diff --git a/.github/workflows/add-pr-label.yaml b/.github/workflows/add-pr-label.yaml
index ebbf84866b5..b936e55a950 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/add-pr-label.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/add-pr-label.yaml
@@ -23,6 +23,5 @@ jobs:
         with:
           labels: |
             keep pr updated
-            work in progress
         env:
           GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/changelog/v1.18.0-rc3/work-in-progress-default-false.yaml b/changelog/v1.18.0-rc3/work-in-progress-default-false.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6a30d817747
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/v1.18.0-rc3/work-in-progress-default-false.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+changelog:
+  - type: NON_USER_FACING
+    description: >-
+      Do not add the `work in progress` label to PRs by default. This label prevents code from merging into the
+      target branch, and was intended to help prevent merges before they were intended to happen.
+      Instead however, it has caused engineering toil as removing the label is not intuitive for many developers.
+      
+      skipCI-docs-build:true
+      skipCI-kube-tests:true