Researchers counted 200 extra hours a year at one firm. What each "can you just" costs, and how to hand it back.
Someone has to take the notes. Someone has to plan the offsite, onboard the new hire, chase the follow-ups and remember the birthdays. At most companies that someone is a woman, and the job has no title, no pay and no line in anyone's promotion case.
The researchers behind the book The No Club counted it. At one professional-services firm, women spent about 200 more hours a year than men on what the authors call non-promotable tasks. Women were asked to do that work about 50% more often, and they said yes more often when asked. Two hundred hours is five full working weeks. It is the job you never applied for.
Why it is not a personality problem
The work is real and the company needs it done. The problem is that it is unrewarded, not unimportant, and that it is assigned by default rather than by decision. Nobody chose you. The room looked for the person most likely to say yes, and it was you. The authors' experiments found the pattern disappears in all-women groups, which means it is not about women's preferences; it is about everyone's expectations.
Below are the five tasks that land most often, what each one costs, and the line that hands it back.
1. The notes
Cost: you cannot take notes and make the argument at the same time. The note-taker is a witness to the meeting, not a participant in it.
The line: "I've taken notes the last three times. Let's rotate, starting today. Jonah, you're up."
2. The party, the offsite, the farewell card
Cost: twenty hours a quarter that show up nowhere in your review and everywhere in your evenings.
The line: "I'll do the one in March if someone else owns June. Who wants it?"
3. Onboarding the new person
Cost: your first month of their tenure, and a reputation as the helpful one instead of the one to promote.
The line: "I'm glad to do the first week. Who's assigned as their formal buddy for the rest?"
4. The committee
Cost: the culture committee, the planning committee, the committee that reports on the other committees. Each one is a meeting a week, and none of them is a P&L.
The line: "I can't take this one on and keep my current scope. If it's a priority, what should I drop?"
5. Everyone's follow-up
Cost: you become the department's memory, which is a service, not a skill anyone is promoted for.
The line: "I'll put the owners and dates in the recap. After that, each item is with its owner."
The rule
Non-promotable does not mean do not do it. It means do not do it by default. Rotate it, systemize it, or ask for it to be counted. A task that is rotated becomes a team's job. A task that is counted becomes a contribution. A task that is simply absorbed becomes your reputation. Expect one awkward silence the first time you hand something back. It is the sound of a default breaking.
Which of the five is yours? Hand one back this week and see what happens, which is usually nothing, which is the point.