Q: I am a helpful person by nature, so when individual co-workers are overloaded, I offer to help. We have equal-level jobs but different types of work. Sometimes they have to do it themselves, but when any co-worker could do it, they accept my offer. What has started bothering me is that when I am overloaded and ask for help, they all say they are too busy.

Everyone always has work to do, but the deadlines are different. When I offer to help, it's not that I don't have my own work; it's that my work has a later deadline than theirs. When they say they can't help me, they are in the same position as I am when the work is not due immediately.

When I can't get help, I have to work furiously to finish or stay late to do it. I refuse to be petty, so I don't mention the times I put off my work to help them meet a deadline. Without getting nasty, how do I get the help I need?

A: Your first goal is to finish your work before offering help to anyone. You might think your co-workers are being unfair, but consider this: You have work due in three days, so you postpone it to help your co-worker whose work is due in two days. Now you catch the flu and can't complete your own work. Your co-workers will appear efficient because you helped them, while you will look like a slow worker because you didn't get it done on time. As a result, your boss might question your time management skills.

Though everyone assumes he or she will enjoy good health and safekeeping, no one knows what each day will bring. In short, do all of your work, regardless of deadlines, before offering to help others. There is, though, good sense to a system based on your practice of teamwork.

Tell your boss you have an idea for readjusting the workload flow. Explain how the varied deadlines create crunch periods and lag times and how implementing a team approach to completing all work according to deadlines could benefit the department. Give examples of how you've helped others meet their immediate deadlines by helping them when your deadlines have been further off. If the boss sees advantages to creating a steadier workflow, a change could come from management wherein all workers would participate in focusing on critical work first.

Ask for your suggestion to be kept between you and the boss because you would like the boss to take credit for it if it were to be implemented. In fact, keep all ideas for management confidential to avoid co-worker jealousy and gossip. If a boss likes a suggestion, he or she knows where it came from, and that's all that matters.

Don't Throw All Your Hope Into One Psychic

Q: I knew of a real estate investor who used to consult a psychic on an address before buying a property. Have you heard of consulting a psychic for a job search?

A: Yes, I have, but consider this. Some people are lucky no matter what they do, whereas others create their good luck through education, research, analysis and experience. Some people have bad luck caused by unplanned situations, whereas others create their own bad luck because of poorly made decisions.

Good decision-making is a combination of comprehensive research, a solid education in whatever area one wants, an analysis of possible outcomes and instinct or intuition. If one's research includes many sources in each of these areas and one of those sources is a psychic, so be it, but never listen to only one source before making any decision. A good resume, proper networking, a great work product and a likable personality can take one far.

Email your questions to workplace expert Lindsey Novak at [email protected], and follow her on Twitter @I_truly_care. To find out more about Lindsey Novak and to read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.