This Is What’s Holding You Back
We’re all familiar with the undue burden that’s placed on women in the home, but you might not think of it as much in the workplace. Well, it’s time that we start.
This is a topic that comes up regularly in my coaching practice.
Women are often offered non-promotable tasks that seem like they would be helpful to further their career, but end up holding them back. These are opportunities that are “not particularly challenging work, but it’s time-consuming, unlikely to drive revenue, and probably won’t be recognized or included in your performance evaluation.” (Linda Babcock, Maria P. Recalde, and Lise Vesterlund) For example, that summer internship program that needs a leader, training new staff members, or organizing a team calendar. Initially, these seem like opportunities that superiors would recognize, but they quickly turn into a LOT of extra work and no extra recognition.
Why do most of these tasks fall on women, and why do women say yes? The answer is simple: women are expected to say yes, and we know it. According to Fast Company, women have internalized the expectation of saying yes in our careers. So when these ‘opportunities’ come up, women can feel guilty for saying no, and can experience a backlash for it simply because we’re expected to say yes. These are the same ingrained expectations of women with housework, and women receive the same lack of reward for both.
Women spend an additional month on these assignments. You read that right, an additional month, time that women could be using to work towards a promotion. Study after study has found that women at all levels are expected to run kickoff initiatives, set up team meetings, train new people, run team and leadership meetings, get coffee, take meeting notes, and all of those important but non-promotable tasks. When you’re taking notes in a meeting, you’re less likely to be able to make that game-changing point or have a moment to bring up your great idea. This is time and exposure that women won’t get back.
Because women are expected to say yes, managers ask women to take on new work 44% more often than they ask men. So not only are women feeling the pressure to say yes, these ‘volunteer opportunities’ aren’t being offered to men in the same way. So more and more women will be stuck in these positions, without their hard work being recognized, and losing valuable time that they could be using to get promoted.
So, what do you do when you’re offered one of these ‘volunteer opportunities,’ and how do you say no? I’ll be giving you all of my best tips next Saturday, so stay tuned for the next blog post!
“It contributes to the gender wage gap. It contributes to differences in advancement, it contributes to burnout, and it contributes to women’s inability to negotiate.” - Lise Vesterlund
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Read time - 3 min
Leaders, make this your one resolution for the New Year
It’s time to think more critically about who gets stuck with non-promotable tasks, like onboarding staff or organizing the office holiday party.
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Read time - 6 min
Are You Taking on Too Many Non-Promotable Tasks?
Though non-promotable tasks (NPTs) are often crucial to an organization’s success, they rarely contribute to an employee’s career progression. Women are not only 48% more likely to volunteer for these jobs, but they are disproportionately assigned them.
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