Janelle E. Wells, Ph.D., and Doreen MacAulay, Ph.D.
Our (In)visible Work
Do you notice the person in the office who remembers birthdays, welcomes new hires, or organizes the client dinner? That’s invisible work, and while it’s often overlooked, it’s one of the critical drivers of culture, trust, and performance. Invisible work isn’t just “being nice” or “going the extra mile.” It’s the behind-the-scenes efforts from informal mentorship to problem-solving that help others feel valued and allow organizations to thrive. They put together team celebrations, resolve conflicts, are inclusive, and complete the admin tasks that never make it on a job description—jokingly referred to as “other duties as assigned.”
When leaders overlook this work, they miss an opportunity to drive greater engagement and culturally set the tone for the team. When it’s acknowledged, trust builds, commitment strengthens, and better results follow.
What We Can Learn from Research
The concept of invisible work isn’t new, and researchers have been studying it for years. In their book Invisible Labor: Hidden Work in the Contemporary World, professors Marion Crain, Miriam Cherry, and Winifred Poster define invisible work within places of formal employment as “activities that occur within the context of paid employment that workers perform in response to requirements, either implicit or explicit, from employers and that are crucial to the worker to generate income, to obtain or retain their jobs, and to further their careers, yet are often overlooked, ignored and or devalued by employers, consumers, workers…”
Invisible work is also tied to the concept of a work environment where employees feel safe to contribute, take risks, make mistakes, and speak up. As outlined by the Journal of Organizational Behavior, when we examine the components of psychological safety, an important consideration is leader inclusiveness, which scholars define as “words and deeds exhibited by leaders that invite and appreciate other contributions.” Ensuring the acknowledgment, naming, and valuing of contributions, visible and invisible, will determine if people feel seen.
Three Ways Invisible Work Shows Up
Beyond a leader’s strategic vision and influencing approaches, the silent stewardship of leaders includes being the:
Cultural Glue: The events, celebrations, mentoring, and moments of connection that hold a team together, especially during change or uncertainty, often fall outside the job description.
Operational Backbone: The unspoken work that fills in the gaps between the official roles of individuals in the organization. The time invested in helping a colleague troubleshoot a problem, onboarding a new hire, or smoothing a process that “technically” isn’t yours.
Emotional Laborer: Managing your own emotions and influencing the emotions of your team, so that a situation is productive. This is foundational to psychological safety, which is critical for innovation and collaboration.
