Solia Analysis | Restoring Fair Workload Balance Without Leaving Your Team

Question

Long story short. I am so overwhelmed at work. I have a team of two people who are supposed to split the load with me, but I’m getting most of the work. My manager has told us many times if we feel overwhelmed to let him know and not wait until it’s too late. Well, the people pleaser in me waited until it’s too late and I ended go deciding to apply for a job in my organization that would be a lateral move, so same title & pay, but with a different team. The thing is, I don’t want to leave my job now. I like my boss and most of my coworkers. I just want help from my manager to either get us some more help or find a more fair way for these duties to be assigned. He knows I’m doing the most. It’s been discussed many times. I interviewed today and I don’t love the new team I’d be working with. Advice?

Response

💡 Response by Solia-AI You don’t actually want to leave—you want a sustainable workload and fair process. This is solvable if you pair honest disclosure with a concrete operating plan. Ask for a reset conversation now, anchor it in your values and commitment, and bring a pilot plan that redistributes work, limits WIP, and clarifies ownership. Give it 30 days with clear metrics and checkpoints. If your manager engages, you’ll likely restore balance and keep the team you like; if not, you’ll have the clarity to move.

Detailed synthesis

This is a moment for steady courage: ask for help and practice patience, but pair both with action. Schedule a 30-minute reset with your manager within 48 hours. Frame it with integrity: “You’ve encouraged us to flag overload early. I waited too long; that’s on me. I did interview for a lateral role out of overwhelm, but my strong preference is to stay here. I’m committed to our team and want to make this sustainable. I’ve brought a plan we can pilot.”

Arrive with data and a solution. Do a one-week audit of your tasks: list work items, estimated hours, business impact, deadlines, and who requested them. Categorize into Must/Should/Could/Defer. This shifts the conversation from feelings to facts and invites your manager to prioritize explicitly.

Propose guardrails and a fair split:

  • Single intake channel (manager or shared queue) so work isn’t assigned by who responds fastest. No side-door requests without manager approval.
  • RACI for core responsibilities across the three of you so ownership is clear and visible.
  • Rotations: on-call/request triage rotates weekly; “deep work” owner rotates for complex projects.
  • WIP limits: e.g., each person has max 2 Major + 3 Minor active items; anything beyond triggers reprioritization, not silent heroics.
  • SLAs: agree on response and delivery times; publish them so stakeholders learn to plan, not push.
  • Coverage map and knowledge transfer: identify your “only I can do this” tasks; schedule cross-training to reduce single-point dependency.
  • Workload reviews: 15-minute weekly stand-up to rebalance and remove blockers.

Ask for capacity and enablement: short-term contractor/overflow budget, automation for repetitive tasks, and permission to pause lower-value work. Protect recovery and quality: two no-meeting focus blocks per week, and 10–15% time reserved for documentation and improvement.

Use courageous, calm scripts:

  • Boundary with alternatives: “I can start that next Tuesday, unless we drop X. Which should we pause?”
  • Equality cue: “To keep this fair across the three of us, let’s assign via the queue so we stay within WIP limits.”
  • Escalation to manager: “This exceeds our capacity; can you prioritize or secure extra help?”

Define success metrics for the 30-day pilot: average active WIP per person, cycle time, after-hours work, and distribution of tasks by complexity. Set a check-in at Day 14 and Day 30. Say plainly: “If we don’t see X reduction in backlog and Y improvement in spread within a month, I’ll revisit my role choice.”

About the lateral opportunity: don’t bluff. If asked, be honest that you explored it but prefer to stay if this plan is adopted. If you receive an offer, treat it as a decision point, not leverage: either recommit with a working model or transition cleanly.

This path honors patience and integrity, builds a resilient team legacy via cross-training and fair systems, and asks you to strive constructively—then rest in the outcome. Your well-being and the team’s health align when the work is shared transparently.

Result

Lead with transparent commitment and a concrete 30-day pilot: shared intake, RACI, rotations, WIP limits, and weekly rebalancing, backed by metrics. Invite your manager to own prioritization and capacity. If the model takes hold, you keep the team you like and a sustainable role; if it doesn’t, you’ll have principled grounds to move on.

Future Horizon

Most likely trajectory with a supportive manager: visible workload equity within one to two cycles, reduced after-hours work, and a stronger team culture that resists “default hero” dynamics. Mid-term, you become the informal process lead, your peers upskill through cross-training, and retention risk drops. If support is weak, the 30-day review gives you clarity to exit gracefully, preserving relationships and your energy for a better-aligned team.