Doing a good job just keeps earning you more work. Why does this keep happening?
You're the person everyone calls because they know you'll get it done. You step in. You fix it. You follow up. You make sure it happens. And after a while, you may start wondering why you're always the one taking care of things.
“If I don't do it, who will?”
“I handed it off. Why am I still responsible for it?”
“It's not really my job, but somehow I'm the one taking care of it.”
“I'm responsible for the result, but I don't have the authority to make it happen.”
The Trust Tax™ helps you see the responsibility pattern, the story that may be keeping it going, and what that pattern is costing you.
Take the Free Trust Tax™ AssessmentWant to understand why these patterns happen? Listen to The Trust Tax Investigation →
Already recognize yourself and ready to step out of the pattern? Explore Rewrite Your Story →
Being reliable can turn into being the person who gets everything.
At first, being the go-to person can feel good. You're trusted. You're valuable. People know you can handle it. But over time, more work gets added, more problems find their way to you, and things that aren't really your job can somehow become your problem.
You delegate something, but you're still the one making sure it gets done. You're accountable for an outcome without having the authority to make it happen. You keep fixing a broken process because it's easier than waiting for someone else to fix it.
And because you keep making it work, everyone assumes it is working.
That's one reason these patterns can stay invisible for so long. You're still producing. You're still solving problems. You're still getting things done.
Until the cost becomes harder to ignore.
The cost might show up in time, energy, focus, capacity, opportunity, frustration, disengagement or burnout.
The organization can pay too—in hidden problems, rework, lost capacity, unnecessary cost and turnover. That's the Trust Tax™.
Find out what's actually happening.
In about seven minutes, the Trust Tax™ Assessment helps you answer four questions that can make the pattern much easier to see.
Seven patterns that can hide beneath success.
The research gives the patterns formal names. Your experience probably sounds a lot more like this.
New responsibility keeps being added without other responsibility intentionally leaving.
Being capable and dependable has made you the person others naturally turn to.
The task may have moved, but responsibility for the outcome still feels like it belongs to you.
You're being held accountable for an outcome without enough authority, access or decision-making power to produce it.
Work, decisions or outcomes don't have clear ownership, so someone eventually fills the gap.
You may still be succeeding while the work itself is becoming less aligned with what matters to you.
You're carrying plenty of work, but the work may not be developing or using you in the direction you want to grow.
You may see what you keep doing long before you understand why.
A pattern doesn't repeat itself by accident. Sometimes there's a story underneath it that makes the same response feel reasonable every time.
Maybe another responsibility lands on your plate and you think, “I can handle one more thing.”
Maybe someone needs help and the story becomes, “It's easier if I just take care of it.”
Maybe you hand something off but continue watching over it because, “I should make sure it turns out okay.”
Or maybe something at work feels wrong, but another story tells you, “Just keep your head down and make it work.”
The assessment doesn't decide your story for you. It gives you stories to listen for based on the patterns showing up in your results. They may not be your stories at all. The point is to make the pattern easier to notice before you automatically repeat it again.
Why do I keep doing this?
Is this story still helping me?
Do I want to keep repeating this pattern?
“I can handle it” doesn't have to mean “I have to do it.”
See it. Understand it. Rewrite it.
You don't have to begin in the same place as everyone else. Start with what you need right now.
See what's happening.
Take the Trust Tax™ Assessment to identify the responsibility pattern, the story that may be reinforcing it, and what the pattern is costing you.
Take the free assessment →Understand why it happens.
Follow The Trust Tax Investigation for conversations about responsibility, identity, burnout, leadership and the systems that help these patterns take hold.
Listen to the podcast →Step out of the pattern.
Join us at Rewrite Your Story to move beyond recognizing the pattern—to question the story driving it, loosen its grip and choose a different story.
Explore Rewrite Your Story →
The Trust Tax Investigation
How does someone who is capable, successful, trusted and still getting the work done end up burned out?
The Trust Tax Investigation looks beneath the surface at responsibility, identity, organizational systems, expectations, leadership and the stories that make the same patterns easier to repeat.
Instead of simply telling people to become more resilient, we're asking a different question: What is actually creating the pattern?
Listen to UnCeiling You™You can see the pattern. What if you didn't have to keep repeating it?
The Trust Tax™ Assessment helps you see the pattern, hear the story that may be keeping it going, and understand what it's costing you.
Because “I can handle it” doesn't have to mean “I have to do it.”
On October 15, Natalie H. Luke, Ph.D. and nationally touring comedian Merit Kahn bring this work into the room through an afternoon leadership workshop followed by Merit's live theatrical comedy show, Optimistic Personality Disorder™.
- Recognize the story that may be driving the pattern
- Question beliefs that once helped you succeed but may no longer be helping
- Reset responsibility, ownership and boundaries
- See the story differently through humor and perspective
- Step out of automatic responses and choose a different path
Natalie H. Luke, Ph.D.
Natalie is the founder and host of UnCeiling You™, creator of the Trust Tax™ research initiative, and a senior executive whose career has spanned leadership, organizations, research and performance.
Her work asks a deceptively simple question: What happens when the way you've learned to succeed keeps adding more work, more responsibility, and more pressure—until it starts burning you out?
Through UnCeiling You™, the Trust Tax™ research, conversations with leaders and experts, workshops and live experiences, Natalie helps capable people see what keeps happening, understand why it may be happening, and create room for a different response.
Your most dependable people may be hiding problems your organization needs to see.
When the same capable people keep stepping in, fixing problems, compensating for unclear ownership and making broken processes work, the organization can mistake their competence for evidence that the system is working.
That can continue until the person burns out, disengages, leaves or simply stops compensating for what isn't working. Burnout prevention therefore cannot stop at telling individuals to become more resilient, manage their time better or set stronger boundaries.
We also have to ask how work, authority, ownership and responsibility are actually moving through the organization—and who keeps absorbing the gaps.
Explore the Trust Tax™ Assessment →You know something keeps happening. Find out what it is.
Take the free Trust Tax™ Assessment and see whether there's a responsibility pattern problem, what the pattern is, what story may be helping keep it going, and what that pattern is costing you.
Show Me What's Going On →