The format of a My Take is 150 words – no more, no less – to express an opinion on a different topic each week. This week’s topic was invisible work.
This week, two parallel conversations put us in mind of “invisible labour.”
On the one-hand, a co-worker’s family member had a 10-minute-fix plumbing concern on a Sunday. On Sundays, no plumbing concern is small. One emergency service expected $1,200… to accept the call. Service, materials, hours, everything would still be billed in full. $1,200 to take the call. Invisible Labour.
On the other, a fiery online thread about uppity care workers who knew what they were getting into before they took the job—a traditionally female job, and still a statistically female job to this day—wanting pay and conditions on par with the professionalism, care and devotion we expect in caring for our children. Why should those workers be expected to subsidize our needs with their invisible labour?
Such overheated online threads leave me contemplating work not yet done. Visible non-labour, if you will.
