Why ‘Not My Job’ Will Kill Your Career, and 'OPP' Could Save It
OPP: Other People’s Problems. It’s not avoidance—it’s leadership.
Yesterday, I had a conversation with a great colleague of mine, and he shared an article that stopped me in my tracks. It’s called “OPP: Other People’s Problems” by Camille Fournier, and while it’s from 2019, it resonated with me in a way few things have. It felt like the perfect framework for something I’ve been living but never quite articulated: the difference between picking your battles with precision and just saying, “Not my job.”
“Not my job.” The three little words that scream mediocrity. If you’ve ever said them, congratulations—you’ve just told the world you’re irrelevant. Now, let me introduce you to OPP: Other People’s Problems. It’s not an excuse. It’s a strategy.
OPP isn’t about dodging responsibility. It’s about understanding the difference between what’s worth your energy and what’s not. It’s about focus, discipline, and leadership. Compare that to the “Not My Job” crowd, whose default setting is disengagement. They see a problem and look the other way. They wait for someone else to step up. Spoiler alert: no one remembers those people.
But here’s the catch—OPP doesn’t mean you should jump into every problem you see. That’s a rookie mistake.
Leaders who understand OPP know how to:
Evaluate Ownership: If it’s yours, own it. Fix it. Build it better.
Measure Impact: If it doesn’t touch your mission or your team, let it burn. Focus on the fires that matter.
Empower Others: If someone else owns it, make sure they know it. Leadership isn’t about doing everything—it’s about enabling others to step up.
The “Not My Job” mindset says, “I don’t care.” The OPP mindset says, “I care about what matters.” That’s why OPP isn’t about walking away—it’s about walking with purpose.
The truth is, every minute you spend on someone else’s chaos is a minute stolen from your mission. Leaders who waste time fighting every fire never finish what they start. Worse, they lose credibility. People respect focus, not flailing.
Stop wasting time on problems that don’t belong to you. Focus your energy where it matters most, and let the distractions collapse into ash.
Are you leading with clarity, or are you still hiding behind “Not my job”?
PS. And because this framework resonated so much—and because I’m a 1974 kid who lived through the 1990s—I couldn’t help but think of Naughty by Nature’s classic hit, “O.P.P.” It was one of my favorite songs, and the connection was too perfect to ignore.
That’s why I took a moment to create a tribute rap inspired by the song, reimagined for leadership and problem ownership. Because let’s be honest: sometimes, the best way to burn through the noise is with rhythm, rhyme, and a little nostalgia. 🎤🔥