07-07-2025
Being Too Helpful At Work Can Hurt Your Career—Here's How To Say No
Volunteering for office housework can hinder your career advancement.
Pitching in at work is important, but sometimes it can hold you back. Workplaces often need employees to help out in order to keep things running smoothly, but the problem is that this work isn't shared equally. Women are far more likely to take on the behind-the-scenes duties at work, and research shows it's taking a toll on their careers.
These helping behaviors at work can include tasks like welcoming new employees, pitching in on others' projects, and organizing the team's work and social events. Often referred to as "office housework" or "organizational citizenship," these jobs are typically outside of an employee's formal job duties. While completing these extra tasks is generally appreciated, employees who spend time helping have less time for their primary job tasks. As a result, their career progress slows.
Diane Bergeron, a senior research scientist at the Center for Creative Leadership, recently authored a report on helping behaviors at work and has extensively studied the issue. At one consulting firm she studied, she found that employees who helped more got better performance reviews, but logged fewer billable hours and were promoted more slowly.
Not only does volunteering for these tasks result in career setbacks, but research shows that the extra effort expended in helping can lead to burnout, increased stress and difficulty balancing work and home life.
Bergeron also points out another risk called "job creep," where a one-time favor can quickly become an ongoing expectation. Over time, the helping task becomes a permanent part of someone's role. In addition, once they start volunteering, some employees also feel growing pressure to continue saying yes to additional office housework in order to remain valued at work.
Some might wonder why women don't just say no to these extra requests. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Women often face pushback when they step outside of expected roles, like being helpful and accommodating. Saying no can make them seem less likable, simply because it challenges the expectations of how women are supposed to behave.
How to Step Back From Doing Office Housework
Fortunately, Bergeron has some suggestions to help women stay focused on their careers and avoid getting sidetracked by office housework. She explains that, because women are expected to be helpful, it's easy for women to feel compelled to volunteer for these tasks. Bergeron suggests resisting this temptation to volunteer from the start. "The first part is not to create those extra tasks for yourself initially, because then you're setting the stage to get asked more," she explains.
She also recommends that if someone asks you to take on an extra task, letting them know about your current workload helps the requester understand your situation. You might say, "I'm currently working on A, B, and C—where should this new task fit in?"
Bergeron also advises against responding immediately. When someone, especially a higher-up, asks for your help, it's natural to want to say yes immediately. However, Bergeron says pausing gives you breathing room. It allows you to step back, consider your workload, reflect on your career goals, discuss it with a mentor and decide whether it's something you should take on. It also gives the asker a moment to reflect on whether the request was essential or just something they asked impulsively.
Finally, if you do step up to help, Bergeron says don't brush it off with comments like "It was nothing" or "No big deal." Instead, let people know it was a meaningful contribution that took time and effort.
How Organizations Can Make Office Housework Everyone's Responsibility
Organizations also have a role to play in making this work more fairly distributed. First, they should ensure that no one volunteers women for these tasks without their consent. Bergeron also highlights a common double standard: men are often overly praised when they step in to help. As a result, she says her second piece of guidance for organizations is "Not over-complimenting men who helped, because I felt like I saw that in every organization I was in." Overly celebrating men for doing this work sends the message that it's exceptional when men contribute, but expected when women do. Research indicates that men are more likely than women to be rewarded for helping behaviors at work.
Bergeron also recommends that companies informally track who is taking on these extra duties to ensure they are distributed fairly. Ultimately, she urges organizations to consider the bigger picture. "If your organization requires a lot of employee heroics to get the job done, this may be a red flag that there are missing, inefficient, or faulty roles, processes, or systems," she notes in the report.
