ASK THEM TO HELP
Give the invisible work to the people least likely to refuse.
Ask reliable employees to organize celebrations, welcome newcomers, take meeting notes, and serve on committees. Describe the contributions as voluntary teamwork. When promotion discussions begin, focus on the assignments that left them no time to perform.
Unequal distribution of nonpromotable work hidden beneath team citizenship.
Evidence, with limitations.
Claim
Research on low-promotability tasks shows that unequal allocation can emerge through both volunteering and requests, producing career consequences when some employees disproportionately perform work that contributes little to advancement.
Evidence
Field and experimental research found women were more likely than men to volunteer for, be asked to volunteer for and accept requests to perform tasks with low promotability, illustrating how seemingly minor task allocation can compound into unequal career opportunities.
Scientific boundary: Low-promotability-task allocation research concerns patterned differences in requests and volunteering; each individual request is not necessarily inequitable.
Sources
These references offer context, not a completed review or a test of this instruction.