Every organization has employees who seem to know everything.
They're the people colleagues approach when equipment fails, a customer has an unusual request or a new employee needs help.
They solve problems, answer questions and keep operations moving.
But here's what managers sometimes overlook: Those employees may be doing two jobs while getting credit for only one.
Their official responsibilities might involve maintaining equipment, managing accounts or overseeing production. Their unofficial responsibilities include training colleagues, resolving unexpected problems and preserving knowledge that the organization hasn't documented.
That additional work creates value. It also creates a management problem when the time and effort involved remain invisible.
The Hidden Work Behind Daily Operations
Consider an experienced maintenance technician at a manufacturing facility.
The technician is responsible for inspecting equipment, performing repairs and preventing downtime.
But throughout the day, other employees interrupt with questions.
A new technician needs help diagnosing a problem.
A production supervisor wants advice about an unfamiliar machine.
A colleague needs assistance with a complicated repair.
The experienced technician helps everyone.
By the end of the shift, several problems have been resolved.
But the technician's own maintenance assignments remain unfinished.
Management may see incomplete work without recognizing the hours spent helping the rest of the operation.
This is the problem with invisible work, responsibilities that contribute to organizational performance but aren't formally assigned, measured or consistently recognized.
The work isn't unnecessary.
In many cases, it's essential.
The problem is that organizations may depend on it without accounting for the resources it consumes.
Why This Matters for Retention
New workforce research reinforces the importance of examining how employees experience their jobs.
SHRM's October 2026 Global Employee Monitor surveyed 5,107 workers across 26 countries.
The study found that compensation remained the leading consideration in employees' decisions to join, remain with or leave an organization.
Work-life balance, job security, career advancement and relationships with managers were also important.
The report found that 40 percent of respondents had searched for another job during the previous year, compared with 37 percent in each of the first two quarters of 2026.
Those findings don't establish that informal training or troubleshooting responsibilities directly cause turnover.
But they provide a reason for managers to examine whether employees carrying additional responsibilities have sufficient time, support and recognition.
A worker who regularly helps colleagues may enjoy being trusted.
That same worker may become frustrated if management continues increasing expectations without adjusting workloads.
The difference often comes down to how the organization manages the responsibility.
The Cost Starts Before Someone Resigns
Employers usually calculate turnover costs after an employee leaves.
They consider recruiting expenses, training requirements, lost productivity and the time needed for a replacement to become effective.
But operational inefficiencies can develop long before a resignation.
Suppose a senior technician spends eight hours each week helping colleagues troubleshoot equipment.
At an illustrative fully loaded labor cost of $45 per hour, that represents $360 in weekly labor capacity.
Over 50 working weeks, the time amounts to $18,000.
That isn't necessarily wasted money. The troubleshooting may prevent downtime worth considerably more.
The problem arises when management budgets for the technician's full-time maintenance workload without accounting for the additional support responsibilities.
The organization effectively assumes the employee can perform both functions without a corresponding adjustment in capacity.
That assumption can create scheduling problems, overtime requirements and unrealistic performance expectations.
Workforce Development Can Increase the Pressure
A September 2026 McKinsey Global Institute study examined how changes in technology, occupations and workforce requirements could reshape employment opportunities.
It estimated that approximately 11 million U.S. workers in declining occupations could need to transition into different roles over the next decade.
The findings emphasize the importance of workforce development and helping employees acquire new capabilities.
For employers, however, development requires more than enrolling workers in training programs.
Someone must teach new procedures, supervise unfamiliar tasks and answer questions.
In many workplaces, those responsibilities fall on experienced employees.
Without dedicated training capacity, an organization may unintentionally transfer the burden of workforce development onto its most productive workers.
Make the Invisible Work Visible
Managers should begin by identifying employees who regularly perform responsibilities beyond their formal assignments.
These might include mentoring, troubleshooting, onboarding, process improvement or coordinating work between departments.
Next, estimate how much time those activities consume.
An employee spending ten hours each week training colleagues has ten fewer hours available for other responsibilities.
Management should account for that capacity rather than treating the training as additional work that somehow requires no time.
Organizations can also formalize responsibilities.
An experienced employee who regularly trains others might receive a designated mentoring role, protected training time or appropriate compensation.
Technical knowledge can be documented so that every problem doesn't require assistance from the same individual.
And training responsibilities can be distributed among qualified employees rather than concentrated in one person.
The goal isn't to eliminate informal collaboration.
It's to prevent essential work from becoming an unrecognized burden.
Why This Matters
Experienced employees often provide value far beyond their formal job descriptions.
They preserve operational knowledge, help colleagues develop and prevent small problems from becoming expensive disruptions.
But employers risk overlooking that contribution when they measure only assigned tasks.
Recognizing informal responsibilities can improve workload planning, strengthen training and reduce dependence on a handful of employees.
Retention Signal
If one employee is everyone's problem solver, that employee may also be your biggest unmanaged workload risk.
What Managers Should Do Now
Ask department supervisors to identify employees who regularly train colleagues, troubleshoot problems or perform responsibilities outside their formal roles.
Estimate the weekly hours involved.
Then decide whether that work should be recognized, redistributed, documented or formally included in staffing plans.
How StrikeForce Can Help
StrikeForce helps organizations address workforce challenges through recruiting and talent planning. Understanding where essential skills and responsibilities are concentrated can help employers identify staffing gaps, improve role definitions and build more resilient teams.