Wiktionary
id. to do the work which someone else has stopped doing, but which still needs to be done
Usage examples of "pick up the slack".
I said I'd go for a half cent, and your husband said he'd pick up the slack.
Bad enough to have Sarrah and Jael down with the fluxionRachel was a hard taskmistress, but she knew that every day of working a sick girl could mean losing her three days in the longer runyes, bad enough that Rachel had to pick up the slack left by their absence.
For the moment it seemed to be holding, and the pulse-blaster cannons were ready to pick up the slack in the unlikely event that the force shield fell.
With a floater to pick up the slack, she mused, she could juggle the shifts.
I hired in twice as many new bodiesthey should have been able to pick up the slack and then some!
His damage control parties had assured him that substitute radars were already working to pick up the slack.
They ordered his work group to watch over the boy, to make certain he completed his tasks& or if he failed, to pick up the slack.
If it destroyed the usefulness of Saudi oil, would the Soviets pick up the slack as they had hinted?
Except someone had to do this work, and without a first officer to pick up the slack, there really wasn’.