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This research-informed reflective practice brief examines a recurring tension in school organisations: dependable teachers may become the default recipients of additional work when redistribution is easier than addressing the conditions that produced the work in the first place. Drawing on professional reflection across more than sixteen years in education and scholarship on organisational justice, role overload, organisational citizenship behaviour, employee voice, psychological safety, poor-performer management and teacher turnover, the article develops the “competence penalty” as a practitioner lens rather than a formal theoretical construct. The concept overlaps with emerging research on high-performance punishment, but focuses specifically on the organisational pattern through which reliable performance becomes a rationale for repeated workload migration, particularly when unresolved underperformance or planning failures sit upstream. The brief distinguishes temporary collegial support from patterned over-reliance, and separates established research findings from professional interpretation and propositions arising from the competence-penalty lens. It also considers how leadership responses to confident professional voice may shape whether expertise is used, resisted or silenced. A contemporary practitioner example is used illustratively rather than as academic evidence. The article concludes with practical questions for school leaders seeking to audit workload distribution, accountability, development opportunities and receptiveness to challenge. It reports no human-participant research.
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2Absolutely brilliant article.
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Very informative article, well done to the author 👏