MANAGER MINT MAGAZINE Issue 04 | Page 16

3. People Who Are Too Helpful Stop Others From Learning

When others find out about your helpful team member, they’re going to be interested. Particularly those who want to minimize their own workload. Some people will try to offload tasks they should be doing themselves onto others who are too helpful.

This is often the result of #1, when role boundaries become blurry. Because now, people who ask the team member for help have plausible deniability.

“Oh, I thought that was part of her role, since she did that report for John.”

What then happens, is that some people don’t even do their own job any more. They offload the parts they don’t like, or aren’t good at, to the helpful people of the workplace. But if these people can’t even complete their own tasks, why are they employed in their role?

Instead, they should be learning the skills they need to perform their own roles. People who are too helpful may prevent this from happening. Now, you have a helpful team member who is a crutch, who everybody else starts to lean on.

4. People Who Are Too Helpful Become Overwhelmed

In many jobs and industries, there are times when a team’s workload may be a little less than usual. In that time, it’s not unusual for helpful people to lend a hand doing things they might not usually do. Many people go stir crazy when there isn’t enough to do at work, so it’s not surprising that they want to lend a hand.

The real trouble happens when the workload starts to pick up again. Now your helpful team member has their own job to do, and the work they took on before. In some cases, a helpful team member never wants to let anybody down. So they continue to shoulder the excessive work burden.

If this goes on for too long, there may be an eventual collapse. Or, there is #5.

5. People Who Are Too Helpful Eventually Leave Others In The Lurch

Your helpful team member has taken on too much. Some will collapse under the burden and may burn themselves out. Others will drop the “helpful” work like a hot potato and focus on their own tasks. Now, you have a potential team reputation problem.