How to name the roles you've absorbed, and give two of them back
Your exhaustion does not mean you are weak. You are tired because you are doing three jobs and collecting pay for one. Take inventory. The job title printed on your offer letter. The vacancy no one stepped up to fill once a coworker in Sandy or Murray resigned. The role nobody has a name for, where everyone comes to you first because they know you will know. Three positions squeezed into one paycheck and one annual evaluation.
The standard advice is to manage your energy, set boundaries, take the vacation. Such an arrangement fails because it mistakes a staffing shortage for a personal wellness issue. Deloitte's 2025 study, which polled 7,500 women across 15 countries, revealed that 36% feel more stressed than they did twelve months earlier. Research for the book The No Club found women are asked to take on non-promotable work about 50% more often than men, and they say yes more often. Taking on extra work does not reflect a defect in your personality. It is a recurring pattern, and recurring patterns can be spoken aloud and addressed.
This matters on the Wasatch Front, where the pressure to be the reliable one runs deep. Salt Lake City's professional services and education-and-health employers have been adding jobs quickly, with Education and Health Services up 5.8% over the year to September 2026, so the openings for backfill exist. The question is whether your manager knows yours have been quietly filled by you.
First. The duty that vanished once a teammate walked out
Dangerous thought: "I can handle this alone."
A stronger approach: "Since March I have been handling the analyst responsibilities. I am willing to keep it up until we hire someone, provided we decide today which of my own projects will be delayed.
Reason: "handled" hides the effort. Specifying the role and the start date gives the problem a concrete form and a price tag, and it requires someone to choose which responsibility receives your best effort. Scheduling that choice is your supervisor's call, not something to sacrifice your nights for.
Second. The project nobody owns
It may feel easier to keep covering the gap silently, since the work would otherwise collapse.
A better script: "I have been leading the vendor handover in Draper alongside my regular job. We should either formally add it to my responsibilities, with a matching title and pay, or assign it to someone whose role naturally covers it.
What you keep stable only counts as yours once someone in authority acknowledges it. Until that happens, you are working without pay while the blame sits with you and the credit goes to no one.
Third. The unofficial chief of staff
It may feel natural to keep fielding every question that belongs with your supervisor.
A better opening: "Many colleagues in Murray and Midvale bring me questions that really belong to you. I plan to start sending them your way, and I wanted you to hear this directly from me.
Being the go-to person for answers feels good, but it quietly turns into an unofficial job. Redirecting is not unhelpful. Redirecting those requests sends the workload back to where it belongs.
Fourth. The performance conversation where you are asked what is working well.
Risky thought: "Stretched thin, but doing fine."
A stronger reply: "Right now I am carrying three roles at once. Here they are on one page. "Which of these would you like me to master?"
Reason: "stretched" describes something that passes. A single page listing three roles is hard proof of the strain. The closing question is one your manager ought to have raised with you.
Fifth. The compliment that keeps you there
It may be tempting to reply, "Thanks, I'm good at multitasking."
Stronger: "I do this well." I would prefer to excel at a single responsibility that could earn me a promotion. Which of these should I hand off?"
Calling you "good at juggling" rewards the very habit that is draining you. Say thank you for the praise, then name the price it has cost you in the same breath.
If the conversation stalls, Salt Lake's women's networks can help you test your scripts before you use them. Business Women's Forum, the Salt Lake Chapter, and the Women's Professional Network through ACG Utah both give you people who have been in the same meeting. The state's Women's Business Center of Utah, run by the Salt Lake Chamber, also offers advising if your three jobs are part of a plan to go independent.
The idea running under all five
Burnout describes a person's condition, not a verdict on who they are. Holding three roles reflects how the organization chart is built. Write down each role along with its dates, and the issue shifts from a flaw in you to a flaw in the structure, which is something that can actually be repaired.
Forward this to the Murray or Sandy friend who said "I'm fine" last week and was not.