Women overworking is more, women employees are expected to provide more unpaid labour
According to a recent report, women employees work substantially more unpaid hours than men do. More men than ever before have been working unpaid overtime in the last year. The issue affects women as well, perhaps even more so. Why women at work are more frequently asked to perform duties that are not connected to their jobs at work?
Have you ever been requested to prepare a cup of tea for your coworkers? According to a recent poll conducted by Samsung of roughly 2,000 UK employees, women in the workplace are about three times more likely than men to experience this. Women employees are expected to perform more non-work-related office duties than men, such as planning staff outings and sending cards and gifts to coworkers. Even if a woman declines a job like this, another woman will probably be asked in her place.
Female employees are more inclined to agree to perform the invisible and unpaid work that takes time away from their other duties because they are afraid of being perceived as difficult. They might believe that “another lady will do it if I don’t.” And even at the expense of their own mental health, women at work are required to pretend to be agreeable while concealing their discomfort or disapproval. Emotional labor is the process of controlling, regulating, and repressing one’s emotions in order to satisfy social expectations or accomplish professional objectives.
The term “emotional labour” was first used by American sociologist Arlie Hochschild in 1983 to denote the idea that in our capitalist society, emotions have a market and exchange value. People must control their emotions in order to conform to the emotional norm and to maintain the efficient operation of the company required to earn a living. The word “emotional labour” was never meant to be gendered. The burden of performing unseen, unpaid work, such as making the office tea rounds, falls disproportionately on women employees, who must then control their emotional reactions.
Female employees are often portrayed as being more sympathetic or nurturing than men, as is covered in the novel Hysterical. Those women overworking, lack the “status shield,” or social safety, that allows males to behave differently from what is expected of them in their role. Women in the workplace therefore act as though they enjoy making the tea or planning the company Secret Santa.
In reality, it appears that there are few differences between men and women in terms of their capacity for empathy. However, there is a greater noticeable distinction between men’s and women’s motivations for empathetic behavior. Women employees are more aware of the social gender roles they must play to fit in and possibly develop in their careers. Additionally, while everyone is under pressure to keep composure and abide by emotional norms, persons of color experience this pressure far more than others and are required to control their emotions significantly more at work.
This is due to the fact that managing their emotions at work may also require them to cope with racial antagonism and microaggressions, which are minor, covert acts of discrimination that the perpetrators may not even be aware they are committing. For women of colour, this emotional labour is exacerbated due to the pressure that comes from the junction of their gender and ethnicity.
Compared to men and white women, black and brown women employees may have to put in more emotional work. According to research, non-Black students who view Black women scholars as less skilled and competent and who accord them a lower position provide a challenge to them.
The work that women and women of colour in particular do, including the constant need to be on high alert to understand the emotional norms in the workplace, the attempt to come across as warm and likeable, and the suppression of emotions in order to comfort others, all have an impact on their health and well-being.
According to the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey conducted by the Melbourne Institute, women overworking still put in more labour than males, even when paid employment is taken into account. The quantity of paid and unpaid work performed by men and women in households where males were the primary breadwinner was nearly equal, but in all other situations, including those where women were the primary breadwinner, women at work performed more overall work.
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