Delegation: An Employee’s Perspective
- TheFitProfessional1
- Mar 20
- 6 min read
By Paul T. Ayres
Have you ever been frustrated by a delegation directive? As a manager, have you ever struggled with delegating effectively? Employees, have you ever pushed back and said no? If so, how did that go? Managers, have you experienced resistance when assigning tasks—especially when you believed it was well within your authority?
This two-part discussion on delegation begins with the employee’s perspective. Next month, we will explore delegation from a management standpoint. The goal is to help both employees and managers view delegation as an opportunity rather than a challenge.
Understanding Delegation from an Employee’s View
Is Delegation Expected?
Many employees enter a job with a defined set of responsibilities, outlined in job descriptions and contracts. However, few internalize the phrase "and other tasks as assigned" until a delegation request arrives. When managers assume employees understand that delegation is a part of their role, miscommunication occurs.
Employees often perceive delegation differently than management. Some may assume they have the authority to accept or decline a delegated task. This belief has grown in recent years, becoming more common than it was even five years ago. Others feel that delegation across functions—such as temporarily working on a company-wide project—violates their role or trust in leadership.
So why do employees resist delegation? Research provides some key insights:
Gallup’s Employee Engagement Survey (2021) found that: 50% of employees feel disengaged due to unclear expectations and ineffective delegation. 26% resist delegation due to already heavy workloads. 33% lack confidence in their ability to complete delegated tasks.
Harvard Business Review (2019) reported that: 25% resist delegation because they see it as managers offloading undesirable tasks. 40% feel a lack of autonomy when delegated to. 30% hesitate due to unclear instructions.
Journal of Organizational Behavior (2020) found that: 35% resist delegation when they perceive their manager as incompetent or unsupportive. 42% resist when they lack time or resources. 20% resist when they don’t receive credit for their work.
Deloitte Human Capital Trends Report (2022) revealed that: 38% resist delegation due to fear of failure and negative performance evaluations. 50% would accept delegation more readily if provided training or mentorship.
Understanding these perspectives helps employees recognize that delegation is not just a managerial decision—it’s also an opportunity for professional growth.
Who Owns Extra Time?
One of the biggest points of contention in delegation is time management.
If an employee completes their assigned workload faster than expected, do they own the extra time, or does the employer? TheFitProfessional1 refers to this time as discretionary time. All positions have it. As employees become more proficient, employers ‘expect’ to fill the time with additional tasks or more volume.
This reflects the human tendency to learn over time and through repetition. Your employer realizes you won’t be ‘to standard’ for some time. This can be years. A good employer should share these standards and expectations immediately and often. And employees should celebrate (and management should too!) when milestones are met, where your proficiency enables delegation to you. It is a great day when that happens! You are growing as an individual and professional.
Traditionally, management assumes that employees should remain available for additional work during agreed-upon hours. However, employees often find ways to appear occupied rather than acknowledging they have extra bandwidth.
Common tactics include:
Task expansion – Stretching work to fill the available time.
Online distractions – Using LinkedIn or other platforms under the guise of networking.
Socializing – Engaging in conversations that shift to business topics when a manager appears.
"Quiet quitting" – A 2022 Gallup report found that up to 50% of employees only meet minimum job requirements.
This mindset can be costly. Consider an employee hired for 50 hours per week who, through efficiency, completes their tasks in 42 hours. If they believe they should leave early, and do, that’s 8 lost hours per week—amounting to 400 hours per year, or ten full weeks of lost work.
For an employer, that lost time equates to a significant financial impact. If an employee’s total compensation package is $90,000 for a 50-hour week, working 42 hours instead means the company is paying $43 per hour instead of $36—a 19.1% increase in labor cost per hour worked. Now, apply this to an entire department, and the financial consequences become even greater. Employees need to realize, again, that good management is counting on the investment of your discretionary time. Those are all the other items on your job description, current and future initiatives, and what those catch-all phrases are referring to.
Employees need to step up to become ‘change ready.’
The time some employees think they can go home because the requirement is done in less time is then lost. Management needs to spend money to meet the requirements of the business. These items include strategy, growth, innovation, and addressing changes outside management’s control in the market. Without you, Mrs. Employee, gaining discretionary time through coming down your learning curve and getting more proficient, companies cannot become ‘change-ready.’ The cost of this is huge and potentially catastrophic.
Additionally, lost time means lost opportunities. In sales, for example, an employee who could make ten high-quality calls per week in that extra time might generate millions in revenue over a year. Employers must articulate this clearly, helping employees understand why efficient time use benefits everyone. Also, incremental results likely do not mean cash is available to hire to fill the void left due to the time not worked by the employee.
Delegation as an Opportunity
Rather than viewing delegation as an inconvenience, employees should see it as a chance for GROWTH.
When a manager delegates, they are:
Showing confidence in your abilities – They trust you can handle the task.
Demonstrating trust – Managers have performance goals and want successful teams.
Ensuring efficiency – Delegation helps optimize resources and workflows.
Validating your value – If a manager assigns you to work, they see you as capable and important to the team.
Of course, delegation must be balanced. Open communication with your manager helps ensure you’re not overwhelmed. Employees should also recognize urgent situations—such as a company crisis—where stepping up and handling extra work can be a career-building moment.
If constraints around saying no to delegation feel too rigid, employees should evaluate whether their role aligns with their long-term goals. Dysfunctional delegation practices exist, but they are the exception. Most organizations thrive when employees accept delegation constructively.
Research on Delegation’s Benefits
Final Thoughts
For managers, ensuring that employees understand delegation expectations is crucial. Employees, in turn, should recognize that improving efficiency often leads to more responsibility—not more free time. When extra time is gained through productivity, it should be reinvested into initiatives that support the organization’s mission.
If you’d like deeper insight into delegation from a managerial perspective, stay tuned for next month’s discussion. In the meantime, I invite you to reach out through my website for a free 30-minute consultation to discuss your delegation challenges and strategies. Also, keep an eye out on my upcoming master’s classes with releases starting in 2025 for more on this topic. Let’s work together to make delegation a tool for success—not a source of frustration.
Paul T. Ayres
Business, Executive, Leadership & Life Coach
Maximize Your Margin, Optimize Your Team, & Rescue Your Time!
Sources:
Al-Jammal, H.R., Al-Khasawneh, A.L., & Hammadat, M. (2015). The impact of the delegation of authority on employees' performance at Great Irbid Municipality: Case study. International Journal of Human Resource Studies, 5(3), 48-69. https://researchgate.net
Andersen, M.K., Jensen, C.B., & Søndergaard, J. (2017). Work motivation, task delegation and job satisfaction of general practice staff: A cross-sectional study. Family Practice, 34(2), 188-193. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Deloitte. (2022). Human Capital Trends: Workforce Development and Delegation. Deloitte Insights.
Gallup. (2021). State of the Global Workplace Report. Gallup, Inc.
Harvard Business Review. (2019). Delegation and Employee Engagement. Harvard Business Publishing.
Journal of Organizational Behavior. (2020). Employee resistance to delegation: Causes and solutions. Wiley Publications.
Marshall, Jessy. (2024, September 24). My Gen Z employee wanted to leave work early since she finished her tasks — here’s how I replied. New York Post.
Roche, M.A., Duffield, C.M., & Friedman, S. (2022). Factors impacting nursing assistants to accept a delegation in the acute care environment: A mixed-methods study. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 31(7-8), 1045-1056. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com
TheFitProfessional1, LLC. (2025).
Comments