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.
AgentSteph
December 7, 2012 at 12:25 pm
Right on.
Greg Fischer
December 7, 2012 at 12:59 pm
@AgentSteph Thanks for the love Steph.
StevePeeleII
December 7, 2012 at 12:26 pm
Couldn’t agree more.
Greg Fischer
December 7, 2012 at 1:03 pm
@StevePeeleII Thanks for the Cincinnati support Steve.
StevePeeleII
December 7, 2012 at 12:26 pm
Couldn’t agree more.
RichardDeVita
December 7, 2012 at 12:39 pm
Hear here !
Greg Fischer
December 7, 2012 at 1:04 pm
@RichardDeVita Thanks for the shout from FL Richard
RichardDeVita
December 7, 2012 at 1:41 pm
@Greg Fischer my pleasure. Well written, hits the nail on the head. Technology is great, we all use it, but, you cannot replace the boots on the ground local knowledge acquired by spending time in a particular neighborhood.
MattThomson
December 7, 2012 at 1:43 pm
Just over 30% of my business this year is from buyers relocating from out of the state (or country). It’s fascinating how much they can learn using the Internet (Google street view, AVM’s, forums, neighborhood Facebook pages). Yet everyone of them is happy to have those tools and truly grateful to have my perspectives. That cute bridge over the lagoon on Google Maps? Yep, it’s tidal so 12hrs a day it’s not a lagoon, it’s a mud pit. And the bridge…those aren’t Christmas lights, they’re brake lights ’cause it’s bumper to bumper 2x a day.
My clients’ access to technology makes their job and my job much easier. Facetime and Skype allow me to walk through a home with my tablet while they’re 1000’s of miles away and they can really grasp the floor plan, but it’s me showing them how the floors upstairs all squeak or how off the master deck there’s a great view of the water that the agent forgot to put a picture of.
Technology is great. It helps the client and the agent. Doesn’t replace us.
The agent who uses technology WILL replace the agent who doesn’t, however.
Greg Fischer
December 8, 2012 at 2:39 pm
@MattThomson excellent points Matt. Technology really helps all of us do a better job. I hope agents stop being scared of it and instead embrace and harness it for its true potential. I also, love all of the low-tech and no-tech opportunities we encounter as real estate pros.
FischRealEstate
December 7, 2012 at 3:26 pm
@MattThomson thanks for reading and taking the time to comment Matt
FischRealEstate
December 7, 2012 at 10:07 pm
@micheleserro hey, thanks for the love
RobertaMurphy
December 7, 2012 at 10:29 pm
And it is up to us, as agents, to make our listings and neighborhoods unzillowable. We present them and live them as no technology can. But through technology, we try–in a way that Zillow cannot.
Greg Fischer
December 8, 2012 at 2:42 pm
@RobertaMurphy we are neighborhood ambassadors, and it’s also our job to help clients find their best fit. Technology helps us do this, but ultimately we are all such different people, leading very different lives, and therefore have different experiences in our environments. That’s the wonderful thing about real estate. Your experience as my neighbor might be totally different from mine, and I think that’s pretty cool
Mark Brian
December 8, 2012 at 11:47 am
Perfect example of unzillowable: Former client emails today about how the zestimate has risen on his home. However the algorithm does not drive over the bridge just around the corner from this property everyday. The algorithm does not know that due to the drought that lake levels have dropped and this “lakefront” home is now about a quarter mile from the water…
Greg Fischer
December 8, 2012 at 2:43 pm
@Mark Brian we saw some issues with this in northwest Fort Worth over the last couple of years. It’s unfortunate for the land owners, but agree – very important for potential buyers to understand the ramifications of it. An expert insight on your part
davidpylyp1
December 8, 2012 at 1:14 pm
With all the listings available to be seen, we are vital to sit through the application and interpretation of all that RAW DATA> You need to understand what the market barometer is; Buyers or Sellers Market and the Temperature of that Listing Is it Hot or Cold. Other wise you never pull the trigger fast enough or struggle to negotiate with Listings that are over priced and don’t get it.
I welcome the new changes I’m able to provide outside the Box solutions. Its the Results that Matter.
David Pylyp
Etobicoke Real Estate Specialist
Greg Fischer
December 8, 2012 at 2:48 pm
@davidpylyp1 David, some of the neighborhood nuances are so fascinating here. We are talking about block by block major differentiators based on a variety of factors. Proximity to the interstate, school, east of a certain North/South thru street can all have major impacts on the listings ability to sell quickly. The interesting thing is, these nuances are positive for some, and negative for others.
SilverySage
December 10, 2012 at 9:55 am
@acummings @Chris_Smth RIGHT ON!
FischRealEstate
December 10, 2012 at 10:15 am
@Chris_Smth thanks for the mention Chris
TBoard
December 10, 2012 at 11:48 am
@lauramonroe heck some real estate pros cam’t even do the job of a real estate pro
LauraMonroe
December 10, 2012 at 12:30 pm
@TBoard 🙂
FischRealEstate
December 10, 2012 at 6:31 pm
@TBoard @LauraMonroe thanks for reading Teresa and Laura
RenterLobby
December 10, 2012 at 3:00 pm
@narREach @Chris_Smth what great timing for this article. RenterLobby embraces this theory! Launch 2013.
FischRealEstate
December 10, 2012 at 6:26 pm
@GuaranteedRate thanks for putting this out
GuaranteedRate
December 11, 2012 at 5:13 am
@FischRealEstate You’re welcome!
FischRealEstate
December 10, 2012 at 6:29 pm
@BrandonLCohen thanks Brandon
BrandonLCohen
December 10, 2012 at 8:10 pm
@FischRealEstate thank you!
Roslynw0ztrdge0
December 10, 2012 at 8:01 pm
@BucksCtyRealtor https://t.co/UYEt5qDg
Brian Hickey
December 11, 2012 at 10:51 am
Chicken or the egg? Aren’t the things that are discovered to be “unzillowable” only evident after being “Zillowed” 🙂
Greg Fischer
December 11, 2012 at 11:17 am
@Brian Hickey Brian, I believe not. In my article I describe a few items that people claimed were unzillowable in 2006, things like traffic noise which they claimed couldn’t be considered in an AVM. I took this slant to be a slightly negative one, and so I went on to describe how traffic noise was not a negative item to me, along with some of the other factors, which were actually things I loved about the neighborhood. If we all experience the same neighborhood in different ways, how can we possibly capture the experience in software?
Brian Hickey
December 11, 2012 at 12:16 pm
@Greg Fischer @Brian Hickey Greg,
I understand your position in your great article and share your thoughts. My point was simply to bring up the fact (what, some 30+million people visit Zillow each month?) that in order to get to the physical attributes of housing a whole bunch of people start at Z, T, R, RE.com etc. (as an example).
No negativity here……….just twisting, turning and trying to provoke some thought 🙂
Thanks,
Joe Loomer
December 17, 2012 at 10:39 am
I loved this post, Greg. Reminds me of how I typically take buyers off the beaten track to point out the things I love about my own community – pointing out dog parks, sports complexes, museums, libraries, parks, best places to eat, etc…. I consider it part of our agent credo to be an ambassador for our towns.
Navy Chief, Navy Pride
Greg Fischer
December 27, 2012 at 5:42 pm
Thanks Joe.
Tommy Unger
February 23, 2015 at 1:22 pm
It’s not even about “secrets”. It’s merely the fact there are many more factors (or, more precisely, combinations of factors) than there are homes for sale. I’ve worked at Zillow and Redfin and I completely share your sentiments.
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Bill Lublin
June 15, 2021 at 5:26 pm
Great article. I miss Joe.