In August 2022, a group of academics wrote “Why four female scientists spent a year saying no” – an article about what they had gained by saying no to 100 work-related requests over the course of the year. We knew we had found kindred spirits in the authors. We, too, have wasted our time saying yes to a job that hasn’t advanced our careers. This led us, four teachers, to form the No Club.
Over the past decade, we’ve been investigating jobs that don’t help advance careers, an attempt to understand why we, along with many others, were doing so much of it. We’ve given this work a name: Non-Promotional Tasks (NPT). Although this work is important to an organization, it does not bring any external reward or recognition to the person doing it.
These tasks can be found in any institution; examples include helping others with their work, serving on governance committees, organizing events, mentoring, and even resolving office conflicts. A 20211 study of more than 400 non-academic organizations by global management consultancy McKinsey & Company and Lean In, a nonprofit organization in Palo Alto, California, that focuses on women’s leadership, shows the disconnect between what is important to the organization and what is rewarded: for example, the 70% of respondents said diversity, equity and inclusion efforts were “critical,” but the survey found that only 24% rewarded that work.
Collection: Diversity and scientific careers
Collection: Diversity and scientific careers
We have identified three characteristics of TNPs: they are not directly linked to the organization’s mission; they are largely invisible and usually take place behind the scenes; and they rarely require specialized skills, so many people can do them.
Take, for example, a research scientist who is asked to organize a team-building event for her lab. Although the event is important to the team, the time spent organizing it is not directly related to the scientist’s research output; she does most of the planning herself, so no one sees the time she spends on it; and the work does not require your scientific training. While her efforts may increase the productivity of the team, they are not rewarded, and the scientist’s career would probably have enjoyed a greater boost if she had devoted her time to research.
Studies show that women, regardless of occupation, take on the majority of NPTs. Administrative and survey data2–5 confirm that women academics, engineers, lawyers, architects, US Transportation Security Administration agents, and supermarket employees spend more time on NPTs than their male peers. A surprising example can be found in a business consultancy with which we have worked. Since consultants track their time, both in billable and non-billable hours, we could track the amount of time they spend on promoteable and non-promotable work. Using three years of data2, we found that the average female consultant spent 200 more hours each year doing non-promotable work than her male counterpart. In the time period we looked at, women did almost one more month of non-career-advancing work than their male counterparts.
Why does this gender difference exist? In a series of experiments6, we studied who agrees to “take one for the team” and handle a task that everyone wanted done but would rather have someone else do. In mixed-gender groups, we found that women were 48% more likely to volunteer to do the task, 49% more likely to say yes when asked directly to do it, and 44% more likely of probabilities of being asked to do the task. The underlying reason is simple, and sad: We all expect women to take on this job, so we ask them more often and judge them harshly when they say no. Women have internalized these expectations and feel a lot of pressure to say yes.
No Club members certainly got better at saying no to unrewarding work (such as serving on college committees), but the requests kept coming. We soon discovered that there was an unintended consequence when we declined: the job often went to another woman. We realized that the problem is not solved by individual women saying no. Instead, we needed to develop solutions that leaders could implement so that women weren’t forced to turn down work or take on too much. And because that work needs to be done, the organization needs to find better ways to share those tasks.
Improving the distribution of NPTs is an organizational problem: employers and team leaders must lead the change.
The solutions we present here, based on our work, are easy to understand and adopt. They are low-cost and require primarily a willingness to address the problem and sustain the new practices over time. So what can organizations do?
Stop asking for volunteers
We know that women are more likely than men to volunteer for a TNP, so asking for volunteers exacerbates the inequity in allocation. If you’re willing to ask anyone in a meeting to volunteer for a TNP, it probably means that almost anyone in the meeting is qualified to do the job. So why not allocate it more fairly? Kay Brummond, associate dean at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, used to ask for volunteers to write reports summarizing the recommendations of promotion and tenure committees, but now she pulls names out of a hat to select someone for the job. Over time, the work will be more evenly distributed.
Raise awareness about non-promotable work
Help everyone in your organization understand which tasks will advance their careers (promotable work) and which won’t. Clearly define all tasks as either promoteable or non-promotable, or for a more refined approach, divide tasks into promotion containers. Knowing where to focus time helps both employees and the organization. That said, everyone still has to do non-promotional work, so the goal is to share the load. Help those who have benefited from the current system to understand the inherent inequalities and advantages that come from distributing work according to ability rather than willingness to undertake the task.
Assign work strategically to take advantage of specialized skill sets
A NPT for a position might be promoteable to someone at a lower level. One of us used to create the course schedule each semester and did so for many years. On the same subject : Norwegian Library with countless books. He worked with his supervisor to shift this task to a junior staff member. This allowed him to devote his time to more strategic challenges and allowed the junior staff member to develop new skills.
Redistribute tasks to create equitable portfolios of work
Collect data on the NPT load each person is carrying to see if anyone is doing too much. Reassign tasks to those who have a lighter load or for whom the task might be promotable. On the same subject : Jenny Welbourn on YouTube Vlogging, a sustainable lifestyle and online burnout. Associate deans at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh developed a spreadsheet to track committee assignments and used it to ensure that this workload was allocated equitably among faculty members.
Consider providing rewards for some NPTs
Organizing an event can be a lot of work. While the organizer might get a “calling” to put on a big event, the reward will certainly be less than spending that time doing research or applying for a grant. Rewarding effort by reducing teaching loads or providing research funding will make it easier for teachers to achieve NPTs. Another option, if possible, is to give a one-time payment to the person who took on the task. Read also : Do you love to travel? Maybe you want to change this job. Check to see what employees value and provide commensurate rewards. To be clear, we are not suggesting that women continue to do these tasks for a paycheck; this is not the solution to advance their careers. But by offering rewards, institutions can encourage more people to take on these tasks and, in effect, level the playing field even further.
Any organization, regardless of size or industry, can implement these simple solutions. Once their employers take responsibility for addressing the problem, women will not be forced to take on the challenge of declining employment.
This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their experiences and career advice. Guest posts are encouraged.
References
Krivkovich, A. et al. Women in the Workplace 2021 (McKinsey & Company & LeanIn.Org, 2021).
Babcock, L., Peyser, B., Vesterlund, L. & Weingart, L. The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead-End Work (Simon & Schuster, 2022).
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What is the richest scientist job?
Babcock, L., Recalde, M., Vesterlund, L. & Weingart, L. Am. Eco. rev. 107, 714–747 (2017).
- Article
- Google Scholar
- 7 highest paying science jobs
- #1 Physical. Average salary: $129,850. Education: Doctorate. …
- #2 Computer research scientist. Average salary: $126,830. …
#3 Political scientist. Average salary: $125,350. …
What is anti science attitude?
#4 Astronomer. Average salary: $119,730. …
#5 Biochemical or biophysical. Average salary: $94,270. …
What is scientism in simple words?
#6 Geoscientist Average salary: $93,580.
What causes science denial?
What is the highest paying job?
What is a scientific thinker?
People who hold anti-scientific views do not accept science as an objective method that can generate universal knowledge. Anti-science is commonly manifested through the rejection of scientific beliefs such as climate change and evolution.
Who invented word no?
What is scientific rebellion? Scientist Rebellion is an international environmental group of scientists campaigning for degrowth, climate justice and more effective climate change mitigation. It is a sister organization of Extinction Rebellion.
: an exaggerated confidence in the efficacy of natural science methods applied to all areas of inquiry (as in philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities)
Who invented word yes?
There are a number of psychological factors that lead to doubt, resistance and even denial of this scientific information: emotions, motivations, identity.
Who invented the words?
Scientific thinking and curiosity. Scientific thinking is a type of knowledge-seeking that involves the intentional pursuit of information, such as asking questions, testing hypotheses, making observations, recognizing patterns, and making inferences (Kuhn, 2002; Morris et al., 2012).
Who invented bye word?
In English, the word does not go back to Middle English and means “not to any degree, not at all, never.” Although it is a short word with only two letters, it is actually made up of two elements, the first being the PIE (Proto-Indo-European) root *ne- meaning “not” and the second being the PIE root *aiw-, which means “vital”. …
Do scientists have good salary?
When was the word no invented? According to the Complete Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded WRITTEN use of the word âNOâ as a negative answer to a question was in 1225.
Old English gea (West Saxon), ge (English) “sound, yes”, from Proto-Germanic *ja-, *jai-, a word of affirmation (source also German, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish ja), from PIE *yam-, from the pronominal stem *i- (see yon). As a noun, “affirmation, affirmative vote”, from the beginning of the 13c. Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to be”.
Are scientists underpaid?
Some linguists and biologists have proposed Homo erectus, an early human species that evolved nearly 2 million years ago in Africa. Although empirical verification is not possible, there is circumstantial evidence that Homo erectus invented the words.
Do scientists make good money?
The first known use of the word “farewell” was recorded in 1573 in a letter by the English writer and scholar, Gabriel Harvey, which reads: âTo requite your gallonde [gallon] of godbwyes, I regive you a pottle of like dyes.â” âGodbwyeâ is a contraction of the phrase âGod be with you.â Over the years, the word âboâ was…
