Workplace wellbeing: The perils of accepting unpaid ‘women’s work’ in the office

It's often assumed female employees will organise the birthday cake and card, help their coworkers, or tidy up. Many women take on these tasks willingly, but is it fair to leave the lion's share of this unpaid work to them? 

Woman is with red gift box. Employee having a birthday in the office, group of workers.

A woman on X (formerly known as Twitter) tells a story about a committee being formed at work. The committee had male and female members, but when choosing a secretary, the male chair asked only the women present if it were a role they would take on.

Another woman chimes in with a story about being the only female to volunteer with her son’s sports team and all the dads expect her to supply the sandwiches.

Serving as secretary, taking notes at meetings, making sandwiches, and bringing cakes into the office for colleagues’ birthdays are all examples of what Dr Melrona Kirrane, an associate professor of organisational psychology at DCU Business School, calls organisational citizenship behaviours.

“These are discretionary behaviours that aren’t expected or paid for but serve as the glue that holds an organisation together or as the oil that lubricates its wheels,” says Kirrane.

“They include everything from clearing up the office to giving coworkers a hand when under pressure, and they are a wonderful asset to any workplace.”

They can also benefit employees.

“Studies show that doing things on behalf of our coworkers can lead to higher levels of job satisfaction, better morale, and positive vibes all around,” says Kirrane.

What they typically don’t do is result in any form of professional kudos. A 2021 survey of 423 organisations and 65,000 employees by McKinsey & Company in partnership with Lean In showed this starkly. While some 87% of companies reported that employees’ work to support their coworkers’ wellbeing was critical to the functioning of their organisation, only 25% formally recognised such work in performance evaluations.

This isn’t the only issue with organisational citizenship behaviours. If these behaviours are supposed to be voluntary, many wonder why they are commonly perceived as being carried out predominantly by women.

Women and non-essential tasks

Dr Lise Vesterlund, a behavioural economist and professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh, has co-authored a book that argues that women are asked to undertake these non-essential tasks more than men, giving men an unfair advantage. In The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead-End Work, she says that men are allowed more time to focus on work that helps them to advance, while women’s careers stall.

“Men and women with the same education, experience and skills are getting assigned tasks differently,” she says. “More women are asked by their managers to organise the parties, buy a gift for the newlywed colleague, mentor and train new employees and carry out committee work.”

The time taken to complete such tasks can quickly add up.

“It accumulates into a lot of hours,” says Vesterlund. “In one of our studies, we analysed years of data from a professional services firm and found women spent a full 200 more hours per year on non-promotable tasks than male colleagues — that’s one whole extra month of work.”

Dr Lise Vesterlund

How do these women manage to fit it all in? According to Vesterlund, they either spend less time on the work they are supposed to be doing, hindering their promotional prospects, or they work more hours to fit in the extra tasks, leading to exhaustion.

Kirrane isn’t convinced that the situation is this extreme for women.

“A meta-analysis, [a study which involves assessing and combining the findings of previous research], published by the University of Hong Kong in 2015 found there were no sex differences as regards this topic,” she says. “From what I can see in the scientific literature, both men and women are equally likely to carry out these non-essential tasks.”

She highlights how taking on these tasks isn’t advisable for anyone, male or female, whose workday is already overloaded.

“A German study published in 2019 showed that the extra workload involved could lead to irritability in the workplace and employees withdrawing and disconnecting from their work,” she says. “With so much talk recently about issues such as job dissatisfaction and quiet quitting, it makes me think that taking on too many organisational citizenship behaviours could have a role to play.”

Women and invisible loads

Síle Walsh is a coaching psychologist who designed and now lectures on the Women in Leadership Diploma at UCD’s Professional Academy. She agrees with Vesterlund that women should not take on more non-essential tasks than men.

“From working with hundreds of women, I have seen that they are carrying most of the load when it comes to this invisible work, whether it comes to making the coffees and clearing up afterwards or taking notes in meetings,” she says. “It amounts to a lot of additional emotional labour for women, and they are not necessarily highly regarded or even rewarded for it.”

In fact, the opposite can happen. Women can be punished for taking on too many of these tasks. “I often work with women who are stuck in middle management,” says Walsh.

“Their problem is that they do so much extra work that they have made themselves irreplaceable, so they don’t get promoted.”

Why would women take on these non-essential tasks if they hinder their career prospects and add to their workload?

When undertaken voluntarily, these tasks can be rewarding. “They make workplaces more pleasant for everyone,” says Walsh.

It’s when women feel they have no choice or believe these tasks are unfairly distributed that they become problematic. Walsh argues this happens because of unconscious gender bias.

“These tasks can be more associated with women, which means that men and women are more inclined to expect women to do them,” she says.

“Women get asked to do more of this work and are more likely to say yes when asked because we all expect it of them.”

Women are also more likely to experience backlash if they refuse to take on these tasks.

“Research we’ve done at the University of Pittsburgh has shown it’s harder for women to say no as the consequences are more severe,” says Vesterlund. 

They’re labelled ‘difficult’ or ‘not a team player’. They take on the task rather than risk that backlash.”

So, what can women do to ensure they don’t take on more than our fair share of non-essential work?

The answer isn’t to eliminate such work. “That would negatively affect the workplace,” says Walsh. “We just need to share it out properly.”

This starts by noticing inequality.

“We can be blind to the fact that we’re taking on an unfair proportion of this work because it’s become so normalised,” says Walsh. “Even senior women can find themselves taking notes in meetings.”

A rota system can help.

“Launching into a conversation about gender expectations and non-promotable work risks you being written off as an angry feminist,” says Walsh. “Rather than that, try saying something like: ‘I took notes last time. Having one person take them all the time isn’t fair. Let’s take turns from now on.’ Nobody can argue with that.”

Speaking up isn’t always easy but it has to be done. “If you step up the whole time, that’s on you,” says Kirrane. “If you don’t want to do something unrelated to your job, you need to say that you want to stop doing it. Otherwise, nothing will change.”

Vesterlund advises women to consider the requests made on their time carefully. “Some non-promotable tasks fulfil you by providing you with a mental break from work or a worthwhile return on time spent,” she says. “But many don’t.”

The next time you’re asked to carry out a non-essential task, she recommends that you take a pause before accepting or declining.

“Get the information you need to understand what’s involved in the task, how much time it will take, and what things you won’t be able to do if you take it on, to help you make the right decisions,” says Vesterlund.