Ownership typically describes the responsibility of completing the least important, but most time consuming portion of a task or project. More generally, it is an insidious management tactic preying on your increasingly muted hope of maintaining self-respect.

For example, you might hear, “I’d really like you to own writing up meeting minutes and emailing them to the team,” or “activity reports are an important part of showing our value to the client. I’m hoping you can really own this.” Tacit in these statements is the inevitable approval or minor edit process, which robs any sense of accomplishment your work may have provided and leaves you more demeaned than when you began. This cycle continues until your aspiration at self-worth is judged low enough to warrant a promotion or mounting your photo on the wall.

Management will likely introduce this strategy when you no longer exuberantly approach tasks whose sole purpose is justifying your use of the bathroom and first aid supplies. Depending on a worker’s delusional optimism, this could take between 2 to 6 weeks.

It is important to note the use of this term outside the office will likely confuse people. It is not common to hear about “Jessica owning genital herpes” or “little Timmy really owning his bed-wetting.”