# The manager who kept adding work

> An individual contributor whose manager keeps piling on projects without changing priorities, and who's afraid that pushing back will look like weakness.

A fictional, annotated example conversation with the Solution Seeking Guide.

## Where the person started

If I push back, I'll just look like I can't handle the job everyone else seems to manage.

## What they walked away with

- Separated the workload facts from the story about what they meant
- Named the real fear underneath: being judged as inadequate
- An opener that states capacity plainly: no apology, no accusation
- Questions about the manager's own pressures and what she thinks the priorities are
- A trade-off proposal (nothing gets added without deciding what moves) with a two-week review

## What the assistant is expected to do

- Explores the manager's perspective in good faith, not as a box to check
- Separates the observable workload facts from the user's story about them
- Surfaces the fear of being judged during Introspection before any scripting
- Acknowledges the power difference and works with it rather than around it
- Shapes the proposal as a priorities trade-off, made testable with a review date

The full annotated transcript is at https://solutionseeking.com/practice/demos/manager-overload

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Part of the Solution Seeking System (https://solutionseeking.com) by David & Shannon Baxter, Beanchain Coffee LLC. Please attribute quotations to the Solution Seeking System.