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Invisible labor is the invisible and undervalued unpaid labor that keeps families, teams, and organizations going, including emotional support, coordination, and maintenance of routine that never seems to be mentioned in job descriptions or performance evaluations. This awareness of labor is important as it is the motivating factor of culture, retention and productivity, but it is overly charged to women and targeted populations, and despite the silent taxation that results in burnout and stagnant careers. Invisible labor can be a resource when it is identified, quantified and evenly shared: it will make friction less, trust more, and results across projects and individuals stronger. The teams and leaders can start with naming the work, giving it ownership, and matching recognition and rewards. For in-depth stories and updates on worker protections, visit our Labour Rights coverage.
What counts as invisible labor
- Support and inclusion activities: greeting new employees, checking in on colleagues, resolving conflicts, and inter-departmental mentorship.
- Glue work Logistical: note taking, scheduling, agenda preparation, sharing of common resources, and event coordination.
- Cultural stewardship: arranging celebrations, recording procedures and informal norms that make a team strong.
Why recognition is essential
- Fairness and equity: The underrepresented employees tend to be associated with unseen duties; formal recognition would avoid unequal distribution.
- Recognition and advancement: In the absence of visibility, performers will never get credit and promotions and compensation will slow down, even when they made a significant difference.
- Prevention of burnout: There is no pay that leads to chronic exhaustion and burnout; a name and recognition of work helps to maintain energy and morale.
How to make invisible labor visible
- Name it: Include recurring culture and coordination activities in the team charters, roadmaps and sprint ceremonies.
- Measure: Monitor the time spent on mentoring, workforce orientation and documentation, and facilitation in workload reviews.
- Delegation: Turn it or even delegate the roles with assigning duties and expectations.
- Reward it: Have contributions contingent on the goal, in the appraisal criteria and compensate by way of bonuses or allowances.
- Minimise load: Minimise overheads in repetitive coordination by using templates, shared playbooks, and automation.
Manager actions this quarter
- Audit: Inquire about the unassign work, retros and 1:1s; record tasks and effort.
- Calibrate: Reequip those with additional glue work with focus time; reestablish the balance in the workloads.
- Institutionalize: Have a team operations line item in capacity and owners, OKRs and recognition.
- Signal: Recognize the invisible work in demos, town meetings, and promotion files publicly.
