# "Think of it as scope expansion"

## This week's cartoon

![Cartoon: a tired employee sits at a desk with one monitor showing two overlapping job dashboards, while a gold sticky note on the screen edge reads "revisit comp later" and curls peeling off. A cheerful manager walks away in the background waving. Manager says, "Think of it as scope expansion."](../../img/cartoons/two-jobs-one-monitor.png)

> _Caption: The work doubled. The level did not._

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### Field note

When new responsibility lands without a new mandate, most people read it as trust. Often it is just economics. Scope creep is free for the organization because conscientious people absorb it. A scope leap costs something: a title change, a budget line, a reshuffle of who decides what.

That is why the work can multiply while your standing stays flat. You are not imagining it. The system is doing exactly what it is built to do, taking what you will give without re-leveling you.

The move is to name the difference on contact. A leap is a domain you own, a decision that is yours, a level that moves with the work. Creep is a longer task list with the same seat. When the next pile arrives, do not just say yes. Ask what official mandate and level go with it. If the answer is "we will revisit comp later," hear that as data. The sticky note is already peeling off the monitor.