You Have to Manage Your Own Time, Right?

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You have to be really strategic about it. I mean, your time is tight, and you have to ask yourself whether doing this thing is going to take away from doing that thing that's actually a lot more important all the way round. That's part of becoming a more mature, senior member of the team. And i have started to think more about my portfolio of tasks when i've thought about how am i going to get to the next stage in my career? Let me look at what i'm currently doing now. Is too much of what i'm ing things that are not promotable,. Things that maybe i was doing in my last job, or in my last role or title,

Could you take notes? Would you mind ordering lunch? We need someone to organize the offsite event — can you do that? Whether you’ve just started your career or are the CEO of the company, if you’re a woman, people expect you to do routine, time-consuming tasks that no one else wants to do.

We talk with University of Pittsburgh economics professor Lise Vesterlund about why women get stuck with — and even volunteer for! — tasks that won’t show off our skills or get us promoted, and how that slows down our career advancement and makes us unhappy at work. Women of color in particular are asked to do more low-promotability projects, and we talk with inclusion strategist Ruchika Tulshyan about some ways they can say no. Lise and Ruchika tell us how they’ve handled these kinds of requests and what managers can do to assign work fairly.

Our HBR reading list:

“Why Women Volunteer for Tasks That Don’t Lead to Promotions,” by Linda Babcock, Maria P. Recalde, and Lise Vesterlund

“Women of Color Get Asked to Do More “Office Housework.” Here’s How They Can Say No.” by Ruchika Tulshyan

“For Women and Minorities to Get Ahead, Managers Must Assign Work Fairly,” by Joan C. Williams and Marina Multhaup

“‘Office Housework’ Gets in Women’s Way,” by Deborah M. Kolb and Jessica L. Porter

Get the discussion guide for this episode on our webpage, hbr.org/podcasts/women-at-work.

Email us: womenatwork@hbr.org

Our theme music is Matt Hill’s “City In Motion,” provided by Audio Network.