It Isn’t Your Job to Be A Team Player All the Time

When you don’t have children, it is easy to feel like you need to be a team player at work. You find yourself volunteering for non-billable tasks or doing office housework; you are the one who attends the business development events after work hours.

When I was a younger lawyer, I met with the partner I worked for, and we talked about what was on my plate. It happened that I had work commitments for four nights that week. So, pretty much every night. I voiced being tired but understood it was harder for my colleague with children to attend evening work commitments. The partner told me it wasn’t my responsibility to go to everything and stop thinking it was. I was lucky to have a mentor who was supportive and did not try to reinforce my thinking that I should be carrying the load.

It is everyone’s responsibility to do office housework. Employers need to do a better job of distributing it fairly. I was unable to find any statistics specific to child-free women, but a recent Forbes article stated that women do 29% more office housework than white men. They are also more likely to be approached to do it and more likely to volunteer to do it.

You need to make your personal life a priority. The fact that your personal life does not involve children does not mean that it is any less important. I’m certainly not advocating that you never step up and take one for the team. Being a team player is a trait that most employers want in their employees. Just don’t discount the importance and value of your spare time simply because it does not involve child care.

Alysia Christiaen

Creator of CFW² and a child-free woman.