The enthusiasm penalty

Managers routinely choose the more motivated employee for extra work — even when it negatively impacts employee performance and well‑being

BROADLY SPEAKING, BETWEEN the push to get more productivity out of employees, constantly shifting job descriptions and the desire at many firms to do more while holding a flat (or declining) headcount, you could say we’re in an era where work is being redistributed more than ever before.

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It is likely the source of much workplace tension: work being put on someone’s plate who either can’t, or doesn’t want to, take on more work. And what might be the common factor among those who get more work than they want or need might be, paradoxically, their enthusiasm, a recent research report says.

Researchers from Northeastern University looked at how managers doled out additional duties, and found that there was a strong correlation between a worker appearing to be intrinsically motivated at work with those who ended up overburdened when they ended up receiving more work.

“Managers’ preference to allocate additional tasks to intrinsically motivated employees is serially mediated by the naive belief that these employees will enjoy the additional task, which, in turn, reduces perceived risk of burnout form the additional work,” the study found. “When intrinsically motivated employees bear a disproportionate share of work, this can hard employee engagement and long-term retention.”

Dubbed an ‘enthusiasm penalty,’ the researchers view it as an error in judgment on the part of a manager.

“Our research points to a psychological mechanism we define as ‘motive oversimplification,’” said Kaitlin Woolley, a marketing professor who co-wrote the paper. “Managers assume that if an employee enjoys their main work, they will also enjoy extra tasks, even if those tasks are tedious, undesirable or unrelated to the employee’s strengths.”

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One of the other co-authors, Sangah Bae, said that part of her inspiration came from her own experience as a junior analyst, and finding she was receiving a ton of extra work. She suspected it was because she was happy and dedicated to her existing workload, and that made her an “easy target” for additional work.

“The employee that is your shortcut, that is your go-to person who seems to be engaged and loving their work, might actually be quietly being burned out,” Bae told Newsweek.

In other words, it might pay to grumble a bit — just a little bit — at each new task you’re given. A little eye roll here and there, a few muttered complaints under your breath. We can’t guarantee it will get you out of the new work, but hey, at least you tried. Kieran Delamont