Don’t When You Want to Say No came out in 1975. In the past 15 months alone it has been joined by The Saying No, to Say No, of Saying No, Say No, and Set You Free.
This year, as the humdrum trials of working life are compounded by cost-of-living miseries, it seems even more important to understand the persistent inability to say no. In other words, they blame individuals for a problem that is largely caused by organisational systems. I have seen men fall into this trap. But I also remember the shocked look of a male colleague with the same job as mine, who one day saw my online calendar on my computer. “What’s all?” he laughed, staring at all the appointments, meetings and task reminders crowding each week. His own calendar turned out to be virtually empty in comparison.He was not alone. The thankless, invisible work that eats into time and career priorities is overwhelmingly done by women.
It was written by four female academics who realised that they and others like them were drowning in NPTs, or “non-promotable tasks”: mentoring, training, organising schedules, taking notes or serving on committees to pick a new travel company.