Sometimes women blur the lines between home and office. Many of us are natural "caterers", we automatically volunteer to do certain tasks that are not in our job description because we want to be helpful, but we have to realize that being a homemaker in the office does not earn us that raise. And if a woman is getting a raise for cleaning up the break room after everyone, that is not the type of raise I want.
'Office Housework' is non-promotable tasks such as organizing birthday lunches and or planning the holiday party. As I read through 3 different articles that explained this term, I almost felt degraded, stripped of my education and work experience, because in my office, I am the one "expected" to do these exact things; set up the lunches, call around for catering, run and pick up the food if there is no delivery....what the whole fck have I been subjecting myself to?! Although, I have been great at doing these things, not one of these tasks elevated my position.
New York Times published an article which stated,
...according to new research published in the Harvard Business Review. The study found that volunteering for what it called “nonpromotable tasks” at the office can actually shift your career into reverse. And the report showed that those who say yes to thankless tasks — like planning holiday parties, filling in for absent colleagues or serving on low-level committees — are 48 percent more likely to be women.
Women are more expected to complete these non-promotable tasks over men. In my experience, this is 100% accurate. Why? Well, the perception and sometimes explanation has been that anyone else is too busy, does not have the time, is not as good at the task, or just does not want to do it...Oh, I suppose I must have so much free time in my workday that I need more to do...or maybe it is because I am good at what I do and do not complain when there is an obstacle and people assume that my job is "simple", so why not throw another simple task my way, eh? (This is sarcasm for those who didn't get it.)
Also, in the same Harvard Business Review article, it claimed that women of color are asked to do more office housework tasks...insert the stale face look. Are we so numb to the propaganda that society has set upon us that we do not even realize what we are doing or being asked to do when this occurs? I am not going to dive too deep in this thought, but I am appalled.
My stance on this is not about equality between men and women, it is about employers, managers, and co-workers being aware of what they are asking others to do. You want a Christmas party? Great! Call an event planner for that. Yes, there are services that do just that and commissioning them will keep your employees focused on their jobs at hand. Or how about this? Create a team of co-workers to put together an event and assign a function to each person, not just throw 97% of the responsibility to one person while the remaining 3% is someone else sending email invitations.
Look, when I am at a party or event and whether or not I am the host, for the most part I like to make sure everyone is comfortable, has eaten, is enjoying themselves, the tables are clean, and the trash is not over-flowing, but in the office, my priority is making sure my data reports are accurate, I am able to make deadlines, and reaching my performance goals. A job expectation of me should not be to feed co-workers between certain hours on a particular day. It may be a nice gesture, but unfortunately, that is all it is. It does not earn me a raise or a promotion. It only earns me a chance to be asked to do the same thing again when someone else has a birthday or another big holiday comes along.
Although I am serious about my career, my career is not my husband and my office is not my home, so there are some homemaking skills and benefits my employer should not be getting from me. Yeah, I will bring something to the potluck. Yeah, I will check to see if the caterer has the correct address, but while at work, women should be focusing their time and energy on advancement and making the highest impact with their job or careers, not wiping down the break room table because everyone else is too "busy" to do it.