I've often heard managers say that in difficult financial times the first item on the organisational budget to get the chop is training and development. Strangely enough, the same stop and drop approach is often taken by busy managers when they're faced with piles of paperwork. They see it as the one area in their role that can be dropped for an indefinite period of time, until things get quieter. They can justify their decision by saying another area in their role has a priority. On occasions, some issues will take priority however paperwork isn't an optional extra. Administrative tasks and paperwork will always be part of roles and always need to be done and not doing it for periods of time typically creates other problems down the line. So, the best approach is to consider all role tasks and responsibilities as needing 'this and that', not 'this or that'.