Shadow Work

shadow work (noun): tasks that are not part of an employee’s official job description, but are necessary for the organization to function, and may be paid and unseen.

Unpaid labour, shadow work, glue work, organizational citizenship. Whatever you name it, organizations benefit from it.

What tasks make up unpaid labour?

Informal mentorship (women and gender-diverse people shielding incoming workers from issues they previously experienced as new employees)
Leading societal change in under resourced organizations (including gender equity, poverty, gender-based violence, food and housing insecurity)
Gender equity work is work that women and gender-diverse people are not paid for, for example, EDI committees, task forces, research groups etc. have come to be viewed as “feminine duties.” EDI work becomes “extra” and companies and institutions benefit from women and gender-diverse people’s unpaid labour

“Empower everyone in the room to contribute. The work can’t always be put on the women.”

– Focus Group Participant

During CCWESTT’s systemic change advocacy and research, our surveys of workers and employers in science, engineering, trades and technology (SETT) and the not-for-profit sector heard testimonies of work that was above and beyond normal duties that was not compensated.

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Email: info@ccwestt-ccfsimt.org

CCWESTT acknowledges that our greater science, engineering, trades and technology (or SETT) community is situated on the ceded and unceded traditional territories of First Nation, Inuit, and Métis peoples from coast to coast to coast in what is known as ‘Canada’. CCWESTT fervently believes SETT is enriched through collective relations and knowledge sharing and is committed to helping enhance and build these relations. Full land acknowledgement here.