Responsibility Drift

You delegated the thing. You were clear about it. You handed it to someone capable, you said the words, you even felt the small relief of it leaving…

There is a person on every team who can be handed almost anything and it lands. You know who they are on your team. There’s a reasonable chance

You said no to a committee assignment on Tuesday. By Friday, a “collaborative initiative” appeared that was structurally identical but framed differently enough that declining felt petty. Same

You said no to a project last week. This week, a slightly different version of the same project appeared — framed as an “opportunity” instead of a request,

You remember the project that was supposed to be a one-time favor. Eighteen months later, you own the entire workstream. Nobody asked. Nobody discussed expanding your scope. They

“I can take a look.” “I’ll check on it.” “I’ll follow up.” You’ve said those sentences a hundred times. None of them assign responsibility. All of them absorb

You spent three hours building a perfect spreadsheet that nobody asked for — because the underlying question it answers was never the real question. You resolved a team

Last Tuesday’s standup. Someone mentioned a client issue. Everyone looked at the table. You said “I’ll look into it” because the silence was louder than the effort. That

Think about the recurring task you handle every Monday. The one nobody assigned. You started doing it months ago because someone was on vacation. They came back. You’re

You didn’t apply for this role. There was no posting, no interview, no conversation where someone said “you’re now responsible for everything ambiguous.” But if you’re asking why