Many employees say work expectations blurred after COVID reshaped jobs
When Nikelle Inman started a job coaching first-generation college students at a community college in North Carolina, she expected to spend time meeting students one-on-one. Instead, she and other success coaches spent a year focused on paperwork and reviewing applications, with little opportunity to meet with students. Inman, 34, said her responsibilities had shifted in a way that left her disengaged, describing the change as a disconnect from what she believed the role would involve and from how she felt valued.
AP reports that the mismatch between what employees expect and what they ultimately do is showing up more broadly. It’s disorienting when a job turns out to be different than advertised or morphs into work people did not anticipate, the reporting said, and a new Gallup analysis links those feelings to the way the pandemic changed how many Americans work.
Gallup’s analysis drew on survey responses from employees in November and found that just under half “strongly agreed” that they know what is expected of them at work, one of the factors the polling firm uses to measure employee engagement. In January 2020, the figure was 56%, according to the Gallup data described in the report. The analysis also found that uncertainty about role expectations is more common among certain groups, including new employees, younger employees, and those working in white-collar industries such as technology, insurance and finance, as well as people in hybrid work arrangements.
The reporting places the trend within a broader backdrop of workplace disruption and thinning headcount. It said managers and employees “bushwhacked their way through disruptive changes since COVID-19 first upended public life,” and noted that Gallup’s later data found remote work rose sharply by late 2024, with about one-quarter of employees with the ability to work remotely doing so exclusively, up from around 1 in 10 in 2019. Another 55% were working in the office some days and remotely the rest, up from about one-third in 2019, the report said. AP also said layoffs in multiple sectors left organizations with fewer people to handle the load, so expectations were not always updated to fit the new realities.
Jeremy Guttenplan, an executive leadership trainer and coach based in New York, described how repeated layoffs can change an employee’s day-to-day responsibilities. “With all the rounds of layoffs, people’s scope and responsibilities are shifting constantly,” Guttenplan said, adding that employees who remain can feel that “the work is just getting piled on them.”
The report then turned to practical steps aimed at cutting through ambiguity when scope and responsibilities become unclear. It highlighted strategies that can help both new hires and longer-tenured staff get a shared understanding of what success looks like, including writing down expectations, scheduling feedback loops, and using conversations to confirm alignment.
In one approach, the reporting said people should establish expectations early by spelling out, or making sure they understand, what a new role or project entails, including deadlines and performance markers. AP also described an example from Amber Krasinski, who considered a request from a real estate developer to film and produce 85 TikTok videos in three hours but said she turned the work down because the timeline made it impossible to complete. Krasinski, who runs communications agency IvyHill Strategies, said she now tries to ask clarifying questions before taking on new projects.
The reporting also emphasized feedback. It said that organizations can explore different ways to connect employees to managers and provide opportunities for check-ins, potentially helping staff prioritize time appropriately and understand what they are supposed to do. As an example, Brian Smith, founder and managing partner of IA Business Advisors, said his company holds “gratitude sessions” for 30 minutes each week, with the first 20 minutes led by a coach who advises attendees on issues like managing time and dealing with customers, followed by a chance to share what attendees are grateful for.
Workers can also initiate clarification themselves, according to AP’s reporting. Dale Whelehan, founder of 4 Day World and a think tank that explores new models of work, said managing upwards can make a person’s life easier, while warning not to assume management has all the answers. Whelehan told AP that in some hierarchical organizations, questioning management may be viewed negatively, so employees should approach such conversations carefully.
To start a feedback discussion, Whelehan advised that employees share what they believe the assignment entails and request confirmation or clarification by seeking alignment. He also suggested closing a check-in by restating what the employee thinks their role is and asking whether they understood it correctly, then following up by email to capture what was agreed to.
Finally, the report said employees experiencing rapid workplace change can use “trust your instincts” as a signal to pause and reassess priorities. Inman, the North Carolina coach, said if something does not feel right, employees should avoid just accepting it—whether that means trying to improve the situation or deciding to leave.
When role expectations shift after layoffs, hybrid work changes and new routines take hold, the report suggests the day-to-day challenge is not only what tasks come next, but whether employees can quickly rebuild a clear picture of what their job is supposed to accomplish.