Office Firefighter

I used to be that person—the office "firefighter."

If a colleague couldn't finish their work, my section chief dumped it on me. If a colleague messed up a task, my section chief dumped it on me. And if a colleague simply didn't want to do a task? You guessed it, the chief still dumped it on me. I became the walking, talking embodiment of the company's emergency response team.

It got to the point where the chief came to me for everything, big or small. I'd be working non-stop, running on fumes, not even getting a chance to grab a drink of water. Meanwhile, the chief kept piling on new assignments and nagging me for being too slow. My colleagues? They were either scrolling on their phones, humming a tune with their legs crossed, or glued to a personal call.

It was only when I realized that the more I did, the more I was criticized, that the penny dropped. This situation was completely unacceptable. The root cause? A combination of my own overzealous sense of responsibility and a failure to read the room, still clinging to a naive hope of getting promoted or a raise.

I began to analyze the situation. Trying to get ahead by simply doing more work was completely unrealistic for me. The stronger my sense of duty and the more work I took on, the worse off I became. I knew I had to draw a line. I started keeping a private record of tasks I could and couldn't take on, and then, slowly but surely, I began the process of "re-educating" my section chief.

Here's how I did it:

1. I Became Selective About Which Tasks I Accepted

I set clear standards for what deserved my attention and what didn't:

A. Selective Help for Colleagues

We're all just cogs in the machine, and everyone has a life, family responsibilities, and hard times. When a colleague genuinely had a last-minute emergency and couldn't finish, I was willing to help selectively.

For close colleagues: I'd jump in without expecting a "thank you," just hoping they'd return the favor when I needed it.

For distant or difficult colleagues: I learned not to test human nature. Helping them wouldn't necessarily earn me gratitude, so why bother?

B. Zero Tolerance for Low-Value Work

If a task was botched and then handed to me, it signaled one of two things: either the work wasn't important, or they simply didn't respect me enough. I wasn't accepting either.

Unimportant Work: Doing it wouldn't benefit me. No thank you.

Relatively Important Work: Even if I helped, they often wouldn't appreciate it, viewing it as my responsibility once it landed on my desk. Since there was no formal reassignment, the credit would go to the original colleague. I'd just be doing all the heavy lifting for someone else's career—a certified sucker. If I did it well, it was expected; if I failed, my ability was questioned. I'm not an idiot; I refused to take those tasks.

C. Rejecting Personal Responsibility Transfers

If a colleague's task was incomplete or ruined due to their own low efficiency or lack of motivation, that was their problem. They needed to face the consequences, and it had nothing to do with me. Don't come looking for me.

2. I Learned the Art of Negotiation

In the working world, we all play favorites—we seek out people who are easy to deal with and beneficial to us. Conversely, we avoid those who make things difficult.

When a leader constantly comes to you with messes, it’s a clear sign: you're easy to manage, you don't complain, and you consistently deliver. You've become the perfect tool, the ultimate clean-up artist.

To escape this trap, you have to fight magic with magic. I learned to negotiate with my boss and increase the "cost" of assigning me extra work. The more friction I created, the more the chief backed off.

My standard response became this:

"Theoretically, I should help. But I need to emphasize that my core responsibilities have the highest priority."

I would stress that my willingness to help was a sign of strong teamwork, but it couldn't be allowed to compromise my main duties.

"I'm genuinely swamped right now. If you absolutely need me to do this, I can only start once my priority work is finished. That might be tomorrow, or maybe the day after."

Crucially, I instituted a task-for-task trade: "If you want to add one task to my plate, you must remove one." If they couldn't or wouldn't do that, I simply wouldn't accept the work.

3. I Increased Communication (and Praise)

Leaders know exactly who is capable and who isn't. They are also well aware of the workload imbalance, but they often choose to ignore it because they are results-oriented—they only care that the job gets done, not who does it.

If you don't voice your concerns, they will assume you can handle more and keep piling it on. So, I started communicating frequently with my chief. I talked about what I was doing, the difficulties I was facing, and yes, I even started hinting at my desire for a raise or promotion. I needed them to see me as a valuable professional, not an inexhaustible draft horse who would forever toil without reward.

I also adopted a clever, indirect strategy: I started praising the colleagues who were pushing their work onto me.

I'd tell the chief how capable they were, offer specific examples, and express my sincere admiration, saying things like, "They are so talented and excellent; they should be given more opportunities to show what they can do. I need to learn from them!"

Whether or not it was true didn't matter. I had to make it sound believable. The goal was to remove the idea that my chief should ever try to transfer their work to me again.