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.
Jonathan Dalton
April 21, 2009 at 1:13 pm
My frustration didn’t arrive postage due, did it?
Brad Coy
April 21, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Your healthy skepticism is like a breath of fresh air. Taking it in does make me feel better. 🙂
BawldGuy
April 21, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Seriously, I’m flabbergasted those who know you even a bit haven’t mentioned anything about the ‘delicate flower’ description. But since we’re both such sensitive souls, I’ll let it go. 🙂
I can’t add anything of quality to what you’ve said so well — so I’ll just add my heartiest endorsement.
Vendors are to real estate pros what college/university professors are to business in general. They’re positive what they teach is money in the bank. Yet they (professors) opt for lives of theory without practice — criticizing from the cheap seats of lifetime tenured security.
Meanwhile the delicate flowers in the trenches of real life keep figuring out ways to make things happen — most of which have little if anything to do with what they learned from so many cocksure theorists.
You put a smile on my face today, Kelley.
Vicki Moore
April 21, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Yes, I do feel better. I totally agree. As long as they are those who will buy…
Ines Hegedus-Garcia
April 21, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Can I smell your flower? no really….I want the friggin’ flower already!
Brandie Young
April 21, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Hi Kelley – I love that nobody will ever accuse you of not being clear and direct!
Don’t hate me because I’m not an agent!
Nor am I trying to sell products or services to agents (not my target client audience).
That said, I like to think that my sharing my marketing experience/expertise and sometime contrarian views could help an agent.
I agree with you, I can’t tell you how it’s done. (Although I did observe my father as both an agent, then a broker/owner of his own business for 30+ years, nothing outside of actual experience gives you experience.)
All that said, I hope that you (and others reading this) will be open to us outsiders that are just trying to pass on a tidbit every now and again in a sincere “pay it forward” spirit.
xo
Brandie
Kelley Koehler
April 21, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Brandie – I was mostly just pissed at the heading for a story. To suggest what works to sell someone’s education nationally will work to sell real estate locally… that don’t fly.
I’m all for sharing. I’m all for suggesting how it could be applied to real estate. I want to hear what’s worked and what hasn’t, DESPERATELY. I want to try all kind of other ideas that people use in other industries, see if they work for me or not. Just don’t tell me it works for real estate when that’s not a valid conclusion… yet.
I absolutely think all of your marketing experience is incredible, and I’d love to hear about it. And I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t walk up to me and say, hey, Kelley – do this and you’ll get 4 closings. 🙂 Tell me your client got 4 closings – great! Tell me how well it worked for you in your target market – sweet! I wanna learn. I could just do without the smoke being blown up my a** at the same time. I am a delicate flower, ya know.
Brandie Young
April 21, 2009 at 4:34 pm
I hear you. Fair. Thanks.
p.s. I’m a delicate flower, too. Ask anyone!
Doug Francis
April 21, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Agents are always hoping that next “thing” will be the silver bullet that will propel them to super sales. I was skeptical when the the guys from San Diego came to my association convention and gave a presentation on the inter-web thing, getting an e-mail account, and registering my name as my domain (I already used aol). I had used e-mail at my old job so I understood how important it could be. But DougFrancis.com was like pretending to be Steve Case or something.
So I bit and spent twenty bucks… who knew?
Stay objective, don’t criticize everything immediately, and keep sharing ideas.
Got to go, Idol is on!
Bill Lublin
April 22, 2009 at 12:06 pm
I didn’t realize that anyone other than Jeff Brown was a delicate flower – though he has blossomed substantially 😉
Kelley – awesome post – point well made
Jim Rake
April 23, 2009 at 6:31 am
Kelley – You mean, “Talk is Cheap”? Appreciate the point.
Missy Caulk
April 24, 2009 at 8:49 pm
ahh a breath of fresh air. We all want to learn but stick to what you know and have a track record to share.
One of my pet peeves, good bloggers but no business to speak of.