Whose job is it, really

There's a phrase that does a lot of quiet damage on a job: that's not my job. Sometimes it's fair — you can't do everything, and burning yourself out covering for a broken system helps no one. But listen for the other version, the one that means I'd rather it failed than lifted a finger I wasn't assigned. The spill no one will mop because it's not on anyone's list. The customer left standing because she walked up to the wrong counter. The shared inbox everyone can see and no one answers.

Cicero reached for an old proverb to describe how people who belong together actually treat what's between them: "Amongst friends all things in common" (De Officiis 1.51, Miller). Among people genuinely in something together, the common stuff isn't divided into mine and not-mine. It's just ours, and ours means anyone present can pick it up.

Carrying your share means treating the common work as truly common. Not grabbing credit for all of it, and not disowning the parts that fell between the cracks. The cracks are yours too.