Employee discovers that they're doing the majority of the work for their team, boss refuses to intervene and distribute the workload: 'Started tracking my workload out of curiosity. Turns out I’m handling roughly 70% of what our team produces.'

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Jun 18, 2025 12:00 PM EDT

Being so efficient that you mask the deficiencies of the rest of your team is a double-edged sword, because as long as your team and manager are meeting their performance metrics and the work is getting done, no one will be asking questions. They're not going to care how or why it's happening either, enabling the lowest producers to collect a paycheck without coming close to pulling their weight. If you're like the original poster of this thread and are the person on your team who is keeping everything together, the chances are you probably know it already. 

Still, even if you're a high performer, it's not unusual for your manager to complain about a drop in productivity, even if you're still producing at twice the rate of the next worker. Furthermore, the problem also arises from the fact that as we move along, quality seems to matter less in everything in the name of greater and cheaper production. Consequently, the quality of the work no longer matters, as long as it yields results.

This worker discovered that they were doing no less than 70% of the work on the team, and when they brought it up to their boss, their boss's only response was that they didn't want to "mess with a good thing." This frustrated the worker further and made them consider letting the team's productivity fall on its face, prompting them to share their story with this online workplace community.

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  • 01

    "I found out I’m doing 70% of my team’s work. My boss’s response? “Well, you’re just really efficient.”

    Started tracking my workload out of curiosity. Turns out I'm handling roughly 70% of what out team produces. Reports? Me. Client escalations? Me. Fixing Jason's constant typos and forwarding "his" emails? Still me. So I brought it up in my 1:1. Boss smiles and says, "You're just really efficient. I don't want to mess with a good thing." Translation: please keep being a human buffer for your incompetent team for the same salary.
    via WitnessLongjumping2
  • 02
    Cheezburger Image 10518716160
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 03
    Meanwhile, Sarah "forgets" every deadline. Jason forwards entire client threads with a "can you handle?" and our junior literally waits for me to do anything before moving. It finally clicked: I'm not a team player. I'm a crutch. And the second I stop carrying, this place limps. Thinking about letting it all hit the floor just to see who notices.
    via WitnessLongjumping2
  • 04
    Sugar_Mama76 So had this happen long ago when I was doing data entry. Got bitched at that I was making three times the mistakes as the person who had been on the team for 20+ years. So I apologized and said I would use her as an example. So whenever she would get her next batch, I would get mine. And do the data entry at the same rate.
    via WitnessLongjumping2
  • 05
    Within a week, manager wanted to know why we were missing KPIs. No idea. And then she looked at the actual from the past and realized I had been doing twice the input of the next fastest person. Now I was tracking with the slowest person, but hey, zero mistakes! It was decided that perhaps my mistake rate per 100 was actually well under and please, do what I had been doing.
    via WitnessLongjumping2
  • 06
    Point is, your manager doesn't care because you're hiding the problems. Their metrics look good. If you want change, drop the rope. Tell your manager you will no longer be performing management duties. "Sorry, don't have time to review Jason's work, I've got to prioritize client escalations" and escalate to manager. Don't worry if Sarah misses her deadlines. All of those are manager problems. And
    via WitnessLongjumping2
  • 07
    when manager gets smacked with metric failures, they will have to make changes. Because they're being held to the fire. Work your 40 and don't ruin your life because manager doesn't want to manage.
    via WitnessLongjumping2
  • 08
    Sloth_grl 3d ago My daughter was in school for finance and accounting. She was hired as a receptionist and had a decent salary but her supervisor just kept giving her more accounting chores. Her supervisor was fired so my daughter was the only person left who knew how to do some things.They kept
    via WitnessLongjumping2
  • 09
    promising her they were going to "groom her for the cfo position" but never taught her anything. When she quit, they gave her 3 days to train her replacement. That poor girl was lost. Then my daughter's ex boss went off the deep end. Keep in mind this was a small construction company. He was emailing and insisting that she come and train her
    via WitnessLongjumping2
  • 10
    replacement on her own time, that she committed corporate espionage and that he was going to have her arrested. I told her she could have just said I quit and not even given them notice. He can't arrest you for not training your replacement. If they have no one to train her, that's their problem. So, my daughter just ignored him and he shut up.
    via WitnessLongjumping2
  • 11
    Significant_Bed_2... Act your wage. What are your duties as of the contract? Do that and only that.
    via WitnessLongjumping2
  • 12
    FGX302 You won't get promoted as they need you there. Best to just slacken off while looking for a new job.
    via WitnessLongjumping2
  • 13
    presticus If you're doing 70% of the teams work demand an equivalent raise. Or lower your output to match the groups. Better yet, find someplace in your field that appreciates you and leave.
    via WitnessLongjumping2

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