The Invisible Load: On Emotional Labour in the Legal Workplace
The Work That Doesn’t Show Up on Your Timesheet
There is a category of work that many women in law perform every single day that is rarely acknowledged, never billed, and almost never rewarded. It is called emotional labour and in a legal workplace, it is everywhere.
Emotional labour is the work of managing not just your own professional relationships, but the emotional climate of the people around you. It’s the junior associate who comes to you in distress and whom you spend forty minutes supporting, even though you have a memo due. It’s being the person who remembers birthdays, smooths over tensions in the team, checks in on the colleague who seems off, and makes sure everyone feels included at the firm retreat. It’s being asked to mentor, to sit on the diversity committee, and to speak at the student recruitment event, because you’re good at it, and because someone has to do it.
Why It Falls Disproportionately on Women
Research consistently shows that emotional labour in professional environments is disproportionately performed by women. It is often expected rather than requested, and its absence is noticed and penalized in ways that its presence is not rewarded. Women who decline these tasks are frequently perceived as cold or not “team players.” Women who take them on find their billable hours quietly eroding.
In law specifically, where advancement is often tied to measurable outputs (i.e. clients, targets, court appearances, etc.) the invisible load can quietly stall careers.
Naming It Is the First Step
You cannot address what you cannot see. Naming emotional labour to yourself, to your colleagues, and to firm leadership is the beginning of changing how it is distributed and valued. That might look like tracking the non-billable contributions you make and raising them in performance reviews. It might look like having a direct conversation with a supervising partner about workload equity. It might look like simply saying, once in a while, “I’m not able to take that on right now.”
Firms that are serious about retaining women in senior roles need to examine not just formal policies, but the informal expectations that quietly shape who advances and who burns out. The goal isn’t for no one to perform emotional labour (as connection and care are genuine strengths in a legal practice). The goal is for that work to be seen, shared, and valued.
About the Author
Rebecca Dales is an associate at Harper Grey practicing business and real estate law. Rebecca regularly assists clients with a wide range of real estate, business, and lending matters, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and real estate transactions involving development, purchasing, selling, and leasing. Rebecca also has extensive experience working with land-based casino and online gambling operators and gaming related suppliers, on licensing and compliance matters.