The reward for good work? More work.

Before I get going on this top performer curse idea, let me hit you with a pull quote. It’s from an article called “Help Your Team Achieve Work-Life Balance, Even When You Can’t.” (Noble goal.) Here’s the quote:

Redistribute work more evenly. Research by a team from Duke University, University of Georgia, and University of Colorado in 2015 found that managers underestimate how much time it takes to get something done and assign more work to those who are seen as more competent and responsible. So the only reward for doing good work is the addition of more work. High-performers reported feeling “burdened” and were unhappy about others’ over-reliance on them. Reassigning work to others on the team can help prevent burnout and turnover. It also provides much-needed learning opportunities for others on the team.

Get a nice laugh out of that?

The top performer money quote

That would be “The only reward for doing good work is the addition of more work.” Ha. Sigh.

Here’s one of the essential problems with work overall

We tend to place people in too-easily-determined boxes. For example, he/she may be a “bad employee.” Reality: there is no such thing as a bad employee. I’ve worked with people at two different…