Women Do More Work Than Men, but This Is Why They’re Not Getting Promoted

It should hardly come as a surprise that we ladies know how to hustle on the job. While women still earn far less money than men and are underrepresented in leadership roles at many organizations, there’s no question that we know how to make serious contributions to our teams.

Per the productivity platform Hive’s recent State of the Workplace Gender Report, women contribute to 10 percent more completed actions across workspaces, as compared to the men they work with. This is despite the fact that women are given more work — 55 percent of tasks are assigned to women, while 45 percent of tasks are assigned to men (and both genders complete about 66 percent of tasks they’re asked to do).

“Our findings indicate that women are still taking on and being assigned more work,” Hive’s director of marketing Pooja Hoffman says. “If this is the case, it is important to look at why there are fewer women in senior roles. Research has shown there is a disconnect between the type of work women are being assigned, the amount of work they are completing, and other factors which could ultimately impact the number of women in the C-suite.”

A core problem for women at the workplace, per the Hive data, is that they’re typically assigned more non-promotable assignments than their male counterparts. Administrative projects, extra paperwork, and departmental party planning, for example, may contribute to the organization overall, but they don’t do anything to help advance an individual’s career. While women may accomplish 10 percent more than men do on the job, much of that work falls into this non-promotable category, which is partly why there’s still such a lack of representation for women in leadership roles at many companies.

“These non-promotable tasks don’t lead to advancement, and are instead put on women’s plates, often by default,” Hoffman tells us. “This is an important push-pull situation that all employees and employers need to be made aware of. Women are eager for advancement and want to break the glass ceiling, so they often say ‘yes’ to more tasks than they say ‘no’ to, even if they end up being non-promotable.”

If you’re reading this and thinking it sounds all too familiar, Hoffman recommends that you focus on impactful tasks as much as possible. Identify the projects on your to-do list that, when completed, really have the potential to make an impression on your boss and move your career forward, then focus on those tasks. It may be tricky to turn down those non-promotable assignments (especially if you’re already in the habit of accepting them), but you can get more intentional about your time management and allow those items to fall to the bottom of your to-do list. In time, saying “no” should become easier too.

“It is important to identify high-impact opportunities that affect the bottom line, while learning to say no to work that doesn’t,” Hoffman says. “It is also crucial to track this work, share successes publicly with your company, and bring your accomplishments to your performance reviews when discussing promotions.”

If you’re going to find yourself contributing more than your male colleagues to your organization — and, according to Hive’s data, this is probably going to be the case — you might as well do whatever you can to make sure you’re getting recognized for it. It’s not necessarily about doing less work, but it’s about choosing the right work to do.

How do you stay focused at the office? Tweet us @BritandCo.

(Photo via Getty)