The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women's Dead-End Work

Description

A practical guide for bringing gender equality to the workplace with a new imperative: unburden women's careers from work that goes unrewarded. THE NO CLUB started when four women who were crushed by endless to-do lists banded together over $10 bottles of wine and vowed to get their work lives under control. Running faster than ever, they nevertheless trailed behind their male colleagues. And so, they vowed to say no to requests that pulled them away from the work that mattered most to their careers. This book reveals how their over-a-decade-long journey and groundbreaking research uncovered that women everywhere are unfairly burdened with "non-promotable work", a tremendous problem we can - and must - solve. All organizations have work that no one wants to do: planning the office party, screening interns, attending to that time-consuming client, or simply helping others with their work. From office housework to important assignments that inevitably go unrewarded, a woman, most often, takes on these tasks. In study upon study, professors Linda Babcock (bestselling author of WHY WOMEN DON'T ASK), Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund, and Laurie Weingart - the original "No Club" - document that women are disproportionately asked and expected to do this kind of work. This imbalance leaves women overcommitted and underutilized as companies forfeit revenue, productivity, and top talent. But it doesn't have to be this way. THE NO CLUB walks you through how to make small, yet important, changes to your own workload and empowers women to make savvy decisions about what they take on. At the same time, the authors illuminate how lasting change calls for organizations to reassess how they assign and reward work to level the playing field. With hard data, personal anecdotes from women of all stripes, practical self- and workplace-assessments, and innovative advice from consulting in Fortune 500 companies, this book will forever change the conversation about how we advance women's careers and achieve equality in the twenty-first century.

Linda Babcock is a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University. She is the author of WHY WOMEN DON'T ASK and ASK FOR IT. A behavioral economist, she is the founder and director of PROGRESS, which pursues positive social change for women and girls through education, partnerships, and research. Babcock's media appearances include Good Morning America, ABC's World News Tonight, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, USA TODAY, and more. Brenda Peyser has held leadership positions in the corporate world and academia for over thirty years. Most recently, she was a professor of communications at Carnegie Mellon, where she also served as associate dean of the School of Public Policy and Management and was the founding Executive Director of Carnegie Mellon University Australia. Lise Vesterlund is a professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh and director of the Pittsburgh Experimental Economics Laboratory. She founded and directs the Behavioral Economic Design Initiative. Published in leading economic journals, her research has been covered by NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC, The Economist, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Chicago Tribune, and Forbes. Laurie R. Weingart is a management professor at Carnegie Mellon University. She has served as CMU's Interim Provost and Chief Academic Officer and as a Senior Associate Dean and Director of the Accelerate Leadership Center. Her award-winning research has been covered by The New York Times and Business Insider, and published in top management and psychology journals.

A clever workplace manifesto ... it also works as straightforward career advice: there's a lot of power, and joy, in saying no -- Rosamund Urwin * The Times best business and technology books, 2022 * Say 'yes' to your dreams and the long-term potential of your organization. How? By learning how to say 'no.' THE NO CLUB is a long overdue manifesto on gender equality in the workplace, a practical playbook with tips you can put into action immediately, and the story of four women whose collective wisdom on how to sustain personal success is simply priceless -- Angela Duckworth, New York Times bestselling author of GRIT In many organizations, women are in the minority but end up doing the majority of the thankless jobs. This important book helps women learn when and how to say no, and should be a wake-up call to management: give every man a yellow pad and tell them to learn to take notes. Better yet, change the way that work is allocated and rewarded -- Richard Thaler, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics and New York Times bestselling coauthor of NUDGE Unfair treatment of women in the workplace has been well-reported, but there's a lack of available literature on what women are actually supposed to do about it. THE NO CLUB is the answer we've been waiting for-these experts and researchers explain what to look for, how to advocate for yourself, and how to empower others to do the same. This is an achievable and overdue call to action for the system to change -- Emily Chang, bestselling author of BROTOPIA: BREAKING UP THE BOYS' CLUB OF SILICON VALLEY This is a critical read for women who inevitably find themselves balancing their personal goals with endless dead-end tasks in the workplace. This book not only gives women validation to say 'no' to tedious work, but clearly lays out how caving to these pressures only serves to derail their full potential -- Ana Kasparian, executive producer and host of The Young Turks I am in a No Club inspired by the authors of this amazing book! Now, all of us can go behind the scenes of their journey, which will leave you feeling seen and guided. THE NO CLUB is packed with examples, advice, and research. I'll be recommending it as essential reading to colleagues, students, and friends -- Dolly Chugh, author of THE PERSON YOU MEAN TO BE and professor at the NYU Stern School of Business Valuable tips for changing the status quo sound guidance for sparking change in organizations * Kirkus Reviews * Outstanding ... the advice proffered here will last a work-time * Booklist *