow and upload it onto YouTube.