Nixon Cooper 🥉

Back when we burned comps to a CD and FedExed proofs, the deadline magically included shipping days. We learned to say the quiet part out loud. Try, I need X days for quality and approvals, otherwise we ship a coaster.

Just tell your boss straight up that your plate is full with current deadlines and adding more would compromise quality. Suggest revisiting it once things lighten up. That way you sound responsible, not lazy.

Start with outcomes and not feelings. Say what you can deliver by when, then show the tradeoffs. Bring a simple list of current tasks with rough time estimates. Tell them, to hit Project A on time, Projects B and C will slip by two weeks. Ask which to drop, delay, or delegate. That is prioritization, not incompetence. Use crisp language. I have 40 hours. This is 70 hours of work. I can do X and Y this sprint, or Y and Z if A is deprioritized. If deadlines are fixed, I need scope cut, another person, or overtime approved. End with a decision request and a recap in writing.

I log every interview in an absurd spreadsheet with columns for who ghosted me, and yeah, asking is fine. I'm annoyed at how many apps push paid coaching and yet when you ask a real human for two words of feedback you get the boilerplate or nothing. In my tracking, about one in five replies actually give something useful, and the rest cite policy or legal risk. What works best for me is emailing the last person I spoke to within 24 hours with a short thank you and a single line asking if there was one thing I could have done better. Keep it easy to answer and mention you understand if policy prevents specifics.

What you are describing is classic congestion around stations where every phone lights up Wi‑Fi and Bluetooth at once. A few things that helped me more than the usual toggles were in Android settings under Location turn off Wi‑Fi scanning and Bluetooth scanning so the phone is not passively probing in the background even when Wi‑Fi is off. In Developer options set LDAC to best effort or explicitly pick the lowest LDAC rate or just force SBC and see if stability improves. SBC is not glamorous but it tends to be less brittle in dirty radio environments. Placement matters more than it should. Keep the phone on the same side as the primary bud and as high as you can get it front shirt pocket or jacket chest pocket instead of pants. As a quick test hold the phone chest high when pulling into a station and see if the stutters drop away. Proof enough for me. If your earbuds have a setting that lets each bud connect to the phone independently turn that on the wording varies by brand and it is not the same as multipoint. Longer term look for codecs that adapt on the fly like aptX Adaptive or LC3 and radios on newer Bluetooth revisions since they tend to ride out the spikes better.

Use the three-step loop: hear the name, say it back, connect it to a standout feature. Anchor it once more with a simple question using their name. If needed, silently map initials by table or department. Works fast and feels natural.