11 Signs You Accidentally Became Important At Work & It's Ruining Your Life
Beware of becoming the person at work that everyone turns to.
Elnur | Shutterstock At first, getting more responsibility at work can feel like an accomplishment. You're being included in more emails, finding yourself invited to bigger meetings, and are trusted with important decisions. But soon, that amount of recognition comes with certain standards and expectations that just feel way out of your wheelhouse. Somewhere between being "in the loop" and "the glue that holds the team together," lines can become blurry, and suddenly you're picking up the slack for things that aren't even part of your job responsibilities.
Becoming needed and useful at work can seem flattering at first, but most of the time, it's just a fancy way of being taken advantage of. Boundaries start to blur and you're unable to put your foot down for fear that you'll be labeled as ungrateful or uncooperative — these are just a few of the signs you accidentally became important at work and it's ruining your life. If you're starting to feel that your job is bringing you a full-on identity crisis, then you're in too deep.
Here are 11 signs you accidentally became important at work and it's ruining your life
1. You're on every email thread
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If you find yourself being CC'd on projects that you've never heard of, asked to provide your opinion to decisions that you didn't ask to weigh in on, or updated for things in departments that you're not even part of, it's probably one of the glaring signs you accidentally became important at work and it's ruining your life.
Work emails are already a point of contention for many people. An estimated 89% of office workers admitted that sorting through their inbox of unopened emails is one of the most unpleasant parts of the job, according to a survey from Superhuman.
Somehow becoming the most important person at work means that your inbox is filled to the brim with email threads that honestly don't even matter to you, yet you're still included in them.
2. Everyone 'just has a quick question'
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It might always start the same. A quick ping on Slack or someone coming over to your desk with an innocent expression on their face as they ask you a question for something that you really have no idea what the answer is nor is it something that you're supposed to deal with in your role.
But what usually begins as a "quick question" will eventually spiral into something more intense and now you're being expected to troubleshoot a problem that doesn't directly concern you. This usually ends up happening because you've somehow become the most available person in the room.
You end up engaging in work that you're not even supposed to be doing, which seems to be a pattern for most employees. In fact, a survey from monday.com revealed that an estimated 28% of workers admitted that they don't know how they're even spending their time at work.
3. Your calendar has zero white space
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While it may seem like a sign of success to be so busy that you have no available space on your calendar, in actuality, it means that you're someone who's in constant demand, even for things that don't directly impact you.
You're being invited to a variety of meetings, sometimes with people that maybe don't work in your department. Every hour is blocked up by things that feel urgent to everyone else but you.
Meetings are already the bane of existence for many employees, with 90% of workers feeling that meetings are "costly" and "unproductive," according to a study published in the Journal of Business Research. So, when your entire day is filled with them back-to-back, you're not just losing time but momentum as well.
4. You're the unofficial therapist
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Somehow, without asking, you've become someone that everyone turns to in times of an emotional crisis. One of the more unfortunate signs you accidentally became important at work and it's ruining your life is that you're being cried on at your desk, people are filling up your Slack messages with their frustrations and gripes and, for some reason, everyone trusts you to give them sound advice and listen to their worries.
The burden of being the one who has to de-escalate situations and problem-solve means that you're more than likely exhausted from having to absorb everyone else's dilemmas.
Considering 76% of employees experience burn out occasionally, according to a Gallup poll, it's not surprising that someone being put in this position would be ready to rip every hair from their head. You're now expected to be there for everyone else, when no one is extending the same grace to you.
5. Everyone else assumes you'll take care of it
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Since you've earned the reputation of being someone who's reliable and capable, people at your job may now lean on you to take care of extra responsibilities (usually without increasing your pay). A LiveCareer survey found that around 77% of employees admitted to taking on tasks outside their job descriptions weekly.
Usually, this extra load doesn't come without consequences, which are a person's mental health deteriorating. Sometimes, even if you try to put your foot down and say "no," you'll be made to feel as if you're letting other people down by not agreeing to putting more on your own back when you most likely already have your plate full.
It's a lose-lose situation if you end up becoming someone that everyone dumps their stuff onto without a second glance.
6. When you're not in, everything falls apart
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You've decided to actually take some time off of work because the stress of everyone depending on you has taken its toll. Considering an estimated 46% of employees don't use their paid time-off, as Pew Research Center found, it's no surprise that even the thought of taking a break feels like a luxury.
However, if you come back from your relaxing time off, and suddenly the office is falling apart and things aren't going the way they were supposed to be going because you weren't there, that's usually a massive sign you're someone important at work.
People suddenly don't know how to solve problems without depending on you and they have a hard time turning the wheel without you there to steer.
7. People act shocked when you set a boundary
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For the first time ever, you've finally reached your limit and decided to say "no" to the million and one tasks that you're being assigned that don't even match your actual job description. Suddenly, people are coming up to you to ask if you're feeling okay and if you need to take some time for yourself.
Whether it's declining to participate in a certain project or explaining why you don't need to be in that certain meeting, your co-workers start to take it personally. You might be labeled or seen as a villain who's working against the company when, in reality, you're just trying to assert some boundaries and gain a little peace of mind at work again.
8. You spend more time fixing other people's work than doing your own
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If you find yourself constantly being asked to solve everyone else's mistakes and watch over people as they complete a task to make sure they're doing it right, to the point where you don't even have time to complete your own tasks, it's one of the signs you accidentally became important at work and it's ruining your life.
The worst part about it is that people will rarely acknowledge the fact that you're stepping up without a say and taking on this extra load. This becomes an expected practice for you, which can become quite frustrating as this isn't a role you signed up for when you began working for that company.
9. You can't finish one thing before someone interrupts you to add five more
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If you've finally managed to check at least one task off of your to-do list and then suddenly here someone comes with a list of five additional things to add to your plate, you're probably held to an impossible standard at work that's slowly ruining your life.
It may start off with something small but quickly builds until you're spending countless hours of your time trying to complete a task that wasn't yours to complete in the first place. It's exhausting and can really leave a person questioning at one point did their role switch to become something bigger than they signed up for.
According to experts from ActivTrak, being frequently interrupted creates a stressful work environment. "Employees feel overwhelmed by the constant need to switch gears, leading to a sense of being perpetually behind on tasks... The inability to focus deeply on tasks also stifles creativity and innovation as employees struggle to engage in deep thinking that leads to new ideas and solutions."
Not only does it take almost 24 minutes to get back into the groove and focus after an interruption, but it costs U.S. businesses around $588 billion per year when workers are interrupted so frequently.
10. You've stopped correcting people on what your role actually is
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It's become too exhausting having to repeat to people constantly that your role doesn't include the task they've just slid across your desk or emailed you about. You may even start to question if you should just include it in your email signature but know that people either won't read it or just won't care.
The constant need to defend your actual role always ends up falling on deaf ears. It's gotten to the point where you may just bite your tongue because you've wasted enough energy trying to correct the assumption that you're someone who can be available for any and every task under the sun.
11. People refer to you as 'essential'
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It can seem like such a compliment at first to be called "essential," but it's really just one of the many unfortunate signs you accidentally became important at work and it's ruining your life. This often comes with a heavy burden on a person's shoulder.
Being "essential" means you're required to step up, be the one who handles a crisis, and solve problems that no one else either wants to or simply can't. You've become the glue that's holding everyone together when, most of the time, that isn't even part of your role.
So, beware if you're suddenly referred to as "essential" because nothing good ever comes from being the one that people lean on at work. While it's more than okay to ask for support every now and again, it shouldn't be expected that a single person has to become the backbone for every little thing.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
