The document is done... no it's not!

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How do you all cope when you submit a document and it's supposedly OK, then your boss and/or customer comes back and tell you to make more changes several times? I have had to make so many changes I am already overwhelmed. Now it's supposedly done, but the customer was talking about possibly making more changes.

This will affect at least one other colleague, who has already put his foot down and said he won't be able to accept any more changes from my end, or he won't be able to deliver his part of the work.

I just don't get it when NT people set a timeline to sign things off, and then don't keep to it. Apparently it happens a lot. The uncertainty of whether I am truly done with this document is making me extremely anxious.

Thanks for any constructive advice.

First, it's just possible that your boss/customer is a little neurotic, and is just changing things out of a compulsive need either to make "improvements" or discomfort from finishing things.

Second, they are in a position of relative power, so you sort of have to let them make changes. Maybe at a later date in your career you will be in a position to choose better people to work with, and maybe not.

What to do about it? There's a couple of approaches. You can accept that they're the neurotic one, not you. But in a situation where your co-worker says any more changes and they cannot do the work, this must be transmitted to the critic of the document. (Do it in such a way that it's your co-worker, not you, who is the bad guy.)

If this situation is giving you anxiety, that's on you. Do some deep breathing, go take a walk around the block, do whatever you do to manage anxiety. It may just be that you are stressed not by making changes to the document, but by confrontation - telling the boss/client that the extent of changes is interfering with completing the job. If you think that is the case, let it go this time at work, but privately, talk to a therapist about these feelings.

Thanks.

The colleague who put his foot down already said to both me and my boss that he won't be able to accept any new documents from me after the end of that day.

Also, I have started seeing a counsellor monthly for this and a few other things.