How to Advocate for Your Needs
With Your Supervisor

We perform best when our workload is manageable and have a healthy amount of stress, pressure, and challenges in our duties and projects. Feeling continuously overwhelmed or overloaded at work puts you at risk for burnout and is a flag that you need to advocate for your needs with your supervisor. You may worry that setting boundaries on your workload and responsibilities will harm your opportunities in the workplace. However, setting boundaries is a skill that is respected in the workplace, and leaders know that strategic prioritization is essential in a busy work environment. Preparation and confidence in your message are the keys to a successful conversation with your supervisor.  

How to Prepare for the Conversation  

Prepare for the conversation with your supervisor using the two techniques described below: Journaling (step 1 and 2) and Writing a Script (step 3).

Step 1: Reflect on the feelings of burnout 

Take time to reflect on what is causing the feelings of burnout:  

• Overwhelmed, under pressure, under-appreciated, unsupported, emotionally exhausted, misunderstood, alone   

Reflect and take notes on any of the feelings you are experiencing and what causes them. These notes are just for you – don’t evaluate the validity of the ideas or edit at this point – try to get it all down on paper. You may prefer to write in point form or sentences, or you may take a piece of paper and categorize different chunks of ideas together as they come up. You might record your ideas into a voice recorder on your phone and print out the transcript. Use whatever oral/visual/written process feels right. Understanding and processing feeling overwhelmed and frustrated is an essential first step in taking action.   

Step 2: Brainstorm what changes could be made to alleviate the feelings 

Now that you have reflected on what is causing the overwhelm start envisioning what steps to take to create more balance in your work. Write them all down. This is also a brainstorming phase, so don’t edit – some not-so-great ideas may generate better ideas. Below are some questions to reflect on, but take notes on whatever actions come to mind: 

• Could work processes be improved?  

• Would collaboration help? Would less collaboration help? 

• Could your schedule be adapted to create more balance? (time spent offline, not in meetings, etc.) 

• Are there any tasks you think could be given to someone else in your work group? Are there tasks that could be dropped or left for later? 

• Are there gaps in the workforce that you need to address?  

• What other solutions come to mind? 

 

Step 3: Writing a Flexible Conversation Script 

Now that you have generated some ideas and materials to work with, it’s time to assess your ideas and pull out the information you want to communicate with your supervisor. Plan out your conversation using the outline below: 

1. Start with the Why: Why is a conversation needed? What is the goal of the conversation?  

The why is the most crucial part of the conversation. It’s also the part that takes the most courage because it puts you in a vulnerable position. In this part of the conversation, you will briefly outline, at a summary level, the key challenges you have been experiencing and request support to find solutions to those challenges.  

The “why” message begins when you request the conversation. Be sure to give your supervisor advance notice and request a designated time for the discussion. For example: “I’d like to set some time aside to discuss some of the challenges I am experiencing with my workload and see if we can work together to find some solutions.” 

Prepare for the conversation by writing out the key challenges you are experiencing and how resolving them will benefit the project/team. For this part of the conversation to be well received, you must consider your supervisor’s management style and tailor your message accordingly. If you have a supervisor who values the emotional temperature in their team, sharing your feelings of burnout can be helpful feedback for your supervisor. But if your supervisor prefers to focus on deliverables and deadlines, be very brief in describing the feelings and focus more on the challenges with workload and the need to manage the workload to improve your performance and/or work relationships.  

Write out a script using the sentence starters below. Edit the conversation starters in whatever way gives you more confidence in your message.  

Describe the situation and why it is in your supervisor’s interest to help you resolve:  

• For the last …  (period) I have been experiencing …  (describe feelings and challenges with performance).  

• This is due to … (summarize the key issues you identified). 

• This has resulted in … (describe the impact on you, the project and  the team). 

2. Ask for Permission to Share Ideas 

Being asked to implement changes can trigger resistance. To lower your supervisor’s resistance, ask permission to share ideas and strategies to address the challenges. If your supervisor prefers, be willing to have this part of the conversation in a follow-up meeting. See below for a possible script, but modify it to increase your confidence in your message: 

I have some ideas about better managing my workload to address xx and improve xx. (Reiterate the issue and highlight the benefit to the project/ team/ supervisor of taking action). Would you be interested in hearing some of these ideas? Or would you prefer to first reflect on the challenges I’ve raised and set up another time to discuss solutions? 

3. Share Your Ideas 

To prepare for this part of the conversation, evaluate the ideas you came up with. Assess how strongly you feel each change is needed and how challenging it will be to implement. For the changes you feel more strongly about implementing, spend extra time crafting the idea and outlining how it will benefit the project. Remember that change happens over time and not all at once. You have spent a lot of time with these ideas, but your supervisor may hear this information for the first time. Give them time to process your feedback and suggestions and be open to having a follow-up conversation rather than landing on solutions in one meeting. It’s also important to hear your supervisor’s perspective. You may also need to adjust your requests based on your supervisor’s response. You can ask them to reflect on their shared information and set up a follow-up meeting to discuss it.   

See below for a suggestion for how to order the ideas you present. Edit the script in whatever way gives you more confidence in your message. For example, you may wish to start with the most significant changes to you.   

**When you share an idea, include the impact it will have. Why should your supervisor implement it?  

• Start with ideas that don’t require additional resources or time to implement.   
• Follow with ideas that will impact other employees and/or require support or resources from your supervisor or management.  
• Are there any outstanding challenges that you don’t have a solution for? Finish with these challenges and see if your supervisor has ideas for managing the challenge.  

4. Clarify Next Steps 

Summarizing and clarifying the next steps after sharing your ideas and hearing your supervisor’s perspective. Are there concrete actions that will follow? Do you need to set up a follow-up conversation? Do other people on the team need to be consulted or informed? Be sure you are clear on what you need to do next and what your supervisor has agreed to follow up on. See below for an example of how to clarify next steps: 

 Thanks for taking the time to listen to some of the challenges I am experiencing and working with me on solutions. 

To ensure I understood everything correctly, I’ll summarize what I think we decided: I will follow up on xxxx (summarize what you will follow up on), and you will xxxx (summarize what they agreed to follow up on). Is that you’re understanding too? Did I miss anything?   

Should we set up a meeting in xxx (a reasonable time to get a good start on the above)? Or would you rather follow up through email?   

Thanks again. I appreciate your support with this.   

The conversation will likely not follow your script exactly. However, taking the time to reflect on your experience, prioritize, and order your ideas will make for a more impactful conversation and increase the likelihood of changes being implemented. No matter how the conversation goes, congratulate yourself on the courage to have the conversation. We improve our relationships when we take responsibility for our feelings and have the courage to initiate respectful and flexible conversations at work. We can increase balance in our work environment. Each time we have a difficult conversation, we learn something to improve our following difficult conversation.