When Work Feels Like a Group Project With Adults
Dear Brewtiful,
It’s the 20th of the month.
Suddenly everyone is panicking.
“Why am I just hearing about this?”
“Are we behind?”
“CC me on everything moving forward.”
Meanwhile, I have been staring at the same spreadsheet all month.
There are two categories of work happening:
The normal, recurring deliverables. Predictable. Tracked. On schedule.
The “special” projects that shift weekly depending on who had what idea in Slack.
Guess which one looks terrifying when you dump it into one email.
Now I’m being told to escalate faster, flag sooner, loop in leadership earlier, and privately check in twice a week like I’m running a crisis hotline.
How do I stop this cycle where everything feels “late” the second someone important looks at the board?
Signed,
Tired of Being the Only Adult in the Group Project
Dear Only Adult,
Let’s get something straight.
Most workplace “lateness” is not about missed deadlines.
It’s about missed visibility.
The second leadership sees the full picture, they panic. Not because the work is failing. Because they are seeing the complexity for the first time.
You are not behind.
You are exposed.
Here’s how you fix it without becoming the company therapist.
1. Separate the Work or Everything Looks Broken
If you mix predictable recurring deliverables with chaotic consulting projects, it will always look like a mess.
Always.
Create two clear lanes:
Lane A: Recurring Production
Monthly blogs
Link building
Scheduled posts
Planned deliverables
Lane B: Variable Projects
Consulting
One-offs
Scope shifts
“We decided to try something different”
Send two separate updates.
Never combine them.
When you combine them, you create artificial panic.
2. Define What “Behind” Actually Means
Most teams don’t have a definition. They have feelings.
Set a rule:
A task is “Behind” if it is past a committed deadline.
A task is “Blocked” if it is waiting on client approval.
A task is “In Progress” if it is within timeline.
A task is “Unscoped” if no timeline exists.
When you use those labels consistently, you remove emotion from the conversation.
Now when someone says, “We’re late,” you can respond with, “No. That is blocked, not late.”
Precision kills panic.
3. Slack Is Not Documentation
If timelines or scope decisions happen in Slack and never get summarized in email, they will disappear.
Then three weeks later someone will say, “Why wasn’t I told?”
Create one rule:
If it affects timeline, scope, or client expectations, it gets summarized in email within 24 hours.
That email becomes the source of truth.
Not vibes. Not memory.
4. Stop Escalating Emotionally. Escalate Mechanically.
Instead of waiting for someone to feel surprised, create escalation triggers.
Example:
If client approval is pending more than 5 business days → flag.
If internal assignment is unclear after 48 hours → flag.
If no timeline exists for a task → flag as “Unscoped.”
Now you are not reacting to tone. You are reacting to policy.
That makes you untouchable.
5. Accept That Visibility Feels Overwhelming to Leaders
When someone suddenly says, “This is a long list,” what they are really saying is:
“I did not realize how much is happening.”
That is not an accusation. It is a reaction.
Your job is not to shrink the list.
It is to structure it so it feels navigable.
Headings.
Clear status labels.
No novels.
No mystery.
The Real Secret
In group projects, there is always:
One person doing the tracking.
One person making last-minute decisions.
One person surprised by timelines.
One person quietly cleaning it up.
You cannot control who plays what role.
You can control:
Documentation.
Structure.
Clear categories.
Escalation rules.
Once you do that, the monthly “How are we this late?” drama dies down because everyone knows what the system says.
And systems do not panic.
People do.
Signed,
Dear Brewtiful
Now close the spreadsheet before someone starts another “quick idea” thread.
