Tag: Work/Life

Begin Again: How To Finally Find Time For What Matters With Backwards Planning
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The trick to hacking time to get what’s actually important to you.

I don’t know you, yet I know this about you: You don’t have nearly enough time for everything you want to do.

The list is long. Enjoy a romantic date night. Get away for a weekend and hike through nature. Work out at the gym to finally get in shape. Watch your kids play their first little league match. Read an investment book and work on your financial freedom.

But you’re busy with your morning coffee, daytime job, and evening news. You go through your established routines day after day, trying to squeeze things in “somewhere.”

But somewhere is neither a time of the day nor a day of the week. At one point, you look back and realize that despite your efforts, you’ve spent most of your time on banalities and distractions instead of the important things.

If you want to do what matters, you have to plan backward.

Step 1: Start With the End in Mind to Determine Your Values

Most people walk through life without a clear plan, so they follow someone else’s.

Society has funneled them into the 9-5, two kids, picket-fence house narrative.

Instead of creating the life they want, they’re stuck in insignificant routines that lead to nowhere, briefly interrupted by painful awakenings and empty promises.

On New Year’s Eve, they look at their life and bad habits, wonder where they have gone wrong, and pledge to do better next year – only to end up in the same spot again.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

The best way to get to the end you desire is to think about your own.

Ask yourself: “When I die, what kind of life do I want to look back upon? How do I want others to remember me? How do I want to have spent my time?”

In simple words, death doesn’t screw around. When you realize that one day you’ll take your last breath, your excuses don’t matter anymore. Just the cold, harsh reality.

As I thought about my end, I realized that many things I spent time on didn’t matter at all. Who cares if I wore the fanciest sneakers, was the most hard-working employee, or had everybody praise me?

Instead, I realized I wanted the freedom to see the world, meaningful connections with a few select people, and the presence to consciously enjoy every moment of my life.

Whatever your end is, keep it in mind in everything you do.

Step 2: Use Small Commitments To Create Huge Change

Your dreams, goals, and ambitions mean nothing if you don’t act on them.

It’s simple – if you don’t make time for them, they turn into a dirty pile of should, wants, and wishes.

For years, I’ve wanted to improve the connection with my mom. I love her and don’t want to attend her funeral – or my own – with resentment towards her. But instead of letting it become another item on the long list of things I should do, I decided to cut to the chase.

I called her and told her about my plan to book a holiday together so we can soak up the Italian sun, eat copious amounts of pizza and pasta, and talk heart to heart. Now that we have a flight and hotel booked, the chances of this not happening are near zero. No excuses, no change of mind, no bullshit – just planning backward and forcing myself to do what matters.

Forward planning is trying to squeeze things in. Backward planning means having the end in mind and making time for what matters.

The reason squeezing things in is so stressful and prone to failure is it is inherently last minute. The Back Planning framework takes the values you identified in Step 1 and puts things onto your calendar that are important to you long term, forcing the rest of your life to flow around them when it’s finally time to do it.
- Put a date night with your spouse on the calendar for 3 weeks from now
- Want to spend more time with your kids outdoors? Choose a weekend in 8 weeks to go camping.
- Have a desire to be more social? Invite your friends to a game night next month.
- Want to be healthy and in good shape? Block three slots per week for exercise.
- Want to have a great connection with your family? Block time in 5 months for a weekend getaway.
- Want to be financially independent? Block a specific hour every day to work on your side-hustle.
It’s simple – yet most people still don’t do it.

Nothing will change if you keep going through your day-to-day and try to squeeze things in. Instead, you need to sit down and make time for what matters. You need to ask yourself what you need to do to get to the end you desire.

Do this every week, month, and year. Block the time. Put it in your schedule. Then, fight tooth and nail to protect it – because it matters.

The Choice Is Yours

Time management is simple – make what matters a priority.

But good intentions are nothing without actions. The waves of everyday life will always try to wash away your commitments. Keep the end in mind, plan backward, and stick to it.

Every day, you choose what your future looks like.

Will you say “I wish I had” or “I’m glad I did?”

Your time is your greatest wealth – make sure you spend it on what matters.
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Moreno Zugaro

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January 12, 2026
People Who Said ‘Hell Naw’ to Their Job After 1 Day

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Ever started a new job and realized within hours that you’d made a huge mistake? You’re not alone. From nightmare bosses to sketchy workplaces that looked nothing like the interview promised, plenty of people have noped out after just one day… and honestly, sometimes that’s the smartest move you can make.

Here are a handful of ‘hell naw‘ stories that you may or may not relate to!

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Hendy

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October 25, 2025
5 Simple Strategies I Use To Be Super Productive After Work
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Improve your life, not just your performance on the job.

You are not your work.

You know that, but like lots of men, you don’t treat yourself that way. You spend your best waking hours at the job, come home exhausted, and have no energy and time left to work on yourself.

I don’t judge this – it’s what society encourages and normalizes.

But if you’re honest with yourself, you know that if you spent just a fraction of your time and energy on being productive after work:
- You’d look in the mirror again and be proud of how fit you are
- You could achieve the dreams you’ve had for so long
- You could be a better dad and husband
But when you come home, you’re just too tired and don’t have enough time. All you want to do is relax after a long, hard day.

“Don’t be so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” – Dolly Parton

The truth is, the situation won’t change by itself. You’ll have to figure out other ways to make time for your self-improvement.

Here are five of them.

Use This Powerful Physics Principle To Your Advantage

Physics can teach you a lot about life.

For example, the energy needed to get an object in motion is much higher than the one needed to keep it in motion.

This is true for life as well – overcoming initial friction often takes a big push.
- Getting up from the sofa to go to the gym
- Turning off the TV and picking up a book
- Dropping your ego and learning something you aren’t good at yet
In our minds, there’s a massive mountain to move. We often feel like if we don’t do a lot of something, it isn’t worth it.

You can reduce this initial friction by committing to just five minutes.

Even though I’ve been working out regularly for over a decade, I still have days where I don’t want to go to the gym. When that happens, I commit to only one exercise. I allow myself to leave after if I want to.

By the time I’ve completed it, I’m already warmed up, hyped, and in the flow of lifting weights. Paradoxically, it becomes harder to stop than it is to keep going – this is another physics principle known as Newton’s First Law:

“An object in motion stays in motion, unless acted upon by an external force.”

All you need is the initial push. Make the perceived challenge small enough so you can get started easily. Then, you just have to keep rolling.

Five minutes is all it takes.

Don’t Lose Your Momentum

Laziness is a luxury.

There’s the adage “If you want something done, ask a busy person.” It’s true. During times in my life when I didn’t have much to do, the simplest tasks could overwhelm me.

I just wasn’t in the mode of doing anything.

However, when I worked full-time, did a side project, and went to the gym six days a week, time seemed to magically appear out of thin air. Looking back at it now, I realize it was because I didn’t make time for being lazy.

Instead of heading home after work, I went straight to the gym. Instead of plopping down on the couch after, I warmed up my meal prep. Instead of leaving the dishes in the sink, I cleaned them up straight away.

This doesn’t mean you should stuff your schedule to the brim and burn yourself out.

Just don’t lose the momentum – do things while you’re still in “doing mode” from work. It seems harder, but makes it easier.

Once you’re done with working on yourself, you can fully enjoy your relaxation.

Turn It Into A Shoulder-By-Shoulder Activity

Ever heard of shoulder-by-shoulder activities?

It’s when you’re doing something by yourself, but with each other – like going for a hike with your buddy or hitting the gym with a training partner.

Psychologist Paul Wright observed men tend to be more comfortable with these shoulder-by-shoulder activities than women.

I’ve noticed it myself – doing things with others adds a level of accountability, commitment, and enjoyment. If you have a slow day, your partner can get you up to speed – and vice versa.

So instead of tackling everything as a solo mission, get someone to do it with you.
- Read with your partner on the couch
- Watch self-improvement courses with a friend
- Do house or yard work with your kids
Often, the other person doesn’t even have to do much.

I’m perfectly happy with my partner sitting next to me reading a book while I’m working. Them just being there can be enough motivation, accountability, and support to get me going.

Walking the path can be tough, especially when you’re exhausted – so get someone to walk with you.

Use These Approaches To Deal With All The Small Tasks

I love the German language because of all the quotes and sayings.

One of my favorites?

“Small animals also shit.” (There’s a reason we call ourselves the country of poets and thinkers – this sentence isn’t it.)

The English equivalent would be “many a little makes a mickle.”

Small things are often overlooked because they’re, well, small. But if you collect enough of them, they pile up and become a tough mountain to climb. Before you know it, you have a to-do list that’s longer than Santa Claus’s beard after a long night of drinking with the elves.

The good news?

If you approach these tasks properly, you’ll plow through them in no time and feel great for accomplishing so much.

Here are my favorite techniques:
- Batch processing
  Group similar tasks together – for example, anything that’s exercise-related, e.g. finding a gym, creating a meal plan, and watching a video on proper form. It’s much easier to do them all because you’re already in the right mode.
- Two-minute-rule
  If you can do something in under two minutes, do it right away. This gives you a quick win instead of wasting mental bandwidth by keeping it in your mind.
Small things can add up – use that to your advantage.

Hack The Motivation-Friction-Equation

All human behavior follows the same equation.

Motivation > friction = you do it.

Friction > motivation = you don’t do it.

Being tired, having big tasks you don’t like, and not knowing where to start create friction. Having energy, doing what you enjoy, and an enjoyable outcome increase motivation. If your willingness to do something is bigger than the resistance associated, you’ll do it – simple as that.

This also explains why it’s so hard to do things after work. You have little energy, willpower, and drive. Your motivation is as low as the shawty with the apple bottom jeans and boots with the fur in Flo Rida’s song.

I’m living in Colombia right now and although I’ve committed to taking Spanish classes, doing them after a long workday was a pain in the neck.

Then, I found a learning website that has interesting documentaries and entertaining videos with native speakers explaining why some penguins’ poop is pink in Spanish, sorted by language level.

It made learning a breeze because this skyrocketed my motivation – I was looking forward to the videos every day.

Make your tasks fun and you’ll be much more likely to do them:
- Turn on some music while you’re doing household chores
- Make it a game of seeing how much you can get done in 20 minutes
- Combine it with something you enjoy (e.g. watch your favorite show while doing cardio, have a nice tea while reading, etc.)
- Set challenges (e.g. read 20 pages) and reward yourself immediately (with a nice drink or your favorite tunes)
The higher your motivation, the more friction you can overcome.

How To Stay Productive After Work And Focus On Your Self-Improvement

There’s more to your weekdays than your job.

The last thing you want to do is spend all your energy in the office and then survive through the rest of your waking hours until it’s time to sleep and start the whole cycle anew.

Use these five strategies to make sure you invest as much energy into yourself as into your day job.
1. Make getting started easy by committing to just five minutes.
2. Keep the momentum going after work.
3. Turn your tasks into shoulder-by-shoulder activities.
4. Use batch processing and immediate action to take care of the small stuff.
5. Add something that makes your chores fun.
Invest in yourself – it will pay off for the rest of your life.
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Moreno Zugaro

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April 1, 2024
Boost Employee Success with These 3 Proven Strategies | Entrepreneur

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

This story originally appeared on Under30CEO.com

When your employees experience success, your company experiences success. This makes it imperative for you to help your workers so they can succeed. However, you can’t relegate your support to their professional lives but their personal ones as well. That way, they’ll be more poised to apply themselves when they’re working — and that’s good for them and for your business.

Employees who are unencumbered by burdens and stress have more time and energy to devote to their occupations. They can dive into projects and harness the creativity and problem-solving so necessary for innovation. This encourages them to find meaning in their output. As a recent Paychex survey showed, having meaningful work is a key reason many people stay with their employers. Workers who are succeeding are, therefore, not just more likely to share their talents but are apt to stick around. That’s good for any company, especially on the heels of the Great Resignation.

Related: Are You Taking Care of Your Employee’s Mental Health?

How do you set the stage to boost your workers’ success? Aside from being respectful and offering fair compensation, try these strategies.

1. Provide mental health and well-being support.

Research from Pathways indicates that mood disorders like depression will affect one out of six American adults. Like any condition, depression doesn’t just affect a person’s home life. It affects everything they do, including their career. Yet, it can be difficult for employees who are suffering to feel comfortable or confident starting a treatment plan or even rehab. What they need is a psychologically safe workplace environment that gives them room to improve their mental health.

If you haven’t done so already, revisit your benefits package. See if there is a mental health component. For example, you may want to ensure your health insurance options include mental health coverage. Additionally, make certain your managers are watchful for signs of burnout and depression in their direct reports. These signs can include difficulty concentrating, anger, or any unusual, uncharacteristic behaviors, according to Pathways.

Of course, not all employees who are irritable are dealing with depression. Nevertheless, those who are struggling may be more willing to get treated if their supervisors facilitate genuinely caring conversations. And without the cloud of depression and mental illness, they can better hone their talents and show off their skills.

2. Remove your employees’ nagging obstacles and friction points.

It’s impossible to be successful when employees aren’t given the right tools or resources. For instance, if you expect your people to optimize their workflows, you’ll need to invest in more tech. Similarly, you may have to be flexible in letting team members have autonomy in terms of their working arrangements. This can include allowing remote-capable employees to work from home or another location at least some of the time.

Currently, around half of the organizations with remote-capable workers are operating in a hybrid fashion per Gallup. Not only is this strategy working, but it’s allowing employees to better structure their days. The result has been a surge in self-reported productivity levels. More productivity naturally leads to more on-the-job success.

Related: Out-Talent the Competition With 7 Tips to Help Your Employees Self-Actualize

Not sure what roadblocks could be holding back your workers? Ask them. They’ll be able to tell you where their biggest friction points are. With that knowledge, you can make changes to address those pains and give them the freedom to move ahead faster.

3. Offer constant, relevant upskilling and retraining opportunities.

A full 68% of workers surveyed by the University of Phoenix said they’d stay for the long haul with an employer that upskilled them. Why, then, aren’t more companies offering professional development? The answer is that many are, but their training may be lacking the relevance and depth that it needs to have to make a lasting difference. A good example of this would be one-and-done training on a new software program. Some people might find the training interesting but not pertinent. Consequently, though they technically were trained, they weren’t trained on something fitting for their positions.

Ideally, each worker should be able to engage in personalized upskilling that leverages core strengths, aptitudes, and future goals. Again, this is where some employee feedback and surveys can be invaluable. These vehicles can show what kinds of training are “nice to have” and which are “need to have.” After every employee training experience, managers can serve in mentoring roles to guide their direct reports from milestone to milestone. In time, this process will improve not just workers’ abilities but their confidence.

Remember, though, that training doesn’t always have to be formal to have a serious impact. Professional development can take place informally. Let’s say you have a budding sales leader who needs more exposure to the broader sales field. You might want to send her to an annual industry convention. That way, she can get more knowledge as well as network with peers. More exposure to experts in her desired career path can help her achieve her occupational objectives.

Related: Motivation is the Secret to a Successful Team — Are Your Employees Motivated? 4 Tips for Empowering New Hires

Your employees want to feel like they’re doing their best. Now is the chance for you to make it easier for them to be as successful as possible. To start, you have to put some measures in place to serve as springboards so they can rev up their acumen and accomplishments.

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Kimberly Zhang

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November 15, 2023
Expert-Backed Strategies for Combatting Remote Work Challenges | Entrepreneur

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Love it or hate it, you probably have a pretty solid opinion on remote working, and it’s probably not changing anytime soon.

The internet has exhausted the remote vs. office work debate; however, there is still much to be said about the long-term impacts of a remote workforce. One of the biggest drawbacks to remote work we know about is isolation, which can have an impact on employees’ happiness.

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Entrepreneur Staff

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April 29, 2023
3 Simple Methods To Achieve Work-Life Balance And Combat Decision Fatigue | Entrepreneur

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

It’s 8 pm on a Wednesday night. Let’s imagine you’re having dinner with a good friend passing through town for work. Your entrees have just arrived, you clink wine glasses and toast to the occasion. But just as you’re about to pick up your fork, the needy vibration of a cell phone forces you both to pause.

Hot food. Buzzzzzz…

Good company. Bzzzzzzzz…

Decisions, Decisions.

If this sounds like the setup for a corporate-style Choose Your Own Adventure book, then guilty as charged. Because the reality is that we live (and relive) these choices multiple times per day. If you answered the call, turn to page 27. If you hit Decline and put your phone in your coat pocket, turn to page 32.

Page 27: “Ah, sorry, let me just take this quickly,” you tell your dining companion. “It’ll just take a second,” you say assuredly. As a polite gesture, your friend waits for your call to finish as the steam noticeably stops billowing from your dinner plates. Four minutes later, the call ends. “Now, where were we?” you ask as you prod your fork into a room-temperature floret of broccoli.

Page 32: You look at your phone with a hint of curiosity but then quickly decline the call and remove your phone from the table. Your friend grins from across the table as you excitedly dig into your hot, mouthwatering dish. Your friend’s eyes widen, “Oh, wow! This is amazing, you have to try it!” she exclaims with delight.

Ok, I admit that one was easy. I didn’t say who was calling, and assuming you turned to page 32; you likely noticed my clear bias for a hot plate of food and a good catch-up. I’m well aware that these micro-decisions we face throughout the day aren’t always so obvious. They can make us feel pulled in opposing directions.

Enter work-life balance and decision fatigue. Trying to strategically and repeatedly toggle the scale between responsibility and urgency can still leave us questioning whether or not we’re doing it “right.” That’s because the life-work balance is profoundly personal and ever-evolving. Situations fluctuate in both arenas. How do you handle it when your VP hands in her notice and her last day conveniently coincides with your long-awaited vacation? What do you do when your assistant calls in on the same morning you’re supposed to supervise your 9-year-old’s class field trip to the zoo?

Related: Work-Life Balance Is Simple. To Succeed at Work, Get a Life.

Unfortunately, I don’t have simple solutions to help you with any of the above. But I do know that this constant pressure to make the right decisions is emotionally exhausting. Decision fatigue is a real issue recognized by the American Medical Association. Not only does it make us feel drained, but it also wears on our cognitive ability to make good daily decisions. This overload results in procrastination, impulsivity, avoidance, and, ironically, indecision.

We need clear parameters when it comes to what we do and do not do when work-life swerves into our home-life lane. The “right” choices for you, the ones that won’t send you into a mental fury of second-guessing yourself, are the ones you make based on your values. And a values-based life enables harmony to exist in both places, but most importantly, within yourself.

1. Sync your personas

Try not to compartmentalize your life. My friend and client, Karlee Fain, calls this a “Split-Labeling Disorder.” It’s that need we feel to adapt who we are to where we are. But switching between “business-you” and “home-you” all the time takes up valuable energy that could be put to other uses. Imagine how much easier life would be if we stopped juggling two versions of ourselves and embraced one.

Think about where your work self and your home self converge and lean into that whole self. Be vulnerable every once in a while, and show off your humanity. Not only does this help foster more authentic workplace relationships, but it also creates ease and cohesiveness. Create an environment where employees have the same space to incorporate their personal and professional lives. A space that’s driven by meaning that recognizes full-spectrum humanness inspires harmony.

Related: A Work-Life Balance Will Help You Keep Employees

2. Focus on Relationships

Putting more effort into cultivating positive work relationships is a win-win for everyone. Research shows that investing time and effort into social capital in the workplace results in higher retention, happier employees and reduced burnout. In his podcast, Jay Shetty addresses the topic, revealing that people who feel they have a good work-life balance work 21% harder than those who don’t.

3. Designate your spaces

Create purposeful spaces and use each space for its intended purpose. When we work at the kitchen table or eat lunch at our desks, we’re confusing our brains. Sociologist Martha Beck explains, “There’s a reason service dogs mustn’t be petted or played with when they’re wearing their work vests: They need to be clear that they’re on the job. But when the vests come off, service dog owners must play with their animals in order to keep them from becoming exhausted and depressed. You’re the same way: Having clear boundaries will help you work enthusiastically, then truly rest.”

Rather than feeling like you’re always one step away from tumbling off the work-life balance beam, try reframing things from the lens of harmony. When you can hone in on a singular self, it naturally invites more authentic relationships to develop. And those interactions, whether in your designated workspace or the car on a family vacation, will help you build a much stronger foundation for success in all aspects of your life.

Related: What’s Happened to Work-Life Balance? Here’s How to Help Employees Find It.

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Ginni Saraswati

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March 30, 2023
A Simple Brain Trick To Guarantee Success

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

As entrepreneurs, most of us are goal-driven, and we’ve learned how to set clear, juicy goals and then break them down into game plans of smaller projects and tasks. The challenge comes when it’s time for you and your team actually to follow those game plans.

After the thrill of setting that awesome goal comes the day-to-day work that is often not so exciting. So how do you keep yourself and your team moving forward? How can you stay on track and consistently hit your daily, weekly and quarterly goals? One of the answers is in the simple brain hack that psychologists call “implementation intention.”

Related: Brain Hacks to Boost Motivation and Beat the Work From Home Blues

What the research shows

A psychology professor at NY University, Peter Gollwitzer, first coined the term in the 1990s. He realized that many people set goals, but not many achieved them because they didn’t take the action they needed to take. Dr. Gollwitzer showed that the difference was not just motivation, as some people were highly motivated and still didn’t do what they needed to do. But people were much more likely to reach their goals by figuring out “pre-determined goal-directed behaviors” and turning them into habits.

Rather than just coming up with a strategy to achieve a goal and then breaking it down into tasks, Dr. Gollwitzer found that people were more likely to succeed if they trained their brains to choose to do the things that they needed to do by using “if-then” statements (you can also use “when-then” statements).

He and his colleagues ran over 400 studies using every type of goal — quitting smoking, voting, healthy eating, exercising and even using condoms! All the studies showed that implementation intentions made a massive difference in the results people got.

Related: Setting Measurable Goals Is Critical to Your Strategic Plan (and Your Success). Here’s Why.

Get to your goal using “when-then”

How does it work? For example, let’s say that you want to grow your business and that getting lots of 5-star testimonials will help. So, you decide to get 100 testimonials this quarter (about eight per week), and you’ll get them by calling 20 past clients per week, just four every day.

Sounds simple, right? But this kind of project easily gets lost in the shuffle. You mean to do it; you know it’s important, but other things that seem more urgent pop up. Eventually, you might even forget about
getting those testimonials completely.

With implementation intention, you start with the statement, “When _________, then I will ______.” You not only say what you will do but also give it a specific time and place. In this case, you might say, “When I get to the office, and before I even look at my emails, I’ll call four past clients for testimonials.” This tells your brain exactly when to be ready to make the calls. It sets up your energy and focus. By doing it over and over, your brain is automatically triggered to sit down and make calls as soon as you walk into your office.

James Clear talks about this in his book Atomic Habits. He points out that setting up implementation intention keeps you from deciding whether to do something every single time. You don’t need to be super motivated that day, and you don’t need to use your willpower to get yourself to do it. You just do it because, after a while, it would feel weird not to do it, just like not brushing your teeth before bed would feel strange.

Related: Your Problem Isn’t Laziness

Overcome obstacles using “if-then”

Implementation intention also helps you pre-plan for obstacles you might encounter and helps get you through them. Say you know that your morning calls will often get interrupted by team members who need your input. You know something like this is bound to happen, so before it does, you figure out, “If ___________, then I will ___________.”

“If I get interrupted, I will ask the person (unless they are bleeding to death) to give me 15-20 minutes.” Or maybe you decide, “If I get interrupted in the morning, I will close the door and eat lunch at my desk to make my calls.” The strategy you use to handle the obstacle is up to you. The point is that you already have it figured out and know exactly how to stay on track despite anything that tries to get in the way.

Athletes have used this for years. Marathon runners know they’ll run into “the wall” at about 18 to 20 miles. Rather than getting blindsided, they figure out ways to handle it before the race. They’ll slow their pace and take some sports gel. They’ll pay attention to the cheering crowd or focus on a certain mantra. They don’t try to figure out how to deal with the wall when it’s happening. They have a plan, so it doesn’t throw them off their goal.

Related: 5 Things About Overcoming Adversity That Athletes Can Teach Entrepreneurs

When I started coaching, I realized that many of my students hit a wall about three months in. They were learning and implementing different marketing strategies. But these strategies take some time, so they didn’t see any results yet. We learned to warn them ahead of time. “Hey, you might not see results for 4-5 months. That doesn’t mean you aren’t on track. If you’re doing the work, results will come soon.”

Then we help them with “if-then” strategies. “If you feel stuck or discouraged, then call in
during office hours.” An implementation intention is a brain-hack tool that helps you take the steps you need to take whether you’re feeling motivated or not. You set up the implementation intention by saying what you’ll do and precisely when you’ll do it, and you pre-plan how you’ll deal with obstacles to stay on track.

James Clear wrote: “Anyone can work hard when they feel motivated. It’s the ability to keep going when work isn’t exciting that makes the difference.”

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Krista Mashore

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December 8, 2022
You May Get A ‘Quiet Promotion’ And Not Realize Until It’s Too Late

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If you have ever felt like you are doing work that goes above and beyond your job title, you might have gotten a “quiet promotion.”

My boss just gave me a “quiet promotion”: I have many more responsibilities but my job title and pay stayed the same

— Serena Needs Stuffing (@kidnapped_jesus) September 7, 2022

They often take place after a company layoff or when a co-worker goes on leave. With your team short-staffed, extra responsibilities and the duties of your departed colleagues may be piled on you without a change in pay or job title. “You do the job of two people for the price of one,” said career strategist Ana Goehner.

Too many of us feel like we’ve been given a quiet promotion. When JobSage surveyed 1,000 full-time U.S. employees in October, three out of four said their workload has increased without additional compensation.

If you keep being asked to do more and be a team player, you could be dealing with a quiet promotion.

Ana Goehner, a career strategist who has been quietly promoted a few times when she worked in corporate jobs, said for her it stemmed from not knowing how to say no to additional work.

“As an over-achiever immigrant, I wanted to be a team player and get things done. I thought a heavy workload was the only way to receive a promotion. I took on backup work from peers, and it became my responsibility. I did more than my colleagues, earned less and kept the same title,” she said. “It took me years to realize that doing the job of two people was unsustainable. I got very sick.”

Goehner said the constant cycle of job-related stress took a toll on her body and mind. She would emotionally eat and sustained back and knee issues, stomach pain and migraines, and she needed physical therapy.

“I felt in a state of fight-or-flight daily,” she noted. “My mental health was affected, and I didn’t know how to relax and get out of that anxious state. I was experiencing burnout, working with therapists and trying my best to keep going.“

“It took me years to realize that doing the job of two people was unsustainable. I got very sick.”

– Ana Goehner, career strategist

Ultimately, Goehner spoke up about boundaries at work and decided to leave those situations when there was not any change. “When I had the courage to stand up for myself, I began to have tough conversations. I started to discuss my workload and priorities. I turned off work notifications after-hours and focused on building my confidence to ask for a promotion. After a few tries and no progress, I left those environments. Life is too short to feel resentment and extreme burnout.“

Oftentimes, these additional assignments get framed as stretch or learning opportunities. But there’s a tipping point at which these tasks become just another quiet promotion.

A good stretch opportunity for your career should have clear time and energy limits, and the primary goal should be for you to learn and grow. “When it’s a well-defined project, takes up just a few hours a week of your time and can be done within your typical workweek, I don’t find this problematic,” said Bonnie Dilber, a recruiter with app-automation company Zapier.

But if it is taking up more than 30% of your time to do it, then the development opportunity has become a problematic quiet promotion, Dilber said. “Where I think it’s really taking advantage of the workforce is when you are actually doing something that is saving the business money and helping them get away with not hiring an additional employee or hiring a contractor to do the work, and instead you are doing that,” she said.

To get clarity on whether the tasks you are being asked to do are helping you or are holding back your career, ask yourself, “Are they going to you for the opportunities that you really want to grow your career or are they going to you for the things that nobody else wants to do and you keep picking them up?” said Valerie Gordon, career and communications trainer for her company, The Storytelling Strategist.

“That to me is where the quiet quitting comes from. We get frustrated with how much we are doing that nobody seems to care about,” Gordon said.

“Anytime you take on a substantial number of new tasks, you should be able to renegotiate something about your compensation,” Gordon said, noting that you could ask for benefits that go beyond an increased salary, like the ability to work from home more and avoid a commute.

Watch out for jobs that keep asking you to do a manager’s job without a manager’s pay or title.

If you are being asked to operate at a much more advanced level than the role you were hired for yet are being paid the exact same, you also may have just gotten a quiet promotion.

“Once you’re actually doing more advanced work, that should be recognized and rewarded.”

– Zapier recruiter Bonnie Dilber

Dilber said this can happen when individual contributors are given a significant amount of their manager’s work: They are onboarding new team members, sitting in on meetings their manager once joined or are coaching a low performer, for example.

If you are a high performer capable of taking on managerial tasks, this should then come with a promotion to a senior level or with a larger raise as your work has become more complex, Dilber said.

“But instead, it’s often framed as an opportunity for growth and to ‘prove’ readiness for the next role,” Dilber said. “That readiness should actually be shown by excelling in one’s current role –– once you’re actually doing more advanced work, that should be recognized and rewarded.”

Gordon noted that if you keep having to prove yourself for a promotion that does not come, you should be getting an explanation as to why. She defines quiet promotions as “times where you feel like you are giving your all at work but you are told you need to give more.”

“If you’re still not ready, they need to explain to you why,” Gordon said. “What is it that you are missing that you need to still prove? At some point, you are being taken advantage of.” She noted that employees should also be advocating for themselves and ask their manager about what is a path to the next level, too.

If you have employees who keep doing managerial tasks without any reward, then you should not be surprised when the employee decides they have had enough and quits.

“At one employer, I had a direct report who was interested in management, and we had an opportunity for them to cover a parental leave,” Dilber shared as an example. “This seemed aligned with the growth plans; I advocated to compensate them for this period and was told this was against our policies and we should frame this as a development opportunity for them. I ultimately didn’t have any power over this but was not surprised when the employee left a few months later for a full-time management role.”

Ultimately, quiet promotions are a lose-lose for employers and employees. Companies can lose high performers to competitors who will give these workers actual promotions, and employees can set themselves up to fail. It’s a potential risk for employees to have more and more put on their plate without a formal conversation about the change in responsibilities, Dilber said.

“The company is getting a lot of benefits from it while you are taking on the risk of the work,” Dilber said. “Because you are maybe stretched thin, that can also then be held against you. Versus like, had you actually been promoted into a different role or had your role changed and been given coaching and on-boarding and been able to fully focus on it, you might have been set up for success.”

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December 5, 2022