Everybody knows or has had that one colleague who makes it their job to wage an urgent war for your attention. Their email subject lines may read URGENT in all caps and include exclamation points. They may contact you after-hours, or in between your other responsibilities, demanding you drop everything, because they need this done tomorrow. They clearly feel their priorities supersede your priorities. Theyre a time-draining nuisance, and they need to be stopped.

You know you need to speak up to set expectations or boundaries or simply save your sanity, but you also know that you need to preserve a collegial relationship. How can you do both? Career experts and a psychologist explain how you can stop letting someone elses urgent stress from becoming your own.