If you've ever watched Office Space, you know the scene. The Bobs, those efficiency consultants from hell, corner poor Tom Smykowski and ask him what he does all day.
"Well, I take the specifications from the customers and I bring them down to the software engineers."
"So you physically take them?"
"Well, no, I..."
It's a comedy classic because it touches something real: the profound difficulty of explaining what knowledge work actually is.
The Hidden Work Problem
Here's what I see in agency after agency: leadership thinks they know what the team does. They have job descriptions. They have project scopes. They have time tracking (maybe).
But there's always hidden work. Always.
- The designer who spends 4 hours a week mentoring juniors
- The project manager who's become the unofficial IT support
- The developer who reviews every PR even though it's "not their job"
- The account manager who handles client crises at 11 PM
This work is real. It consumes effort. It creates value. But it's invisible in every planning conversation.
Why Effort Mapping Matters
When you can't see the work, you can't plan for it. And when you can't plan for it, you get:
Chronic overload. That senior designer isn't at 80% capacity - they're at 120%, because you're only counting the 80% that shows up in project assignments.
Unfair distribution. Some people become dumping grounds for "miscellaneous" work while others stay perfectly within their lane.
Promotion blindness. High performers doing critical invisible work get overlooked because their contributions don't show up in the metrics.
Bad hiring decisions. You hire for the work you can see, not the work that actually needs doing.
The Work Catalog Approach
This is where a work catalog comes in. Not a task list. Not a time tracker. A catalog of the types of effort your team produces.
Think of it like a menu. A restaurant doesn't track every individual meal they cook - they catalog the dishes they offer and understand the effort involved in each.
Your work catalog might include:
| Work Type | Typical Effort | Who Does It |
|---|---|---|
| Client presentations | High | Design, Account |
| Internal reviews | Medium | Senior staff |
| Mentoring sessions | Medium | Senior staff |
| Technical troubleshooting | Variable | Dev, Design |
| Client communications | Low-Medium | Account, PM |
Building Your Work Catalog
Step 1: Observe Before You Define
Don't start by listing what you think people do. Start by watching what they actually do for a week or two. Look for:
- Recurring meetings not tied to projects
- Time spent helping others
- Context switching patterns
- "Just real quick" requests
Step 2: Name the Work
Give everything a name. Even "random Slack questions" is a valid work type if it's consuming significant effort. The goal is visibility, not judgment.
Step 3: Estimate Effort Collaboratively
Here's the key: don't assign effort scores from the top down. Do it with your team. They know what's actually hard.
Ask: "On a scale of 1-5, how much mental energy does this take?"
You'll be surprised. Some things you thought were easy are draining. Some things you thought were hard are routine for experts.
Step 4: Track Without Tracking
This isn't about timesheets. It's about understanding the portfolio of work types someone carries. Are they doing three high-effort things this week? That's different from ten low-effort things, even if the hours look similar.
The Aha Moment
When teams first see their work cataloged this way, there's always an aha moment. Usually something like:
"Wait, Sarah does all of this?"
Or: "No wonder we can't ever get this project done - we have zero buffer for anything else."
That visibility is the first step to actually solving the problem. You can't fix what you can't see.
Making It Sustainable
Here's what not to do: make the work catalog into another burden. Don't require people to log every activity. Don't create elaborate tracking systems.
Instead:
- Review the catalog monthly
- Add new work types as they emerge
- Remove ones that no longer exist
- Adjust effort scores based on real experience
The catalog is a living document, not a one-time exercise.
Want to map your team's invisible work? Try Capysaurus free and create your work catalog in minutes, not hours.
