#87 | The Hidden Tax Draining Your Influence And Tanking Your Promotion Prospects (And Why it's WOMEN Who Are Expected To Pay For It): Leadership, Influence & Promotion

What if the work that's making you indispensable is also the work that's holding your career back?If you've ever been the person who organizes, mentors, supports, covers, coordinates, or keeps the peace, this episode explains why that work often goes unseen despite being critical to your team's success. Drawing on decades of research, we unpack the hidden workplace patterns that cause some employees—especially women—to carry a disproportionate share of work that benefits everyone but advances no one's career.In this episode, you'll learn:What non-promotable tasks are and why they form a major part of the invisible tax many professionals pay.How emotional labor quietly becomes an expectation at work and the long-term personal cost of carrying it.Why organizations reward visible outcomes while overlooking the skills hidden inside invisible tax, non-promotable tasks, and emotional labor.Listen now to gain the language, research, and evidence you need to identify your own invisible tax, understand the impact of non-promotable tasks, and recognize the true cost of emotional labor.Resources:The No Club: Putting A Stop To Women's Dead-End Work by Linda Babcock, Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund, Laurie R. WeingartNew episodes are released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.Stuck, simmering, or onto something juicy? I want to hear it. Drop me a line at [email protected] - I read them all.And here is the Spotify Playlist to accompany UnShakeable Her.Unshakeable Her is the podcast for women in leadership who are ready to build real influence, earn the promotion they deserve, and lead with confidence in systems that weren't built for them. Each episode tackles the challenges that shape leadership from the inside out, including imposter syndrome, resilience, credibility, boundaries, conflict, and feedback, while unpacking how pressure, workplace politics, strategic thinking, decision-making, and visibility affect the way ambitious women grow, lead, and get promoted without losing themselves in the process.