WORKING LIFE
WE ALL NEED TO ACT
BY LOOKING OUT FOR
THE MICRO GENDER
INEQUALITY GOING ON
AROUND US ALL THE
TIME AND THE INSIDIOUS
AS WELL AS OVERT
WAYS WOMEN ASSUME
THE ROLES OF CARER
AND CLEANER, AND MEN
LEARN TO EXPECT THIS.
Mary told me that the thought of networking filled
her with dread; she didnt know how to do it. As the
only girl of five children, she had always been in the
kitchen helping her mother while her brothers played
outside. Although she resented this at times, she took it
as a given. She met her husband at university, married
straight after graduating and settled into her own house
and her own kitchen. We thought about the Cinderella
role she had learned at home, at school, from literature
and the media, and how unconsciously she had carried
her kitchen existence into the workplace, where it
was reinforced.
Mary is far from alone in taking on this informal
cleaning role at work. By preventing the resentment and
quarrels that result when unwashed dishes mount up
and food goes off, fulfilling this role plays an important
part in keeping organisations ticking over.
Another form of cleaning typically left to women,
is clearing up emotional mess. Emotional labour
is a term coined by Arlie Russell Hochschild in
The Managed Heart, Commercialisation of Human
Feelings, published in 1983. Hochschild defined this
as when, in exchange for a wage, one suppresses ones
own feelings . Hochschild cited air stewardesses whose
perpetual smiles made passengers feel important,
and calmed. Back then, emotional labourers worked
in healthcare and service industries. They were
predominantly women.
Today, the nature of emotional labour has changed
to encompass the invisible, undervalued work done
to ensure the emotional comfort of others, whether at
home or in an organisation, big or small. This work is
still largely done by women.
Caring, a close relation to emotional cleaning, is
another hidden role that keeps the workplace going.
Again, this vital work mostly falls to women who
remember birthdays, organise presents and arrange
leaving parties. They nurture new and inexperienced
staff and listen to peoples problems and frustrations.
They provide a shoulder to cry on, support those
struggling with their mental health and try to
resolve conflict.
As a child, I soaked up distress in the family and later
in life I automatically did the same at work. Colleagues
came to me with their confidences, gripes and
problems. I accepted this happily, unaware of the toll
it was taking. The time spent on this meant I regularly
stayed late to get my job done. It also left me filled up
with anger and upset that were not mine, which pulled
me down and exhausted me.
At times of stress, I unknowingly absorbed some of
the anxiety circulating in the workplace, often unseen
and unspoken. In psychoanalysis, containing anxiety,
to keep it at a manageable level, is considered key
to mental stability. Parents do this all the time; they
calm their baby by making sense of and responding to
non-verbal communication, so the baby receives the
practical and psychological care they need, including
feeling understood. As we get older, most of us learn to
contain ourselves. But throughout life, in times of high
anxiety, we need help.
Without knowing the theory of containment, good
managers and leaders instinctively provide containment
for their staff. But when they do not or cannot and
sadly that is all too frequent women tend to be the
ones to try to fill this vacuum.
Cleaning and caring come at a price. Taking on
others stress creates anxiety. Caring for and nurturing
staff takes time and energy and causes worry, thus
adding further stress and depleting the carer.
The latest Women in the Workplace report from
McKinsey (October 2022), the largest study of women
in corporate America, reveals a trend: women have had
enough and are demanding more. Women in leadership
roles, according to the report, are overworked
and under-recognised. They do more than men to
support employee wellbeing and diversity, equity and
inclusion, which dramatically improve retention and
employee satisfaction, yet are rarely rewarded. Women
increasingly want to work for companies committed
to these values. They are no longer prepared to be
overlooked or at the receiving end of micro-aggressions
at work. To get what they want, more women leaders
are leaving their jobs than ever, and at a far higher rate
than male leaders.
If workplaces changed to accommodate what women
want, organisations and all their staff would benefit.
This requires change in political and social systems and
policy, but a lot can and is happening in the workplace.
Maybe, after the #MeToo movement, and the
rethinking of work and our relationship with it
that emerged from the pandemic, seen in the Great
Resignation and Quiet Quitting, another quiet
revolution is gaining momentum?
We all need to act by looking out for the micro
gender inequality going on around us all the time and
the insidious as well as overt ways women assume
the roles of carer and cleaner, and men learn to expect
this. We can also observe our sticking points and
acknowledge our own learned behaviours and beliefs.
Why, for instance, as women, like Mary, do we choose
the kitchen? What inadvertent messages might we be
giving others about our ambitions? Or, why do men
often seem to slip past the washing-up and pass up on
the listening?
We can have conversations about our experiences of
caring and cleaning what these involve, what it feels
like to do or watch others do, what it means within the
organisation. (By the way, such conversations will fail
if we resort to blaming and shaming. We need to talk
and listen to each other as women and men and come to
understanding and effect change together.)
If we all play our part, this revolution led by women
could change the allocation of the hidden roles that keep
our organisations going, and help create more equitable
organisations in which we all thrive. All That We Are:
Uncovering the Hidden Truths Behind Our Behaviour
At Work by Gabriella Braun, is published by Piatkus.
THE GLOSS MAGAZINE February 2023 29
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WORKING LIFE WE ALL NEED TO ACT BY LOOKING OUT FOR THE MICRO GENDER INEQUALITY GOING ON AROUND US ALL THE TIME AND THE INSIDIOUS AS WELL AS OVERT WAYS WOMEN ASSUME THE ROLES OF CARER AND CLEANER, AND MEN LEARN TO EXPECT THIS. Mary told me that the thought of networking filled her with dread; she
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WELLBEING Perfectionists Identify Yourselves! T Therapist Katherine Morgan Schaflers research reveals perfectionism is a phenomenon, not a disorder The night before our wedding, my husband and I decided to sleep separately, so that each of us could spend the evening in the most relaxing way possi
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This Glossy Life ALEX BRAMELL Step inside the playful London home of artist couple Charlotte and Philip Colbert S The Colberts in their double-height living room. The sofa and armchairs are by Oliver Gustav. The coffee table is by Buchanan Studio x Charlotte Colbert. urrealist artists Charlotte a
46 February 2023 THE GLOSS MAGAZINE CHRISTOPHER HORWOOD (from four townhouses), with additional help from Buchanan Studio, former set designers known for their cool aesthetic. La Colombe dOr art hotel in St Paul de Vence in the South of France, where magnificent art is coolly and casually displa
ALEX BRAMELL CHRISTOPHER HORWOOD CHRISTOPHER HORWOOD ALEX BRAMELL THIS GLOSSY LIFE THE GLOSS MAGAZINE February 2023 47 THE GLOSS MAGAZINE February 2023 47
ENVIRONMENT A Drop in The Ocean Holly Hughes discovers a community of composters Virginia OGara of the Cork Urban Soil Project (CUSP). F ood waste is not a pollutant, its a treasured resource, Virginia OGara, one of the founders of the Cork Urban Soil Project (CUSP), tells me. We are speaking i
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