Avoiding the Trap of Overloading Staff
Early in my career as a Correctional Health Authority, I noticed a recurring mistake across different sites—overloading staff with shared responsibilities, or what I call “piling on workers at random.” Even seasoned professionals fall into this trap, believing that adding more hands to a task will improve efficiency. Unfortunately, the opposite is often true.
Instead of solving the issue, overburdening employees leads to diffusion of responsibility, lack of accountability, and lower productivity. The more people assigned to a task, the less each individual feels responsible for completing it.
A Classic Example: Taking Off Medical Provider Orders
One of the most common areas where this issue arises is in taking off medical provider orders—a crucial yet tedious task in correctional healthcare. Since medication initiation is time-sensitive and often delayed due to pharmacy schedules, failing to process provider orders promptly can create system-wide disruptions.
To fix this, many Health Authorities mistakenly assign more workers to the task, assuming that more people will speed up the process. But here’s what actually happens:
- Everyone assumes someone else will handle it.
- The task is deprioritized in favor of more engaging or personally preferred duties.
- Employees keep mental score of who is doing more or less, leading to internal friction.
- When accountability is enforced, staff members shift the blame, making it difficult to address performance issues.
Why Piling on Workers Fails
Psychologists have long studied a phenomenon known as diffusion of responsibility, which explains why assigning a task to multiple people reduces individual accountability. Without clearly defined roles, employees naturally prioritize what they see as more critical work, leaving essential yet unglamorous tasks undone.
From an HR and leadership standpoint, enforcing discipline in these situations becomes challenging. Writing up one employee for failing to complete a shared task is ineffective because the responsibility is too broadly distributed.
The Solution: Clear Roles and Defined Accountability
The key to avoiding this mistake lies in strategic delegation and structured workflows. Instead of assigning a task to a broad group, organizations should:
✅ Define specific roles: Assign the task to a designated individual or a small, accountable team.
✅ Create measurable performance metrics: Track completion times and ensure compliance.
✅ Use technology effectively: Implement clear electronic workflows that automate task tracking.
✅ Reinforce responsibility through leadership: Ensure supervisors monitor and support team members rather than just distributing blame.
Final Thoughts
The principle to remember is simple: “What is everyone’s responsibility is no one’s responsibility.”
For organizations in correctional health, mental health, and leadership, avoiding the trap of “piling on workers” is essential for building efficient, accountable teams. By implementing clear roles, structured processes, and leadership-driven accountability, organizations can enhance performance and eliminate inefficiencies.
