I heard this two days ago on a TV program.

Problem:
The speaker said one thing but meant another.

Explanation:
When talking about a home-renovation project and the work performed by many people, the host of the HGTV program “Hammer Heads” said “It was a lot of work on everybody’s behalf.”

Doing something on somebody’s behalf means that one does something for that person.

So “everybody’s behalf” implies that several people benefited from the home-renovation work that the TV program documented.

However, only the two home owners benefited, and these two home owners certainly were not the “everybody” involved with the renovation.

The correct replacement in the sentence for the noun “behalf” is the noun “part”, given that everybody played a part in the renovation.

I believe that the TV host’s use of “behalf” where “part” was required is an example of a type of hypercorrection — choosing a longer, incorrect word in place of the shorter, correct word.

Solution:
“It was a lot of work on everybody’s part.”