Isn't that the truth! This kind of thing used to bother me until I started looking at it differently. Whoever is passing on these types of requests is thinking about the situation only from their own perspective - OR they're passing on an obligation that's been dumped at their feet. If they're asking us to do something that would either require a magic wand or for us to bend the laws of physics, it's clearly not going to happen.
I probably got this idea from reading this forum, but when these situations arise, I've learned to give them options about what I reasonably CAN do, and let them choose. If I receive documents later than I said I'd need them to meet their requests, then that puts the onus on someone else. Of course, I'm still going to do my best to get it done, if possible, but I'm not going to put myself under extreme stress or risk making mistakes or getting into an accident in the process.
The trick is in managing expectations up front. Once that's done, it's pretty easy to be diplomatic.
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