Being at the beck and call of others is a sure-fire way of getting a reputation for being a hardworking employee who is devoted to their company, but over time this may start to take its toll.

When starting out in a firm, new workers are generally willing to show their enthusiasm for their role. This could result in them working longer hours than they truly wish to and taking on more tasks than they were originally given. This is often a way of showing how indispensable you are to a firm and fellow colleagues, although it could prove difficult to maintain this, especially if life circumstances change and you develop more commitments outside of your working life.

On the other hand, you may be at the same company you have been at for several years and through reasons outside your control, such as redundancies, you may be volunteered for additional initiatives that are difficult to fit in with your current workloads. As you have rarely had to cope with significant increases in the number of campaigns given to you to complete, you may feel it would be unlike you to bring up your feelings about recent changes and battle on regardless. In addition, you may fear that you could put your job in jeopardy if you speak up about concerns or refuse to do tasks that would stretch your working day beyond your contract.

Employees working under these conditions generally find that they are affected in some way. Getting to grips with workloads and time management requires planning and organisation of the jobs you have to carry out over the week. This allows you to delegate, keep to deadlines and turn in assignments that have been completed to a high standard.

However, this is unlikely to be the case if you are constantly required to do extra tasks on top of what you are already responsible for. The quality of your work may suffer, in addition to your performance, which is ironic as most workers take on more assignments to ease pressure at work. As well as the practical elements affected by agreeing to complete most workplace requests, over time there is often a physical response to these kinds of working conditions.

Employees could find that they begin to feel constantly stressed and if they spend large amounts of time away from their friends and family to finish extra tasks, relationships may suffer. Saying no to certain requests in the workplace may prevent escalation of unhealthy company environments, but it is not always easy to utter the word when asked to carry out assignments that would greatly impact on your packed schedule. For reasons previously stated, many employees are primed to accept as many tasks offered and they feel guilty refusing them.

Experts in the field of assertiveness describe several different ways of letting colleagues know that you do not wish to comply with their suggestions. The kind of 'nos' that they suggest workers steer away from are those that offer lots of excuses for the response and those that are aggressive. The former kind of no is normally followed up with emotional rationalisations that suggest there are ways around the answer, meaning it could turn into a discussion where the put-upon colleague eventually gives the green light to assignments they do not have time for.

The latter kind may intimidate the person extending the request and could escalate a thorny situation. The best way to turn down offers of more work is to calmly and politely say the all-important two letter word, perhaps followed by a few words stating that you are unable to help them at the present time. A short explanation as to why this is the case - such as a full schedule - is sometimes added to factually back up the no, rather than rationalise the answer. Some people find maintaining eye contact and relaxed, confident body language can assist them in delivering an assertive no.