Are Women the Only Do-ers of Non-Promotable Tasks?
It’s that time again when some organisations start to have Professional Development Reviews (PDR). Organisations reflect on the year that was and capture what they have done. Then they have conversations with their management about their performance. This, in my opinion, is a different experience for everyone – regardless of gender. It has made me reflect on women in the workplace and the tasks that I do that I sometimes feel are thankless or what can be referred to as ‘non-promotable’ tasks.
I wondered how I could capture those on my PDR and if they mattered. What was surprising to me was the number of women in the workplace who shared similar views. The response from male colleagues, however, was unanimous – ‘I don’t do any of that stuff’.
So many times in the past, I’ve spoken with female colleagues who have reflected on feeling too overwhelmed and spread too thin at work. They are doing not only what is required of them, but picking up so much more – micro-tasks and micro-thoughts about work, people and self. I wanted to know more about ‘non-promotable’ tasks, what were they, and how to recognise them in order to not have them be part of my job if I couldn’t site them on my PDR.
So What are Non-Promotable Tasks?
Non Promotable Tasks or NPT was defined by Linda Babcock, a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University and three colleagues: Laurie R. Weingart, a management professor at Carnegie Mellon; Brenda Peyser, a former professor of communications at Carnegie Mellon; and Lise Vesterlund, a professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh. Their research found that NPTs are typically:
- Not visible to others.
- Not instrumental to the organisation’s mission (important but will not help your career).
- Able to be done by many people because they don’t require specialised skills.
According to Babcock and colleagues, examples of these tasks include:
- Organising and coordinating (but not managing) others’ work.
- Editing, proofreading, and compiling others’ work.
- Logistical planning and organising special events.
- Recruiting, onboarding, training, and mentoring.
It’s perhaps important to distinguish when these tasks are part of someone’s job and when they are (a) expected to be picked up by someone, or (b) just picked up by someone – namely a woman. I’ve experienced this myself when I’ve been part of a project where editing and proofreading were no one’s job but it was left hanging over the project plan like a helium balloon. No one volunteered (the project was 98% male) so either an assumption was made that it was not necessary (it’s always necessary) or that someone else would pick it up (probably me because I was the project manager). It was an NPT, and would not be visible to others. Also, it wasn’t instrumental to the organisation’s mission, but it would look pretty average of us to deliver to clients where we couldn’t spell our names or the clients!
Creating a PDR Folder
One of the key ways I learned to address the issue of doing NPTs was to drop them into a folder in my inbox. I would send myself an email saying that I was doing this or that and then keep that email. The reason for this was that during my PDR time, I am able to pull out those emails and give some facts or statistics around them. The logic is that they aren’t tasks that are assigned to me but they are tasks that I did. So I went above and beyond what was expected of me – and it showed initiative and something that others weren’t doing necessarily.
A quick scan of my ‘PDR Folder’ shows me that I took the initiative of engaging with colleagues from other forces to provide a valuable upskill for them. A skill that would promote consistency in the way Learning and Development used MS 365 products to recognise learning needs, address them and receive feedback on them.
The Pandemic Affect
During the pandemic and after, remote work and hybrid models may have diminished the value of an NPT. We could not see a colleague doing something for the overall success of a project or how much time they spent on it. We all had meetings that just appeared, coordination that just happened and a myriad of other NPTs that happened. Have any of us actually asked ourselves who did those and were they part of anyone’s job?
I remember having a conversation with a senior colleague who told me that she was going into the office to do some extra cleaning to ensure that the people who needed to be there, would be as safe as possible. This was above and beyond – a NPT which should be recognised at PDR time. After all – if this doesn’t indicate that someone was going the extra mile for the greater good, then what does?
I have explored my own experiences as a woman in the workplace. And, I have thought about how I sometimes fell into the mindset of assigning myself an NPT. I am a decisive person who thrives on actions, and who feels responsible for the overall success of a project or a department. Therefore, often, I have a pre-programmed command to say ‘yes’, which is perhaps my own sword of Damocles. But, I’m flattered to be included and asked to do something are the very things that create that knee-jerk reaction to absorb NPTs.
Start Taking Your Time
The urgency of doing the task is something that I struggle with in my personal life, so it’s no different at work. I am very reactive to what needs to get done. So I’m always doing the things that are outside of my requirements. I put that pressure on myself that so many of us do. Where we feel we must have an answer or must be on top of things with a ‘yes’. But it’s alright to take time and say that you’re taking time. This doesn’t make you a failure or someone who doesn’t know. This is something I’m learning myself.
Feeling responsible for the entire project and or department is an unrealistic expectation for any of us. Even if we are the project leader or the head of the department. There are others who are responsible as well. But it’s that internalised feeling that if anything goes wrong, it’s our own responsibility and we are alone accountable. Again, it’s that feeling of failure where there is a discrepancy between the reality of the expectation and what we perceive it to be.
Are Women in the Workplace Pre-Programmed to Say Yes?
There is a pre-programmed command to say ‘yes’ and the reluctance to say no (when you are asked once again to “take one for the team”) for women. This likely stems from you internalising the expectations others have of you according to Babcock, Peyser, Vesterlund and Weingart. They go on to say that this is especially true for women. Women may say yes to an NPT to avoid feeling guilty about failing to live up to these expectations.
I feel personally that as a woman in a very male-dominated workplace, now and historically, this is very true for me. I’ve felt in the past that these NPTs were expected of me as a woman and that if I said ‘no’ then I’d get a reputation other than the one that I’ve been cultivating.
I thought, does it not come across as lazy if I say no? Well, it doesn’t. It’s part of my responsibility around how I manage my time and if I wanted to continue to assign myself NPTs which ate into my time and my work-life balance, then I’m responsible.
Are NPTs Flattering Women in the Workplace?
Perhaps the most personal reason for me is the feeling of being flattered to be asked to be part of something. This comes from a space of wanting to challenge myself. It comes from wanting to be part of the wider conversation, wanting a seat at the table, and wanting to be noticed. I like having my ego stroked when I know that I’ve done something beneficial.
So often, this transitions into me taking more than my required work in order to get that platitude of flattery. Babcock and team rightly recognised that ‘while it’s nice to be called upon, that positive feeling will quickly disappear once you become buried in the actual work’. It gets too much and more often than not, it’s not recognised. It’s certainly not something that is placed on our PDR for promotion and recognition.
Lise Vesterlund spoke extensively about the topic of NPTs on Beyond the To-Do List podcast. Here, she discussed the book, The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead End Work. She identified that this is not to say that there aren’t men who are also doing NPTs. But it’s about recognising the challenge that women are doing more NPTs. She asks what can be done to identify that trend, how to change it and how to set ourselves up for a more successful future.
Vesterlund and the team recognised that women were completing more than 200 hours a year doing NPTs. This was not just women in middle management and lower, but women in senior roles too. It was shocking to hear that when it is worked out, women were spending a whole month doing NPTs in a year. They were spending time doing NPTs rather than doing the work that their male counterparts were doing.
Are NPTs a Waste of Time?
One of the most interesting points made by Vesterlund on the podcast was about what constitutes NPTs and how they factor in against promotable work. This was because, in one of my previous roles, my job did not contribute to the profitability of the company. Therefore, my job was not seen as a promotable role. Only those who worked in sales, or those that could make a direct connection between their role and the profits of the company, were deemed promotable. So, the work I did was mostly NPTs. No matter how much I tried and what tasks I did – it was all seen as NPTs. So the likelihood of promotion was nil.
On reflection, the roles that affected the profits for the company almost always went to men. Men who were able to demonstrate strong sales or women who were able to act similar to the top salesmen. In my role, as someone who made the promises of the salespeople come true, there was no opportunity for promotion. This was because I was not seen as impacting the sales profit directly.
Being Able to Say No
I reflect back on some of the NPTs I have done in the past. Both those that I have been asked to do and those I’ve chosen to do. For example, taking notes in a meeting. This is something I loathe to do, especially if I’m the only female and I’m asked to do it. I remember being asked twice to do this in meetings by the same executive. Feeling resentful and not being courageous enough to say ‘no’, I stewed in what I saw as my lack of confidence. But then the second time, instead of saying ‘no’, I said that I had audio issues and was perhaps not the right choice. I felt worse about that lie. What I should have said is, ‘No, I took notes the last time, can someone else please do this today?’
Onboarding new colleagues is another NPTs but one that should be part of our PDR. This is a necessity that is expected for new recruits, so why should it not be something that is recognised and promoted, especially if some do it and some don’t?
Women in the Workplace as NPTs Go-To
One of my colleagues sent me an interesting response to the question on NPTs. She said ‘if I am in a meeting with a group of my male colleagues is it assumed that I will take the notes/actions. Is that because I am female or someone that likes to get things done’. I think that it’s a fair reflection from her. I think that as women, we are expected to do more NPTs. And because we are expected, we volunteer more and are perhaps allocated more towards us. Research indicates that women are 50% more likely to volunteer to do an NPT if there is an awkward silence when the question is posed around who wants to or can do it. It doesn’t help that managers are 50% more likely to look at a woman to take it on.
Tying NPTs to PDRs
There are things that we can do to tie our NPTs to our PDRs. There are things we can do to help us to think through doing NPTs to begin with.
Non-Promotable Tasks are by name tasks that aren’t going to net a promotion. However, they can (and should) constitute evidence of how an individual contributes to the overall company, team and people. It’s recognised that these tasks are things that need to be done, but aren’t assigned – they are picked up by people. Evidencing the tasks, the initiative and the ownership of the task should net recognition and reward. It’s hard to argue with the evidence of someone who has routinely taken notes, edited and proofread, sanitised the workstations and so much more. This recognition needs to be at an organisational level – it needs to be talked about, called out and heralded.
Final Thoughts on Women in the Workplace
Then there is the decision of whether to take on NPTs or continue to do so. When you take on a new NPT you will have less time to do something else. When you agree to help with something else that isn’t under your direct requirement, you are implicitly saying no to another activity you could do in that time. Being conscious of these choices is a great start when looking to change the mindset of whether this should be taken on or not.
My reflection is that there are times when NPTs can be opportunistic and this is not a bad thing. It’s not wrong to think about how doing something can benefit (or hurt) your career and chance for promotion. If you can’t evidence it in your PDR as promotable, should you prioritise or even do it?
