Not My Monkey

"Monkey see, monkey do." - Old saying

I'm all for delegation, shared responsibility, and asking colleagues for help. But that's not the same as letting someone hand their work off to you.

It doesn't matter how strong the team is. Everyone slides into laziness, procrastination, or avoidance at some point. And when that happens, people will try to offload their tasks onto someone else, to escape a responsibility or sidestep something tedious.

This happens more than you'd expect. And while you want to support your team, you've got your own specific work to take care of.

Years ago, a mentor of mine noticed I was drowning, not just in my own tasks, but in other people's too. I was stepping outside my role, my department, and my focus to help teammates with work that happened to be easier for me than it was for the people who actually owned it.

My mentor was all for teammates helping each other. But he could see I'd crossed from helping into absorbing. Beyond affecting the quality of my own work, I was also letting others avoid doing theirs. They weren't learning. They were offloading.

He put it simply: stop taking care of other people's monkeys. I laughed and thought he was joking. Then he explained that people will always try to drop their monkey off at every opportunity. It's just human nature. We default to the easier path.

Since then, I've been more selective about where and how I help, and whether it's a genuine ask or a quiet handoff.

In short: I've got my own monkeys. I don't have time to take care of everyone else's. Sometimes I still catch myself muttering under my breath, or rarely even out loud: "Not my monkey." :)