Invisible work, non-promotable tasks, and “volunteer opportunities” (more often volun-told), are an unfortunate reality in the workforce. There are three things every employer should do in relation to these tasks: minimize them, acknowledge them, and distribute them equitably.
Unfortunately, the reality is pretty far from this ideal. Some estimates state up to 75% or more of these time-sucking, minimally career beneficial activities are typically foisted on women in the workplace and are a leading driver behind burnout in female employees. The sinister thing about this is most people are completely blind to these factors; it’s referred to as invisible work for a reason.
Research from Harvard Business Review* found that 44% more requests are presented to women as compared to men for “non-promotable” or volunteer tasks at work. Non-promotable tasks are activities such as planning holiday events, coordinating workplace social activities, and other ‘office housework’ style activities that benefit the office but typically don’t provide career returns on the time invested. The work of the ‘office mom’ often goes unacknowledged or, if she’s lucky, maybe garners some brief lip service. Don’t be that boss that gives someone a 50hr workload task for a 2-second dose of “oh yeah thanks for doing a bajillion hours of work on this thing I will never acknowledge again and won’t help your career.” Yes, that’s a thing. Don’t do it. If you do it, don’t be surprised when you have more vacancies than staff. You brought that on yourself.
There is a lot of top-tier talent out there in the market right now. To be competitive, consider implementing some culture renovations so you can have a more equitable, and therefore more attractive, work culture to retain your top talent.
What we want to do:
- Identify and minimize invisible work in your organization
- Acknowledge the work that can’t be avoided. Get rid of the blind part.
- Distribute the work equitably.
Here is a simple example:
Step 1: Set up a way for staff to anonymously bring things to your attention. Perhaps a comment box. Encourage staff to bring unsung heroes in the office to your attention. Things they wish their peers or they themselves received acknowledgment for.
Step 2: Read them and actually take them seriously. Block out some time on your calendar and give it your full attention.
For the sake of demonstration, let’s say someone leaves a note about how Caroline always tidies up the breakroom at the end of the day and cleans the coffee pot with supplies Caroline brings from home. Now that we have identified a task, we are going to acknowledge it, minimize it, and consider the distribution of labor.
Step 3: Thank Caroline at the team meeting for scrubbing yesterday’s burnt coffee out of the bottom of the pot every day. Don’t gloss over it. Make the acknowledgment mean something. Buy her some chips out of the vending machine or something. The smallest gestures can have the biggest impact when coupled with actual change.
Step 4: Remind your staff to clean up after themselves. Caroline isn’t their mom. If you have to, enforce it.
Step 5: Put it in the office budget to provide adequate cleaning supplies for the break room and review your custodial needs. This isn’t part of Caroline’s job description and she could be putting that energy towards something else. Find the why of the situation and address it.
You might be rolling your eyes at me by now, but the toll of this unpaid invisible work has real costs. According to the 2021 Women in the Workplace Report* the ladies are carrying the team, but getting little to none of the credit. Burnout is real and ringing in at an all-time high across every sector of the economy. To be short, women are sick and tired of getting the raw end of the deal, and after 2 years of pandemic life bringing it into ultra-sharp focus, are doing something about it. In the report, 40% of ladies were considering jumping ship. Data indicates that a lot of them not only manned the lifeboats but landed more lucrative positions than they left. Now is the time to score and then retain top talent. However, it is up to you to make sure you are offering an environment worth working in.
*Note: the studies cited here do not differentiate non-cis-identifying persons. It is usually worse for individuals in the LGBTQIA+ community.
Holly White
June 22, 2008 at 10:50 am
Hilarious!!! You had me all the way up to the last 2 seconds!
Mariana Wagner
June 22, 2008 at 1:20 pm
sweet … And a great example of why we should never assume we know what is going on…
Lani Anglin-Rosales
June 22, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Holly- no kidding!
@mizzle seriously! I was so irritated and if I were in the store I would have told him to get off the freakin’ phone (and that ringing me up is oh so important)! 😉 Actually, I would have just been huffy, let’s be honest. What a cool video, it’s a little wake up call for me!
Matt Wilkins
June 22, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Great video Lani, definately a huge gotcha at the end.
However, it does make you think of how we sometimes interact when out with clients. For most of us our cell phone is our main phone line of contact. At soime point our phones do ring when we are out with clients (for example showing property). My personal solution is to either not answer the call or, if I know its something important, answer and get right to the point as to not time any more time than needed away from my primary task.
Luckily, most of my client do not mind me answering my phone as they realize that I am never too busy to take care of an issue when it arises. However, I have had heard stories where clients feel very upset when their realtors answers ANY phone calls.
Glenn fm Naples
June 22, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Good video, but the gas station attendant is not performing the customer service for HIS CUSTOMERS.
When we are with clients our full attention should be devoted to them.
I have not seen a situation in real estate that is so urgent that we need to answer our cellphones, of course, there are family emergencies and they are the ones to answer.
If someone has an example, of an URGENT call in real estate, please share it with us.
Bill Lublin
June 22, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Lani – Once again you make me smile – Now that’s service – I notice that the attendant manages to provide everyone with what they need, while balancing all of their needs – The first two customers didn’t need conversation, they needed a service which they got. And the final customer got great service also – in fact way above and beyond!
@Glenn; An urgent call in real estate is one that is time sensitive – I have seen agents lose business because they didn;t respond to the clients needs in what the client deemed a timely fashion. In fact, I had a bank that needed to place a listing place it with another broker because they called while I was away from the hpone, and returned their call 15 minutes later. Don’t know if that’s urgent (for me one piece of business isn’t going to kill me – ) But when I started in the business and needed to feed my family, I would have been very upset at missing the opportunity. However I think the decision to answer or not answer your cell if a personal thing – Me, I answer mine all the time so I’m probably not a good person to ask 😉
Vance Shutes
June 22, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Lani,
This has happened to me more times than I care to remember, at most gas stations these days. From now on, I’ll consider the experience in a different light – thanks to the ending of this cute video. :-).
Jennifer in Louisville
June 23, 2008 at 4:24 am
I liked the clip. Doing things beyond what is normally expected for your customers – is becoming expected.
Michael
June 23, 2008 at 11:34 am
I really like the clip too! I’ve learned that we should not always assume that we understand what is really going on. Thank you so much for this.
Larry Yatkowsky
June 23, 2008 at 10:04 pm
#3
*HUFFY* – I could use some of that. Does it come in a can or can I just rub it on?
Anne
June 24, 2008 at 7:22 am
Oh my, how funny. Sometimes we just need to smile, and try to assume that when someone appears rude or uncaring, that it has nothing to do with us, but is somethiing else entirely.
Michael
June 26, 2008 at 8:33 am
Yes! it is true Anne and I agree with you. Nice Comment.