‘Cancel the Third Shift’: SXSW recap
Left to right: Ana, Chandra, MAPO (Aubrey joined via videoconference)
Last week, I led a panel at SXSW called, ‘Cancel the 3rd Shift: Improving Retention of Women’.
Joining me on the panel were the very talented Chandra Adusei (business owner & entrepreneur), Aubrey Blanche (DEI consultant & designer of equitable orgs), and Ana Bracic (political science professor).
The experience was exhilarating!
We delivered a discussion on one of the most important topics about the workplace today; we delivered that discussion as part of a major international conference; and we had the privilege of delivering that discussion to an amazing and engaged audience.
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Firstly: What exactly did we cover in the panel?
Below is a summary. (Fun fact: In the coming weeks, we’ll be able to share a video of the event!)
What is the 3rd Shift?
↠ It builds on the concept of the 2nd Shift, which was originally introduced in 1989 by Arlie Hochschild in her landmark study. It refers to the additional, unpaid housework that working women disproportionately take on.
↠ The 3rd Shift refers to additional, unpaid work in the workplace, in addition to official work functions. Like the 2nd Shift, women disproportionately take on the 3rd Shift. It comes in many forms and can range from things like:
↠↠ Administrative tasks, like taking meeting minutes and ordering lunch
↠↠ Building community, like running ERGs
↠↠ Facilitating collaboration, like ‘herding cats’ for complex cross-functional projects
↠ 3rd Shift tasks add value to organizations, but organizations don’t proportionately assign value to 3rd Shift tasks.
What is the impact of the 3rd Shift (i.e., why should we care)?
↠ The 3rd Shift places an additional burden on women, and even more so on women of color and other under underrepresented groups. It also perpetuates gender stereotypes.
↠ 3rd Shift dynamics slow women’s advancement at work, in a time when the importance and value of women in corporate leadership positions is well-established. Consider the following facts:
↠↠ Fewer than 10% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women; numbers are similarly low for Board seats and C-suite positions generally.
↠↠ All the while, research shows that women who have stuck it out and made it into leadership roles do more than their male counterparts—in part because women in leadership roles are bucking gender stereotypes and often feel they need to compensate by over-performing.
↠ 3rd Shift dynamics contribute to the attrition of women in the workforce:
↠↠ One in four women are considering slowing their career or leaving the workplace altogether post-COVID.
↠↠ Pre-pandemic, numbers were similarly high, at one in five women.
↠ 3rd Shift dynamics cost hundreds of billions of dollars for organizations ($500 billion in the US alone).
Left to right: Ana, MAPO, Chandra
Left to right: Aubrey on the screen, Ana, Chandra, MAPO
What can we do about the 3rd Shift?
↠ ‘Sit on your hands’: Individual women can opt out of 3rd Shift tasks to help protect from burnout and the like.
↠↠ This may not always be an option. When it is, not volunteering for, or simply not doing, those ‘extra’ activities that take time and energy—but will not be proportionately rewarded—can be effective.
↠↠ There is a downside to opting out, however. Many women find 3rd Shift activities rewarding, and 3rd Shift-type activities make the workplace better and projects run more smoothly. So another option is to be selective about which 3rd Shift tasks to take on.
↠ Lead with mindfulness and awareness: Team leaders & managers can alleviate the burden by assigning 3rd Shift tasks more equitably.
↠↠ They can also help by simply acknowledging the importance of these tasks and giving credit to those who do it.
↠↠ Team leaders & managers can also reward 3rd Shifters with professional development, such as leadership training and coaching (because don’t we want leaders who are inclined to make everyone’s work experience better and organizations more productive?).
↠ Revise organizational values: Organizational leaders can put in place infrastructure that appropriately values 3rd Shift work and is equitable by design.
↠↠ Since 3rd Shift tasks contribute to the bottom line—albeit indirectly in many cases—companies can more concretely tie these tasks to key business metrics and performance measurement.
↠↠ Companies can offer compensation for equity and community-building work. A number of companies are already doing this, for example, by offering compensation to ERG leads.
↠↠ In addition, companies can create policies that set the expectation on workplace experience, coupled with accountability measures to uphold and enforce those expectations.
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Secondly: How did we find our way to SXSW?
It all started last year, when I fell down a rabbit hole trying to better understand performance review processes. In particular, I was hung up on my observation that most performance review processes fail to capture employees’ value-add accurately or holistically. And more specifically, I found that most performance review processes systemically put women at a disadvantage.
These observations and discoveries turned into a couple blog posts exploring problems with performance review processes and what could be done to improve them (here and here).
In writing the blog posts, the 3rd Shift as a concept was born (though at the time I was calling it the ‘New 2nd Shift’). I had the opportunity to talk with colleagues and friends about it. And I even got the opportunity to discuss the topic on Nichole Harrop’s podcast, ‘Next Level Leaders’.
This all turned into a crazy idea to propose a panel discussion about the 3rd Shift for SXSW.
I asked three amazing women (see above) if they’d be willing to participate and was floored when they all said yes.
I prepared and submitted the pitch—and was totally shocked when I received the notification that our panel had been selected!
So there you have it: from obsession over apparent injustices, to public discourse and feedback, to crazy idea, to SXSW!
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What’s next?
So that was our 1-hour talk in bullet points and the story of how it came to be. As mentioned above, a video of the panel event is forthcoming.
This isn’t a one-off discussion, and I aim to keep the topic alive in my own workplace, and hopefully through future speaking and publishing opportunities.
And a book with more in-depth insights and recommendations is potentially on the table…!