The Hidden Cost of Workplace Assumptions: How Unspoken Expectations Drive Burnout

When "Good Enough" Becomes "Never Enough"

Back in college, I took an FPGA Design course that assigned brutal weekly homework. Pages of digital logic problems, code to write, waveforms to document, test cases to verify.

I was terrible at time management and procrastinated constantly.

One week, desperate and out of time, I asked my professor a simple question: "What do you actually need to see to know I understand this material?"

His answer surprised me. Usually, he just wanted to see a waveform showing the input and output with a brief explanation of why it was correct. Not the full problem set. Not all the documentation. Just proof I understood the concept.

I started doing half the assigned work and getting the same grades as students who completed everything.

They were furious with me.

But here's what stuck with me: the written assignment and the actual requirement were two completely different things. Most students assumed they needed to do everything exactly as specified. I asked what was actually necessary.

That lesson followed me into leadership. And when I stopped asking those questions, it cost my team their nights, their weekends, and eventually their mental health.

The $62 Million Communication Problem

Workplace miscommunication costs companies with 100,000 employees an average of $62.4 million per year in lost productivity, according to Business Insider research. But here's the part nobody talks about: a significant portion of that cost comes from employees doing work that was never actually required.

According to a Society for Human Resource Management survey, 44% of workplace mistakes result from miscommunication. But it's not just unclear instructions causing the problem. It's the assumptions employees make when filling in the gaps.

Research from peopleHum identifies assumptions as one of the six primary causes of workplace miscommunication. When team members assume something is true without verification, they act on incomplete or incorrect information, leading to wasted effort and unnecessary work.

I watched this pattern destroy a team member's well-being.

When Your Team Assumes You Want the Impossible

We lost an engineer from my game development team. The business decided we couldn't replace the position due to budget constraints.

I gathered the remaining engineers, the project manager, and the engineering manager to deliver the news. My message was direct: we need to reduce our roadmap significantly. The departing engineer was working on six projects. I expect at least that many to come off our plate so the team doesn't burn out.

The project manager came back proposing we cut only three projects.

I was surprised but after extensive questioning about their plan, I reluctantly agreed. The team seemed genuinely confident they could handle the reduced scope without overextending themselves.

Two months later, during a routine one-on-one, one of the engineers mentioned feeling completely overwhelmed and burned out.

I was confused. We'd cut half our roadmap. How were they still overworked?

The truth came out slowly. The team had assumed we wouldn't want to lose any projects despite my explicit direction to reduce workload. They knew management cared about hitting deadlines and maintaining momentum. So when they said they could handle it, what they actually meant was: "We'll work extra hours and juggle two projects each to make this work without you noticing."

They had adjusted their estimates to hide the extra work. They were working nights and weekends. They were burning themselves out to deliver on what they assumed I wanted, not what I actually asked for.

I said reduce the roadmap. They heard keep everything moving no matter the cost.

The Scar Tissue That Filters Every Message

This pattern isn't unique to my team. According to recent burnout statistics, 82% of employees reported being at risk of burnout in 2025, with 32% citing heavy workload as the primary driver. But the workload often isn't coming from explicit demands from leadership.

It's coming from assumptions about what leadership expects.

Every employee filters your messages through their past experiences with previous managers. The boss who said "work-life balance matters" right before demanding weekend work. The leader who praised "taking ownership" but punished anyone who couldn't keep every project on track. The manager who claimed to value transparency but punished honesty about capacity.

As I discussed in my post about how employees filter leadership messages through scar tissue, this creates an invisible barrier to communication. You can say exactly what you mean, but your team hears what they expect based on their history with other leaders.

The engineer working extra hours wasn't ignoring my direction. They were protecting themselves from consequences they'd experienced with previous managers who said one thing and expected another.

Why Asking Feels Risky (But Costs Less Than Assuming)

Here's the uncomfortable truth: employees don't ask clarifying questions because past experience has taught them that asking makes them look incompetent, difficult, or uncommitted.

A 2024 NAMI workplace poll found that 62% of employees who felt uncomfortable discussing mental health at work also experienced burnout from their jobs. The connection? When employees can't ask for clarity without fear of judgment, they default to assumptions that drive overwork.

Research from Pumble shows that when teams communicate effectively, productivity increases by 25%. But effective communication requires more than leaders speaking clearly. It requires team members feeling safe enough to verify their understanding before acting.

My engineering team didn't ask if we really needed all those projects delivered because asking would have signaled they couldn't handle the workload. In their previous experiences, admitting capacity constraints led to being viewed as less committed or capable.

So they assumed. They overworked. They burned out.

The Show Your Work Framework: Testing Assumptions Before They Cost You

The framework I teach my coaching clients addresses this exact problem. I call it "Show Your Work," and it has three critical steps that force assumptions into the open before they drive unnecessary work.

Step 1: I Plan To (Not "May I")

Start every significant task by stating your plan before you execute it. This isn't asking permission. It's declaring your intention and inviting course correction.

The wrong approach: "Should I create a detailed analysis of the Q3 performance data?"

The right approach: "I plan to create a summary of Q3 performance focusing on the top three trends. I'll have a draft by Wednesday for your feedback."

This shift does two things. First, it surfaces your assumption about what's needed (a summary vs. detailed analysis). Second, it gives your manager or stakeholder a chance to redirect you before you invest time in the wrong direction.

If they actually needed the detailed analysis, they'll tell you now. If they just needed the summary, you've saved yourself hours of unnecessary work.

Step 2: Update, Update, Update

Share regular progress without waiting to be asked. This isn't micromanagement fuel. It's assumption insurance.

Every update is an opportunity for someone to say "That's not what I meant" before you've invested significant effort in the wrong direction. More importantly, it prevents the silent assumption spiral where you think you're on track but you've actually misunderstood the goal entirely.

When my engineering team was planning to work extra hours on those projects, regular updates would have surfaced that plan immediately. I would have stopped them and reprioritized on the spot rather than discovering the problem two months later when burnout set in.

Step 3: Check In When Done

When you complete work, don't just deliver it and move on. Show the finished product, explain what you learned, and share what you're planning to tackle next.

This step reveals whether your definition of "done" matches your manager's expectations. Maybe your complete report is more detailed than necessary. Maybe it's not detailed enough. You won't know unless you check, and that mismatch will drive rework or wasted effort on future projects.

As I discussed in my post about the critical difference between solving problems and enabling problem-solvers, effective leadership requires creating environments where teams can verify their understanding rather than operating on assumptions.

The Real Cost of Assumptions

According to Aflac's 2024-2025 WorkForces Report, nearly 3 in 5 American workers are experiencing moderate to high burnout. Heavy workloads (32%) and long work hours (27%) are the top contributors.

But here's what the statistics don't capture: how much of that workload and those long hours stem from employees doing work nobody actually asked them to do?

How many people are perfecting presentations that only needed to be drafts? How many are creating comprehensive documentation when a simple summary would suffice? How many are working weekends to deliver on deadlines that were never actually set?

Grant Thornton's 2024 State of Work in America survey found that 51% of employees suffered burnout in the past year, with mental and emotional stress at 63% being the top cause. That stress often comes from the gap between what employees assume is expected and what's actually required.

The engineer on my team wasn't stressed because I demanded extra work. They were stressed because they assumed I expected it based on past experiences with other leaders.

What Leaders Can Do Monday

If you manage a team, the Show Your Work framework helps, but you also need to actively surface the assumptions your team is making before they turn into burnout.

When a team member's plan doesn't match your expectations, dig deeper. Don't just correct the plan. Understand the assumption that created it.

Ask questions like:

"Walk me through your thinking on this approach. What are you optimizing for?"
"What are you assuming about timeline/resources/priorities?"
"Help me understand what led you to this solution."

These questions reveal whether your team is operating on hidden assumptions that will drive unnecessary work.

As I explored in my post about managing former peers and making clear decisions, clarity requires more than stating expectations once. It requires actively checking that your message landed correctly.

What Individual Contributors Can Do Monday

If you have a manager (or stakeholders), stop assuming you know what they want. Start testing those assumptions before you invest significant effort.

Before you spend your weekend perfecting a deliverable:

"What level of detail do you actually need for this?"
"When do you need this by?" (Don't assume the deadline)
"What's the primary decision this analysis will inform?"

Before you work late to complete everything on a list:

"If I had to choose two items from this list to prioritize, which would you pick?"
"What's the minimum viable version of this that would be useful?"

These questions feel risky. They feel like admitting you don't know what you're doing or can't handle the workload.

But the alternative is burning yourself out doing work that was never actually necessary.

My college professor taught me this lesson early: the assignment isn't always the requirement. The written expectations aren't always what's actually needed. Ask what success looks like before you assume you know.

The Pattern Across Every Industry

Whether you're in tech, healthcare, education, or any other field, this pattern repeats itself. Employees assume what's expected based on past experiences. Leaders assume their instructions were clear because they stated them. The gap between those two assumptions creates massive amounts of unnecessary work and drives burnout.

The research is clear: 86% of executives blame workplace failures on ineffective communication. But ineffective communication isn't just about unclear messages. It's about unverified assumptions filling in the gaps.

My engineering team assumed I wanted all projects delivered on time. I assumed they understood "reduce the roadmap" meant exactly that. Neither of us checked those assumptions until burnout forced the conversation.

Stop Assuming. Start Asking.

Your assumptions about what's expected are costing you evenings, weekends, mental health, and possibly your relationship with your job.

Your team's assumptions about what you want are costing them the same things.

The solution isn't better assumptions. It's fewer assumptions. It's building systems and habits that surface expectations clearly before work begins, not after it's complete.

Show Your Work isn't just about visibility. It's about creating continuous opportunities to test whether your understanding matches reality before you invest significant effort in the wrong direction.

Start with one thing this week. One project where you state your plan first. One deliverable where you ask what success actually looks like before you assume. One update where you surface your approach before you're too invested to change it.

The students in my FPGA course who did every problem on every assignment weren't wrong. They were thorough. They were committed. They were probably exhausted.

I did half the work and got the same result because I asked what was actually needed.

Stop doing work nobody asked you to do. The cost is too high.

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