Do You Assign More Tasks to More Competent Employees?

According to The Atlantic's, "Being a Go-Getter Is No Fun," people do, in fact, assign more tasks to those they perceived as more competent.

In a survey, participants read statements about a fictional employee “Sam[Sally]”—different groups read different statements about Sam[Sally] indicating how much self-control he[she] had (self-control was used as a proxy for competence). When Sam[Sally] was presented as someone with great self-control, participants expected much more of Sam’s[Sally's] performance at his[her] manufacturing job. In a separate experiment, undergrads were asked to delegate essays for proofreading to other students with varying levels of self-control. Unsurprisingly those with more self-control ended up with more work assigned to them.

Read more:  Being a go-Getter Is No Fun -- The Atlantic

The lesson to learn from this article?  If someone is doing more than his or her fair share, compensate him or her for it. If not, he or she may ultimately leave and seek recognition elsewhere.