May 11, 2019
Managing Your Bandwidth When Several Teams Want You
Updated September 2026: in May 2019 I wrote about a week when two opportunities collided with my planned day off, and one team kept adding me to calls without asking. I have rewritten it as a guide to managing your bandwidth when several teams want your time.
That week in 2019, an old team pulled me back with tight deadlines just as my current opportunity announced it would close within a week, on the very day I had planned off with my family. I told the new team my support would be limited for a few days, and they agreed. Then they looped me into every call and update anyway, without checking whether I had time.
Why does this happen so often in IT services?
Because people are allocated to opportunities, not to hours. Each team sees you as fully theirs, and nobody sees your whole week. Unless someone makes the overlap visible, each team keeps asking as if it is the only one.
How do you tell teams your bandwidth is limited?
- Put it in writing to each team, with dates: "I am on the X renewal until Thursday; from Friday I can give you mornings."
- Copy your manager, so the allocation decision is theirs, not yours to argue alone.
- Name what you will not do, such as attending daily status calls, so the team can plan around it.
What if a team ignores what was agreed?
Decline the calls you did not agree to, politely, pointing back to the email: "As agreed on Monday, I am limited until Thursday; please send me the notes and I will pick up actions then." Being added to invites is not the same as being expected to attend. If the team insists, that is a conversation for your manager and theirs, not something to absorb by working late.
How do you protect planned time off in a week like this?
Mention it early and repeat it in every bandwidth message. Offer a handover point before the day off and name who will cover any closure activity. A closing date that falls on your leave is a reason to hand over, not a reason to cancel, unless you are the only person who can do the work.
What should you ask for afterwards?
A simple allocation view: which opportunities you are on, at what percentage, for how long. Many managers keep this only in their heads. Asking for it after a week like mine is reasonable, and it makes the next collision easier to spot early.
The frustration I felt in 2019 was fair. The fix, though, was not patience; it was a written bandwidth statement that nobody could claim not to have seen.