Quick Tip

Don’t let yourself be treated as a checked box on someone else’s to-do list.

As a junior scholar, you may struggle to say no when you’re asked to serve on a committee or do some other task — sometimes out of genuine interest, but other times out of obligation or fear it will look bad to refuse. But the requests don’t lessen as you advance in your career; they usually snowball. Agreeing to do all of them — or even half of them — becomes impossible. You need to figure out when to say no, and how to do it artfully. Here are some ideas:

• Volunteer someone else — strategically. Often when people ask you to do something, they don’t actually need you to do it. They just need the task done. Be strategic in naming your replacement(s). If the proposed gig is desirable, suggest someone who could use a career boost. Consider passing a good opportunity on to a person of color, a person without a tenure-track job, or someone else who faces documented disadvantages in academe.
• Don’t explain. Maybe you have a good reason to say no. Maybe you don’t. Either way, if you try to justify your answer, you open yourself to judgment and bargaining, or you risk oversharing. You don’t have to defend your decision. Just say: “Thank you for this invitation. Unfortunately, I’m unavailable to participate. I appreciate your thinking of me.”
• Set your own policies. Create guidelines to help you decide when to say no. These policies can be publicly stated (“I never write a recommendation with less than two weeks’ notice”) or privately avowed.

Continue reading: “The Art of ‘No,’” by Robin Bernstein

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