Joining the No-Club

Laetitia@Work #51

Hi everyone,

We are all familiar with the concept of work/life imbalance, when the way we split our time between our personal and professional lives leaves us frustrated and unhappy, usually because work takes up too much space. But I recently discovered another concept which I found enlightening: work/work imbalance, i.e. when there’s too much dead-end, ungratifying work and too little rewarding work in the mix. It struck a sensitive chord. It also reminded me of the Pareto principle at work: when 80% of results come from 20% of actions. 

It’s not just that we “waste” a lot of time doing tasks that aren’t as impactful. It’s mostly that many of us spend time doing things that help others but doesn’t help advance our own goals. Unsurprisingly work/work imbalance is usually worse for women. The same way women do significantly more domestic chores on average, they also do more office “chores”: social work (organising a party for somebody at work), secretarial work (taking notes during a meeting), logistical work (planning an event), HR work (recruiting interns), helping others in their work, cleaning up after others, preparing coffee etc. These tasks are all important but the fact they’re not shared evenly is a problem because it leaves women with less time to do “promotable” tasks, earn money and recognition.

This summer I read a book titled The No-Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead-End Work. Four women, Linda Babcock, Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund and Laurie Weingart started a club to help one another say no to the many demands that made their work less gratifying. They knew that more “non-promotable” tasks were expected of them than were expected of their male counterparts. So they decided to investigate the subject and make it clear to everyone else. Their extensive research is unambiguous: 

Women are disproportionately asked and expected to do this kind of work. This imbalance leaves women overcommitted and underutilized as companies forfeit revenue, productivity, and top talent

In this newsletter I’ll share a few thoughts about joining the No-Club and why it matters.👇💡

Non-promotable tasks (NPTs) hurt women more

The authors of The No-Club were intent on formalising a concept that’s easy for everyone to grasp and remember. It’s obvious to many of us that some tasks are more rewarding than others. But what does it mean in concrete terms and what is the impact on those who do more of these less rewarding tasks?

Non-promotable tasks: tasks that matter to the organization but do not advance the career of the individual who completes them. Non-promotable tasks are not instrumental to increasing the organization’s currency [its main goals], are often not visible, and may not require specialized skills (many others can do them). (The No-Club)

The unequal distribution of tasks within an organisation has a negative impact on women’s careers, income and lives. It’s also a problem for organisations: when women’s skills are misspent and their careers stall, it’s a lot of value that’s not created. Such non-promotable tasks exist in all types of jobs, each time somebody overqualified is asked to do something that anybody else could do (taking notes or making coffee). 

There are many different categories of NPTs. Some of them consist of bearing the emotional and social workload for the team: resolving conflicts, decorating the office space, making sure everybody is happy in the group, celebrating birthdays, organising get-togethers… Other NPTs are strategic to the organisation but do not come with rewards for the individual doing them: it’s essential to recruit interns but if you don’t work in HR, you won’t be rewarded for doing it.

The authors of The No-Club give the example of a female associate at a law firm. She was asked to assist in the summer associate interview process. Thrilled to be trusted with an important new task, the woman didn’t realise that it would leave her with less time for her client work. After a couple of years, she had fewer billable hours than her male peers, which is the main metric used to determine who gets promoted and who doesn’t. In other words, she was asked to do something positive for the community but eventually got punished for doing less client work as a result.

Even though her boss had asked her to help with hiring, it didn’t count as much as other work did. That was when she understood that all tasks are not equal, even those you are asked to do and that need to be done. What mattered more to Francesca’s organization was client-facing work and billable hours—that was the ticket to success. (The No-Club)

To determine where a task is placed on the promotability continuum (yes, it’s a continuum), you need to know what the “currency” of your organisation is (for example, billable hours at a law firm, research papers in academia, high-revenue clients in consulting firms). Promotable tasks increase an organisation’s currency: they are visible to others because they are rewarded. Conversely non-promotable tasks are done behind the scenes and you seldom get any credit for doing them.

👉 My book (in 🇫🇷) deals with the many limits of productivity. You can order it online: En finir avec la productivité 📚

Why women say yes

If only the solution was as simple as just saying no! But if you’re somebody’s subordinate, you can’t always just say no. There are reasons why women are overburdened with these tasks: they are asked more, it’s expected of them and they are punished when they refuse to do them. That’s why, the authors insist, it’s a cultural and organisational problem, not a “fix-the-woman” issue. 

Women aren’t the problem. Organizational practices are.

Asking for volunteers is not the right way to go about non-promotable tasks: implicit and explicit expectations will weigh more heavily on some people than others. They weigh particularly heavily on women of colour.

You likely recognize this situation from your own work life. Perhaps you are in a meeting and your manager wants to staff a new project. The project isn’t challenging or prestigious; in fact, it’s laborious and won’t have much impact on your performance evaluation. As your manager describes the project and asks for a volunteer, you and your colleagues become silent and uneasy, everyone hoping that someone else will raise a hand. The wait becomes increasingly uncomfortable. Then, finally, someone speaks up: “Okay, I’ll do it.” (...)

In a mixed-gender group, we—men and women alike—EXPECT women to do the undesirable tasks. We have been taught and internalized the mandate that women take one for the team (...)

What is “optional” for men is often required for women. (...) If women decline and don’t fulfil others’ expectations, we may be subject to retaliation. Work assignments, collaborations, performance evaluations, reputation, and compensation can be negatively affected by the perception that you aren’t a team player. Everyone has internalized these ideas and expectations of how women should behave—including us. So often, women feel guilty when we consider saying no.

A lot of managers believe that the reason why they do more of these tasks is because “women enjoy them and are good at them”. But a lot of women who agree to do this type of work feel overwhelmed, frustrated, resentful and/or angry. They say yes because they feel strong internal and external pressure to say yes, not because they enjoy doing more chores! As with many subjects, it’s a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t situation: when they say no they risk their reputation and likability; when they say yes, they are overwhelmed with work that jeopardises their ability to advance their careers.

So what are the solutions?

It’s important to remember that it’s not an individual’s problem and responsibility to resist or change societal expectations and unfair organisational practices. However individuals can get better at handling the requests and managing expectations. There are three types of solutions:

- At the individual level, learning to say no the right way is extremely valuable. That involves finding supportive peers and friends who can help you say no (which was the purpose of the “No-Club” created by the authors). It means remembering Future You (who is never ever happy to do something that Past You thought he/she could handle), ignoring the flattery that comes with being asked something, minding your body language and crafting a no that’s “airtight”. An effective no is one that provides alternatives (by referring somebody else for example).

- At the organisational level, it’s essential to distribute the tasks more fairly. These tasks are often very valuable. So they need to be done. Perhaps they could be made more promotable? Relying on volunteers is never the right way to go about it. The unequal burden causes demotivation. When very qualified people spend too much time doing things that less qualified people could do, it’s a waste for the whole organisation. It might be a good idea to rotate the tasks or to assign them randomly.

- At every level, it’s a good idea to raise awareness on the subject. Talk about non-promotable tasks with your colleagues, your bosses, your friends. It will be harder to ignore the impact that the unfair distribution of non-promotable tasks has on women’s careers (and particularly on racialized women). Understanding the promotable/non-promotable continuum and assessing the time people spend on tasks for the community will help make the invisible more visible. 

What about the self-employed?

The book deals primarily with employees, how they can handle their colleagues and managers. But I find that a lot of what’s in the book also applies to the self-employed. In theory we’re free to choose which tasks to carry out and which tasks to drop. In reality we’re also influenced by other people’s expectations. We feel the same pressure to please our peers and clients as salaried workers do to please their superiors. We may be convinced to do some non-promotable task with the promise of future deals (that may or may not come in the future). 

Among the self-employed the gender revenue gap is even higher than among employees. This suggests that work/work imbalance probably affects self-employed women more strongly. Their promotable/non-promotable mix may well be even more disadvantageous to them. I’m happy that many new associations, collectives and media raise awareness on the subject among freelancers. 

🕸️ In this week’s Vives Media newsletter, I write about the networking gap: why are women’s professional networks less powerful than men’s? (in 🇫🇷)

💡 Liz Truss is now Britain’s third PM. Will we see another example of the “glass cliff” in action? Read my article in 🇫🇷: La falaise de verre : quand les femmes grimpent les échelons en temps de crise.

🎙️ Nouveau Départ: the first podcast of this new season is this interview of French author Mathilde Ramadier about female bisexuality 🎧 Her new book Vivre Fluide has just been released. Subscribe to receive our future podcasts in your inbox! (in 🇫🇷)

Miscellaneous

🗳️ Women Are So Fired Up to Vote, I’ve Never Seen Anything Like It, Tom Bonier, The New York Times, September 2022: “For many Americans, confronting the loss of abortion rights was different from anticipating it (…) Women are registering to vote in numbers I’ve never witnessed. I’ve run out of superlatives to describe how different this moment is, especially in light of the cycles of tragedy and eventual resignation of recent years. This is a moment to throw old political assumptions out the window and to consider that Democrats could buck historic trends this cycle.”

🏋️‍♀️ ‘Strong over skinny’: Women powerlifters ditch stigma around bulking up, Samantha Chery, Washington Post, August 2022: “Now more than ever, women are hitting the gym & heading straight to the weight racks. No longer fazed by the stigma that women can get too bulky from lifting weights, women powerlifters see the sport as a physical and mental salve. Those who have fallen in love with powerlifting (a slower version of weightlifting, often with heavier weights) say they feel stronger & more poised, regardless of their size.”

📱 ‘A Decade of Fruitless Searching’: The Toll of Dating App Burnout, Catherine Pearson, The New York Times, August 2022: “Tinder turns 10 in September, prompting a moment of collective reflection about how apps have reshaped not just dating culture, but also the emotional lives of longtime users. (…) many perennial users say years of swiping and searching have left them with a bad case of burnout (…) For some, the only real option is to quit the dating apps cold turkey; for others, it is about finding smaller ways to set boundaries.”

Until next time, don’t let NPTs overwhelm you! 🤗