‘The Great Pile-On’: More workers taking on extra work

A growing share of employees are absorbing extra work without promotions, pay raises or formal title changes, resulting in a phenomenon one report referred to as “The Great Pile-On”.

Overall, 31 per cent of workers have recently taken on additional responsibilities, with more than half doing so following a restructuring or layoff, reports Wiley Workplace Intelligence.

Over 60 per cent have been doing the extra work for six months or longer, signalling that this is not just a temporary favour during a time of transition, it is a new baseline.

The Great Pile-On is defined as “the expectation of increased responsibility and skill-stretching without a formal change in role, pay, or title to match.”

As organisations responded to budget constraints, workforce reductions, and accelerating change in 2025, leaders became “responsible for absorbing lost capacity, redefining roles, and asking teams to stretch into new areas with limited transition time,” say Janelle Beck, senior copy editor, and Tracey Carney, research manager, at Wiley, in their report.

Only a fifth of Canadian professionals are sticking to their traditional core office hours, with the majority working beyond the standard workday to keep up with demands, according to a previous report.

Who’s taking on additional workload?

The Wiley study indicates that those taking on more work are predominantly long-tenured staff. Nearly 80 per cent of respondents have been with their organisation for more than two years, and half for more than five. Wiley describes them as “committed employees with deep institutional knowledge and a strong sense of responsibility and loyalty. When asked to step up, many do.”

Initially, the effects can appear positive. “Most report a positive experience initially,” the report says. “Engagement often increases and productivity goes up while morale remains relatively high. On the surface, The Great Pile-On appears to be working.”

The research warns that this early lift is temporary. “As weeks turn into months, the cracks begin to show,” Wiley notes. What start as “novel or ‘one-off’ responsibilities” become a more permanent part of their job, which taxes their time management, and stretches their skills.

The study concludes that what was originally “a motivating opportunity to pitch in during a challenging time has now become a more permanent strain.”

Many workers say that heavy workloads and unsupportive workplaces are among the top reasons why they could not take paid time off at work, according to another study.

Career conversations

The research finds that while responsibilities have increased, communication about career impact has not kept pace.

“Only about one in five employees were told that additional responsibilities could lead to advancement,” Wiley reports. “Even fewer received a specific timeline or explicit promise. In some cases, employees were simply told this was now part of the job.”

“This ambiguity matters. Not because employees expect immediate promotions, but because silence creates a vacuum,” the report states. “Without clarity, people are left to wonder whether they’re personally growing or just absorbing inflated organisational strain.”

Training and support are frequently lacking. Wiley reports that 31% report getting no training for their expanded responsibilities and that over a quarter of employees receive no training for their expanded responsibilities. As uneven workloads and reduced bandwidth become the norm, team conflict rises, and “the real inflection point tends to occur after the three-month mark when disengagement more than doubles.”

“When employees start to consider leaving, they rarely cite lack of promotion as the reason,” the report finds. “Instead, they talk about unsustainable workloads and not having the support or resources to do the job well. The issue isn’t ambition, it’s exhaustion. There comes a crisis point where things must change to remain sustainable.”

Managers’ key role

Manager behaviour emerges as a key factor in whether employees experience increased expectations as manageable or harmful.

“There is one variable that consistently separates positive experiences managing increased expectations from negative ones and that is manager support,” Wiley Workplace Intelligence concludes.

Respondents identified five main elements of effective support: managers checking in regularly about workload; asking how employees are doing beyond task status; advocating for them with leadership; helping them decide what is most important; and backing them when they decline extra requests.

“The risk of disengagement is 75% lower when this kind of support is present, yet only one in three employees report receiving it,” the report finds.

Managing workloads

Here’s how managers and business leaders can effectively manage workloads, according to Asana:

1. Figure out your team’s workload and capacity.
2. Allocate resources and break down individual workloads.
3. Check in with your team members and adjust workloads as needed.
4. Improve team efficiency when workloads are heavy by:
   1. suggesting time management strategies that fit their individual styles, like timeboxing or time blocking;
   2. minimising the number of meetings the team is required to attend, and finding new ways to communicate that do not take as much time;
5. Onboard a work management tool.

HR leaders can better assess workload and overload by asking the right questions, such as how often priorities change mid-week, how frequently tasks are interrupted, and whether employees feel able to do work they are proud of, according to one expert.