How to Ask Your Colleagues for Help in the Workplace?

Asking for help from a co-worker is never easy. Imagine you are working on an important project for your boss, and you realize you won’t be able to make the deadline. In this post, we will see how to ask your colleagues for help in the workplace? At this point, you should ask for help from your colleagues, but how can you do that without seeming incompetent and thoughtless?

You never know if asking for help from a colleague will come across as something positive or negative. Most of the time, the reluctance is so great that people choose to struggle with their work alone instead of asking for anyone’s help. This is a massive mistake as the quality of your work will begin to suffer, and you might get an admonishment from your boss. 

So, if you have this issue, read on to find out what to do to improve your chances of getting help from a colleague at work.

Help Others

This one is very obvious, but surprisingly most people don’t practice it. If you want your colleagues to help you when some issue comes up, you should be offering them your help whenever it seems that they need it.

Lending a hand will do wonders in building goodwill and forming friendships among colleagues. If you are constantly helping them out, your colleagues will be happy to assist you when you need their help. They will also realize that you are actually productive and not someone who is simply trying to take advantage of them. 

Once you start helping everyone around the office, you will not feel awkward when you need to ask for help. You will also be on good terms with people, and the work environment itself will become supportive. 

First Try Your Best 

Before you call for help, make sure you have tried everything. This will ensure that your colleagues don’t think you are lazy or incompetent. Come up with various solutions and test them all one by one.

Once it is clear that you won’t be able to do it alone, only then ask for help from your colleagues. The various solutions that you have already attempted will show your colleagues that you are knowledgeable and good at your job. 

Stay Engaged with Helper

Once someone has agreed to help, it would be rude and unprofessional to let that person do the work all by himself. Stay engaged with the helper as he tries to come up with a solution. You will also need to be there to answer questions about the work.

While the helper goes about solving the issue, observe him carefully so that you can learn what to do next time something like that happens again. No one likes asking for help constantly, so it would be a good idea to learn on the spot. 

Quiet Help and Loud Praise

Ask for help quietly without drawing the attention of anyone as your boss might disapprove. However, once the work is done, make sure to praise the helper loudly in front of your other colleagues. This will show that you appreciate what your friend did for you. And if someone has helped you out of a tight spot at work, let them know that you owe them a favour.

Asking for help is never easy in a workplace, but it is important to overcome your shyness or anxiety to ask for help when you need it. Your colleagues would actually be happy to help, and just make sure to thank them later and let them know that you appreciate all their help. 

What do you do when you are stuck at work and need some help? How do you ask your colleagues for help? Let us know by writing in the comment section below.