Soft Incompetence: The Subtle Drain on Your Time & Energy

Ever feel like the default project manager at home or work? In this episode, Lauren sits down with Dr. Regina Lark to unpack soft incompetence —a subtle dynamic that quietly shifts emotional labor onto one person, often with good intentions. Learn how to spot it, talk about it, and rebalance responsibility without resentment. You’ll learn: How soft incompetence differs from weaponized incompetence. Early signs of emotional labor imbalance. One simple shift to redistribute responsibility more fairly. Show Notes Weekly Newsletter Sign-Up: Guest Resources: Dr. Regina Lark: Career Contessa Resources Book 1:1 career coaching session: Take an online course: Get your personalized salary report: Sponsor Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month Shopify trial today at shopify.com/careercontessa. See Privacy Policy at and California Privacy Notice at .

You can listen to Soft Incompetence: The Subtle Drain on Your Time & Energy online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Soft Incompetence: The Subtle Drain on Your Time & Energy is an episode from The Career Contessa Podcast by Lauren McGoodwin.

This episode is 00:33:38 long.

This episode was published on Apr 7, 2026.

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