Comment by TheSpiceIsLife

In the same vein, at my work in the steel construction industry, when asked by internal and external customers how I'm going with their laser cut components I've taken to telling them: "Your job is important to us and has progressed in the queue".

I can't always give an accurate response because our scheduling is constantly being derailed by urgent tasks and the not-so-urgent tasks get complete in between.

People just want to know you haven't forgotten about them, throw in some light humour and a "I'll try to get it done before knock off tomorrow <wink wink>" and they tend to let me get back to working.