“Can someone take notes?”

The person who is the notetaker is usually a woman. This happens for a multitude of reasons, and it’s not because she’s a faster typer or because her handwriting is neater, although these may both be true. In this case, it is HARD to say no, to turn down the ask, most especially in a group setting. We are fully cognizant of the workplace benefit of these tasks–technically described as “non-promotable tasks”. And at the same time, there is zero benefit to the employee in taking them on because they confer no real benefit: no brownie points, no real accrued reward, no gratitude or authentic praise or thanks, and certainly time taken away from other things that might lead to promotion or advancement. These non-promotable tasks also don’t earn employees any financial reward (no bonuses, no additional salary) or any clear pathway to advancement. 

Non-promotable tasks might make employees feel great about contributing to their team’s success or organization’s culture. Once. However, over time, these exhaust women and reduce the amount of time they have to do the work that is a part of their job description, work for which they will be evaluated, and upon which any potential promotions might ultimately be based. 

To boot, women are asked to do this work more often than men, women volunteer for this work more often than men, and women are less likely to say no than men. In a 2018 article in Harvard Business Review, researchers noted that women received 44% more requests to volunteer than men, even in mixed-gender groups (as per Babcock et al’s research). And when it is not done to the satisfaction of others (often invisible criteria), women are critiqued, but men are not. 

When polled, women who identify as Jewish communal professionals provided a wide-ranging list of non-promotable tasks that are showing up in their workplaces.  

• Coordinating Jewish and secular holiday parties on site (including all parts of these events, like setup, ordering food, RSVP’s, attending to food allergies, etc.)
• Responsibility for food-related policy and kitchen practice, including workplace kashrut policies
• “Sunshine Fund” gifts and events: coordinating celebratory and lifecycle gifts and events, for weddings, births and b’nai mitzvah
• Celebrating workplace birthdays, and coordinating birthday policies
• Informal mentoring of colleagues (short term/ongoing)
• Informal “stopping by” for conversation that interrupts the flow of the workday 
• “Can we have coffee?” Workplace problem-solving
• Setting up for a meeting
• Planning a staff meeting, retreat or offsite
• Run/supervise a short term program (task force, summer internship, short term mentoring program, hiring process)
• Cover for another colleague (while on leave, when another employee leaves, when an org is being restructured)
• Represent the organization at certain external events (trade shows, conferences) without speaking engagements or any presence

At first glance, it might seem like many of these tasks are relics of an earlier time and a more old fashioned way of structuring an organization. But what happens when organizations need to rapidly embrace new ways of operating? Let’s take a look at one particular example of non-promotable tasks that Jewish communal professionals have encountered over the last 5 years. From 2020-2022, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations focused on  “pivoting.” We lauded organizations that were able to efficiently transition to virtual programming. Embracing Zoom and other new technologies was seen as a bright spot in a dark time.

But who did the labor and all of that pivoting? Anecdotally, it seems like women took on a disproportionate share of the invisible work created by the pandemic. The technology may have been shiny and new but the responsibility for the technology was not, embracing dated gender norms at work and with volunteer leaders. Virtual gathering and programming requires a lot of behind the scenes administrative work. Someone needs to set up the Zoom accounts, schedule and configure meetings, and teach others the technology. Links and reminders need to be created and sent out. Virtual meetings often necessitated having someone attend in an administrative or support role. These helpers provided tech support, created slides, designed virtual icebreakers and games, welcomed participants, provided friendly greetings in the chat box, and kept their fingers on the mute button.

And, then, when in-person programming resumed and we “returned to work,” more new tasks emerged that were linked to cultivating workplace culture and reigniting a sense of belonging and connection. Many of these tasks have been traditionally categorized as “women’s work,” like caring for people at different points in the life of a community and keeping them safe and healthy. This might have included supplying masks, hand sanitizer, wipes and individually packaged snacks, creating and hanging signs (6 Feet Apart!). Think about who took your temperature or checked your vaccine card when you went somewhere in 2021. Chances are it was a woman.

In her new book Loving Corrections, adrienne maree brown talks about practicing shared labor. In her first essay, Righting Gender, she invites men to “ask to take on tasks and change the dynamic of labor because you want to and/or you should, not as if you are relieving her of a burden or helping her out.” We need partners in righting this challenge of non-promotable tasks, to join us in the NO club, not because women can’t handle the work, but because this is about dismantling patriarchal systems and because we want our workplaces to be more equitable. It is our choice to show up to be different, and to change the status quo, not just to say no, but to change the entire dynamic. 

Rabbi Jeremy Winaker, executive director of Greater Philadelphia Hillel Network, reflected on how he changed his practice as a note-taker and changed a gendered dynamic. “I actively volunteered to take notes in a variety of mixed-gender settings. On a regular basis, a woman would thank me because she felt she could participate more. Additionally, I found that note taking meant that I paid attention differently, listening more and thereby having something better to offer when I spoke than I might have in the past.”  This reflection pushes us to think about how our allies can step up and into these roles by practicing shared labor, not because they have to but because they believe it can build a virtuous circle of connection and participation. 

A number of years ago, in a fit of frustration, Linda Babcock, Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund and Laurie Weingart founded The No Club, a space in which they discussed the busy work that was preventing them from getting promoted or advancing on their own academic career trajectories. It resulted in a fantastic book that they titled The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead-End Work, which introduced the language of non-promotable tasks. Sometimes it requires a peer or colleague to be an accountability partner to support us to say no. We are often not intentionally accepting these tasks; we may do it automatically and not be fully aware of how we are showing up at work. As we move toward fewer non-promotable tasks, or at least a more equitable distribution of some of that work, we need partnership with our colleagues and a greater awareness of the challenge–all on the journey to more equitable workplaces. 

Thank you to our co-authors and editors Ilana Teitel and Heather Nover for their wise writing, contributions, consultations, advice and editorial examples.