The 'invisible labor' still asked of women at work

Article here. Excerpt:

'Rebecca Erickson, professor of sociology at the University of Akron, says it's a number of tasks that make up the "invisible work" that constitute emotional labor in the workplace.

"These tasks -- mentoring tasks, the process of orienting or onboarding new employees, the process of making sure that when you're in a meeting people stay civil with one another -- those sorts of tasks can often fall to the women in the group, because it's assumed they're 'naturally better' at addressing those issues," she says.'

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Yes, unpaid labor at work for women also includes walking to the bathroom.

The poor things.

I've mentored people w/out being paid extra. I've talked to ppl in distress at work. As for trying to keep meetings civil... at times, yes. But no one asked me to do that. If I did, I just stepped up and did it. Well, that's not working. That's called being part of the human race.

Does the author want women to be paid just for being human beings?

I'm beginning to think at least some ppl think so.

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EVERYONE is sometimes asked to do things outside of their typical job description. This goes for both men and women, but I guess feminists are blind to the stuff most often asked of men.

Here are some things I notice: Lifting heavy objects at work or loading heavy stuff to co-workers vehicles, helping customers with heavy things, killing spiders, handling anything to do with rodents or bugs, getting rid of bee hives or hornets nest, putting stuff together, perform role of security guard, walk people to cars, shovel snow in winter, do anything dangerous or up on ladder.

..last week I was at a store and customer locked keys in cars...guess who was called to go out and see if they could help the customer?

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Whenever I hear a complaint that women are expected to do so much more at the office--or in the home--I can't help thinking of all the things men do that are conveniently overlooked, that somehow don't "count." I recall an office I worked in back in the '80s that was majority female, and all the grousing I heard back then: "It's always women who clean the coffee pot" or "It's always women who make the arrangements for the office party" etc. (things I didn't particularly care about, and I'm not a coffee drinker anyway). But whenever office furniture needed to be moved or rearranged, or whenever a load of supplies needed to be moved to the storage room, of course it was just taken for granted that the men in the office would do that. And they did, and didn't complain about it, but they got no brownie points for it.

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A good personal policy for men on the receiving end of feminine woe-is-me-ism of this sort is to simply point these facts out. Don't expect the grouser to admit of it though. Few ppl of either sex readily nor immediately admit when they've done/said something wrong or unfair. But speaking your truth has an effect even if it is not immediately felt.

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Men's 'invisible labor' - Moving and setting up furniture, acting as impromptu security (at times, after a a co-worker has said or done something stupid to antagonise a client), performing minor repairs on equipment and infrastructure when the maintenance department is too busy with other tasks - help the organisation fulfill it's mission, and facilitate other staff to perform their work.

Women volunteer and throw themselves into arranging and "coordinating" elaborate celebrations around staff meetings and other mundane pretexts, bringing food snacks and other gifts to work that no-one asked them too and then signaling their virtue, and fawning over new staff (who often already feel overwhelmed and just want to settle in and learn their new job) instead of doing work.

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