2. Saying No to Non-Promotable Tasks

No Cape Required

Do you want to find out why you should stop doing so many non-promotable tasks and how to do so? That is the topic for this episode.
I am joined by Amy McGregor, Vice President of Banking Supervision for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, to discuss non-promotable tasks (NPTs). Those are tasks such as offering to be the notetaker during a meeting, planning the office parties, cleaning the kitchen, or agreeing to onboard new employees; all of these being volunteer and outside your core work expectations.
Doing these task occasionally are helpful to the organization and your colleagues, but the research shows that women volunteer do these tasks more often than men. Woman are also asked to complete NPTs more often than men. Sometimes the request as sneaky, like after a compliment. For example, "Since you're such a rockstar here and can engage so easily with colleagues, we wanted to nominate you for the social committee. You only need to plan one social per month for your division. I know it is outside of work hours, but think of it as a great way to give back to the community and giving back to your colleague." You might be thinking wow I'm a rockstar, but you're probably not thinking of the hours she will put into this social committee. Is this really a nomination? Sounds better, right?
Where the problem lies is when you are completing too many of these tasks, which are not helping you get ahead in the company; they don't help your career trajectory at all. As a matter fact, they're probably detrimental to your career progression because you're spending time, and sometimes that equates to a lot of hours, just to get these done in addition to your own work. As a result, your core productivity definitely suffers.
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