How Managers Can Support Workload Equity

People working together

Source: @pikisuperstar/Freepik

In a previous article, I discussed how individual employees, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds, can protect themselves from overwork and the “overdelivering tax” often levied against those who have to deal with the impact of stigma. However, overwork and the ”overdelivering” tax on the most marginalized is a problem that individuals cannot solve alone. Managers and organizational decision-makers bear responsibility for the fair and equitable distribution of work and for establishing just organizational norms. In this installment, I offer tips for how employers can do better, and I provide some advice from the trenches of inclusive leadership.

Are there people in your organization who are always asked to pitch in when there is extra work or to cover during weekends or other people’s leaves? It’s the responsibility of leaders to check who is guarding your fort while others take care of themselves. Is it the same people every time? Are these people underrepresented overachievers—employees from stigmatized groups who feel that they have to contribute extra to make up for the prejudice, or are regularly asked to do so? There are several steps individual managers can take to support fairness in workload distribution.

Equity-minded Management

In the daily business, it is easy for managers to lose track of who exactly is working on which projects. Yet, it is extremely important to monitor for equity. I asked Karen An-hwei Lee, Provost and Professor of English at Wheaton College, how leaders in organizations can support employees who might be affected by inequitable workload expectations. Her suggestions call for leaders to carefully examine both individual and systemic sources of potential unfairness. “It’s important to stay attuned to those unconscious behaviors rooted in bias and how these behaviors can result in unfair treatment,” says Lee. “Are there some employees who tend to pick up the slack, while others offload their work onto others? Are there double standards for professionalism, especially for women, racialized minorities, and other marginalized employees?” Leaders who make asking these questions a habit and address disparities that they note can create environments where all employees feel supported.

It is also helpful to establish organizational norms that support equity. For example, check the distribution of “office housework” (time-consuming but rarely rewarded tasks) and make it more equitable. This will address a real problem—it is estimated that women do 29% more office housework than white men. Joanna Kuang, Senior Vice President of Product Development and Impact at Illumen Capital, shares this tip from the trenches of creating more equitable practices: Rotate facilitator and notetaker responsibilities at team meetings. This is important because note-taking is an example of office housework, and to prevent gender and intersectional biases, teams must distribute office housework as well as more visible assignments more fairly and explicitly.

Ensure systemic fairness

Organizational leaders must also ensure that every segment of the talent management process, from job design and hiring to promotion and leadership development, is attuned to talent diversity. While segmented interventions are not likely to work, supporting all employees in a fair and transparent manner does. Christina Schelling, a Senior Vice President for Talent, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Verizon, highlights several key strategies that can help ensure that diversity work is deeply embedded within the organization:

• Strategic Integration of Inclusion: Making all aspects of operations inclusive ensures that it is not just a standalone initiative but is intertwined with every business process and decision, from hiring and development to long-term strategic planning.
• Leadership Commitment: inclusive values are championed and modeled by those in leadership positions, creating a culture of clear and unambiguous priorities throughout the organization.
• Focus on Inclusive Growth: While many organizations look for “perfect” candidates with experiences and qualifications to be “ready on day one,” it is essential to understand that not everyone has had equal opportunities to obtain such qualifications. Providing apprenticeship, fellowship, and mentorship programs can support the development of the competence and confidence of those who need it the most.

Ensure appropriate staffing

In many cases, an honest examination of workloads will reveal that one person is doing the work previously done by two or three people. The ultimate solution for this problem is moving away from the anorexic organization staffing model. And while ensuring proper staffing may take some time, leaders can—and should—make an immediate difference. If you as a leader are asking someone, regardless of their background, to take on an additional load, check what you can de-prioritize to keep the work manageable.

Leaders in the workplace can do much to create fairness norms in organizations. But for societal change, such norms should be established at the level of larger cultures. Hence, in the next and final installment, I will address the role of thought leadership in creating healthier cultures of work and rest.

A version of this post is also published in Fast Company.