First time in career. Told manager there is too much on my plate this week as I have at least 40 hours worth of work all "urgent by EOD tomorrow". His reply "I think it can be done". What to do?

If he's reasonable, he probably thinks it's doable because he doesn't estimate it to be 40hrs of work. Either he's better at excel than you, in which case ask him to show you his tricks that would make this go faster, or he doesn't understand the task(s) the way you understand it. If there's a misunderstanding or miscommunication, definitely have a more in-depth conversation about how you would approach it and how you got to your 40hr estimation.

This happens when we have managers who haven't put pen to paper ever in their life and want things magically done to look good in front of PPDs and clients. The only way to get past this is PMO ur manager. 1. Make a list of all things that need to be completed, 2. List dependencies, 3. Make ur manager responsible for resolving any delays, 4. Have a tough conversation about the time estimate for each task, if he thinks it can be done faster, assume he is right and ask him how or ask him to point u to someone who can help, 5. Provide daily status on what was accomplished, what is left, the open items and who is responsible to close them

Tell him to show you how

God help me if I ever get someone like C3 on my engagement.....

Ask him which of the items should be priority

Cocaine

If it's just the excel shit you need, be specific on what needs to be done and I'll do it we can negotiate price. Layoff victim woo

Delegate

Thanks for the advice FB team. I tried the priorities approach, sent them a list and said, "I prioritized all the requests, are you aligned with this list?" The reply was "looks good and makes sense, but not sure we need this since we need everything on the list done by tomorrow". Seems like a losing battle haha I'll just do as much as I can by tomorrow.

@PWC1: I appreciate the optimism but that's not helpful. I've worked 80+ hour weeks and really want to think that, but I know this isn't doable due to the sheer number of people I need to talk to and loads of Excel.

Listen to C4

I'm not one to say impossible but I genuinely don't think it can be done. It's all Excel work that requires quality of numbers.

Agree on pushing him to prioritize. That's their job!

Much like children, managers need teaching and lessons. I'd say don't reply and don't do it has you've already told him you don't have capacity. Your job is done. Let him figure it out, and if he doesn't plan properly he will be SOL.

Prioritize ^ people use EOD too often these days

Bill 80 hours

Update
Spoke to manager and told him priorities (again). Found an analyst on the beach and handed off half the work. Worked unfortunate 14 hour days. End result: got done with 90% of the work and warned manager early in the day the other 10% would have to wait. He was pretty pleased and got the rest of the shit done on Friday. Shitty 2 days but at least it's done; need to find a new manager to work with.

Give it your best shot, you'd be surprised what you can do.

Ask "How do you propose I approach that?"

Why don't you stop complaining on here and get to the work you have to do

Get off FB and knock that shit out. Get some addy and you'll be good to go