Another manager in corporate headquarters stopped by this morning with a request to borrow two of your best employees for a three-week emergency. Under normal conditions, you wouldn't hesitate to help, but your team has its own scheduling challenges to deal with. Plus, this isn't the first time this manager has run into trouble, and you are confident that poor project management is the reason. Which of the following is the most diplomatic way to state your refusal while suggesting that your colleague's management skills need improvement?
a. With the commitments we've made on our own projects, we won't be able to bail you out this time.
b. I sympathize with the trouble you've gotten yourself into again, I really do, but the commitments we've made on our own projects prevent us from releasing any employees for temporary assignments.
c. The commitments we've made on our own projects prevent us from releasing any workers for temporary assignments. However, I would be happy to meet with you to discuss the techniques I've been using to manage project workloads.
d. Instead of shifting resources around as usual, why don't we meet to discuss some new strategies for staffing and project management?