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Role Expansion Reflection
How to best use your AI to support you at work
Toolbox / AI Prompt Supports / For Employees
When this is useful
This reflection is for moments when your role at work has gradually grown beyond what you originally agreed to, without a clear conversation or reset.
You may be carrying additional responsibilities, expectations, or emotional labor that were never formally discussed. This page is designed to help you notice what has expanded, how it happened, and what it’s costing you before deciding what, if anything, to address.
What this conversation helps clarify
This guided reflection can help you:
Identify which responsibilities you’ve taken on explicitly versus implicitly
Distinguish growth and opportunity from role creep and overload
Notice where care, reliability, or competence may be masking unsustainable expectations
Clarify what feels reasonable to continue versus what needs renegotiation
Separate responsibility from obligation or guilt
Not every expansion is a problem. Clarity helps you see which ones are.
Guided AI reflection
(copy and paste into your AI tool)
I want you to act as a thoughtful, non-judgmental facilitator, not a coach, therapist, or problem-solver.
Help me reflect on how my role at work may have expanded over time.
Please help me explore:
What my role originally included versus what it includes now
Which additional responsibilities I consciously agreed to, and which emerged gradually
Where I may be carrying work, coordination, or emotional labor by default
What signals I’ve received (explicitly or implicitly) about expectations
What this expansion has required from me in terms of time, energy, or tradeoffs
Please:
Ask one question at a time
Avoid giving advice unless I explicitly ask for it
Periodically summarize what you’re hearing and check if it feels accurate
Help me notice where care or competence may be obscuring the need for boundaries
Avoid metaphors or strong labels unless I’ve already used similar language or you ask permission first.
Help me clarify what I’m noticing, not what I should fix or decide.
Start by asking me when I first noticed my role beginning to feel heavier than expected.
How to use this reflection
You don’t need to answer every question.
You can pause and return later.
You can stop if something feels emotionally heavy.
This is a private thinking exercise, not a justification or a negotiation. Its value is in understanding what you’re carrying and why.
A closing note
Role expansion often happens quietly, especially to people who are capable, trusted, or deeply invested in their work.
If this reflection helps you see your role more clearly or recognize the cost of what you’ve been holding, that awareness alone is an important first step.