Office Housework

Here’s a tip to avoid unpaid labour around the workplace: pretend to be pregnant.  

That’s the solution presented in the Japanese novel Diary of a Void. One day, driven by the stench of empty coffee cups and cigarette butts, Shibata, the main character, tells her manager that her morning sickness prevents her from cleaning up after the morning meeting. To her surprise, her task is reallocated to a male, junior staff member without a moment’s pushback.  

Buoyed by this success, Shibata, who’s single, leaves work on time, rather than continuing to provide unpaid overtime. She cooks herself a multi-course nutritious meal. She must take care of her body, now that she is “pregnant”.  

Emi Yagi’s novel gestates a rebellion against Japan’s last vestiges of sexism, where female professionals are expected to serve coffee and snacks to their male colleagues. 

Australians may blanch at such practices, however, Australian women are more frequently performing “office housework” than men; including cleaning after meetings, undocumented admin or other “non-promotable tasks”. Female leaders in my doctoral research often performed unpaid community labour such as council paperwork and event management.  

The problem with “invisible” work is that it is not just unseen, but unsung. 

Recently, an article claimed invisible labour will only become visible when women stop doing it. As an example, Shibata returns from “maternity leave” to find self-service coffee stations and a note next to the snacks saying, “Help yourself!” Is this solution as miraculous as her “pregnancy”? 

For change to occur in workplaces, the invisible needs to become visible. We need to pay better attention to what escapes notice. Progress happens in ways big and small: collective change, and our willingness to do our bit. One thing we know for certain, those cups aren’t going to wash themselves.  

This Thinking Out Loud first appeared on Facebook.