Why do coworkers always bypass their supervisors to come straight to me?
Employees constantly skip standard processes and supervisors to ask a solo HR professional for minor help because they assume you are less busy than management. This constant stream of interruptions prevents you from handling your actual workload alone and burns you out.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from September 2026.
- This comes up 137.9× more often in r/ITManagers than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1asking ChatGPT to craft a job description for an assistantDid this help you?
- 2telling people "I don't know" even when they know the answerDid this help you?
- 3directing people back to their supervisor or the correct departmentDid this help you?
- 4saying no more easilyDid this help you?
- 5checking emails only a few times a day and working off a task listDid this help you?
- 6declining unnecessary meetings and blocking off admin time on calendarsDid this help you?
- 7closing inactive tickets automatically if the user does not respondDid this help you?
- 8Block off time on the calendar and guard it as sacredDid this help you?
- 9Say 'I'll circle back this afternoon' instead of dropping everything for a homeowner pingDid this help you?
- 10Schedule personal items like doctor appointments on the calendar and treat them as non-negotiableDid this help you?
- 11Asking the person to send an email instead so you do not forget and walking awayDid this help you?
- 12Setting recurring calendar meetings to handle accumulated questions all at onceDid this help you?
- 13Saying 'no' firmly as a complete sentence to establish boundariesDid this help you?
- 14Trying to remain business polite even when people push their agendaDid this help you?
- 15Keeping scripts private and not sharing automation work with colleagues so no one knows it was automated.Did this help you?
- 16Trying time blockingDid this help you?
- 17Directing people to submit tickets instead of interrupting or messaging instantlyDid this help you?
- 18Using note-taking tools like OneNote or project trackers like Asana to log work and track where tasks left offDid this help you?
- 19Blocking out lunch time or scheduling meetings using Calendar linksDid this help you?
- 20Turning off or ignoring low-effort instant messaging pings and emailsDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“this industry has conditioned long term folks that everything is urgent, and everything needs to be solved right this second or the company fails.”source ↗
“Serious question how do you all handle jumping between 47 things at once without losing your mind?”source ↗
“Like I'll be fixing something, get a Slack ping, jump to that, someone walks by my desk, now there's a Teams call, and I genuinely can't remember what I was doing 10 minutes ago.”source ↗
“Is this just the job now? Does anyone have an actual system that works or are we all just pretending we have it together?”source ↗
“I found that if I was pretty deep into solving a problem even a minor interruption meant that it took anywhere from 2-5 minutes to get my head back into solving the problem.”source ↗
“Chasing 100% patch mgmt is stressful.”source ↗
“He'll stop me mid task at my desk or if he seems me walking to the server room for example, for some IT request or question he has, if I try to politely say I'm busy, it's always "two minutes, just stay" from him.”source ↗
“Today I snapped. Raised my voice, told him he can't keep dropping whatever he wants on me because it suits him or what he thinks needs to be done, I'm drowning which I have explained to him multiple times and that it's not fair, he can wait.”source ↗
“Everyday I'm shifting from first to reverse to 5th to 3rd as I get pulled one way and another.”source ↗
“Seems like pressure is rising everywhere and despite me saying “not right now” to people they still park on my time immediately with meetings that could’ve been emails. I struggle with this too.”source ↗
“employees don’t understand everything you have to do alone so when I say ask your damn supervisor to fix your time punch please do it and leave me the hell alone.”source ↗
“Nine times out of ten, it’s “oh I just came to you because they are busy”. Like what?! What do you think I am doing, just back here twiddling my thumbs”source ↗
“Except it trains people to skip the process and come straight to me instead of going to the right person or figuring it out themselves.”source ↗
“I've done it before and it gave me a knot in my chest, but I did the screening. I got screened out right away because I'm not bilingual and it wasn't in the job description. Whew! I get burned out just thinking about it.”source ↗
“I am having a hard time keeping everything organized and I am falling back and making mistakes.”source ↗
“When I sit down to do a board packets, budget, or work on an action list I get pulled away and it takes up my time (ex homeowner requests, office requests, etc.).”source ↗
“It’s starting to impact my personal responsibilities too for myself like doctor appointments, self care like working out, and taking care of my health and finances.”source ↗
“On one hand yea it helps out the team but on the other I kinda don’t want to be bother if something went wrong with it or they break stuff with it.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 5How do I deal with non-technical managers and constant interruptions?
- 9How to handle constant noise and distractions in an open office?
- 16Why can't employees ever use the self service portal?
- 2Why is my entire day eaten up by meetings and micromanagement?
- 46How to deal with uncooperative coworkers who don't do their work
- 40Why are teachers expected to be available 24/7?