Invisible work and noticing what goes unnoticed

Good morning. Every organisation runs on two kinds of work and, as a leader, it's worth taking a moment to consider what this looks like. And, who carries the load.

The first kind is visible: the project delivered, the negotiation closed, the presentation landed. It gets acknowledged, celebrated, put in performance reviews. The KPIs on track.

The second kind is much quieter, often invisible - especially to leaders further up the chain. It's the person who smooths things over when tension rises. The one who brings a new team member into the fold without being asked. The one who notices when someone's struggling and does something about it - before it becomes your problem.

Think of it as grease in the system. Not the engine - the thing that stops the engine seizing. It reduces friction, absorbs tension, and keeps things running without anyone asking it to. You rarely notice it when it's there. You notice fast when it's gone.

This is invisible work. And research consistently shows that it's disproportionately underrecognised - and that when it goes unnoticed long enough, your best people quietly start to leave.

The academic term for it is organisational citizenship behaviour - the voluntary, relational work that keeps teams functioning but doesn't show in any job description. Linda Babcock and her colleagues, in The No Club (2022), documented how this work falls disproportionately on those who are agreeable, those who are newer to the team, and - the data is clear - disproportionately on women. But, not only on women.

The cost is real: less time for the work that gets rewarded, slower progression, and an accumulating sense that their contribution is invisible to the people who matter. It also accumulates in a different way.

McKinsey names this specific pattern - extra relational work, consistently unrecognised in performance reviews - as one of the clearest drivers. The work is load-bearing. The people doing it aren't just quietly frustrated. They're depleting.

For leaders, the cost shows up differently. When invisible work goes unrecognised, you're running a silent tax on the people carrying it. They don't stop - at least, not at first. They absorb it. But they notice that you haven't noticed. And eventually, they stop doing it, they burn out, or they leave for somewhere that promises to see and appreciate them.

The upstream action is simple: notice it, and say that it matters. Not in a performance review, in the moment. That's it.

The grease doesn't need a ceremony - it just needs acknowledgement.

None of this shows up in a deliverable. But without it, teams become harder to work in, slower to recover from setbacks, and less likely to surface problems early.

Here's what makes this more than about recognition: invisible work is not distributed randomly. It tends to fall on the people who are most attuned to others, most willing to help, and least likely to say no - which often means it falls on the same few people, week after week.

If you've never asked yourself who does the relational maintenance in your team, it's worth asking now.

Most performance conversations and 1:1s focus on what was delivered. Invisible work requires noticing how things are going - the subtle dynamics, the unrequested effort, the texture of the team, not just its outputs.

Ask yourself: who do people turn to when they're struggling? Who holds things together when there's tension? Who makes sure no one gets left behind? Who smooths things over before they get wrinkled? If the same name keeps coming up, and that person isn't being recognised for it - that's your information.

Specificity matters. Generic praise - "you're such a team player" - can feel hollow, and sometimes signals that you're not quite sure what you're thanking them for.

Try these instead:

READ: Give and Take - Adam Grant (2013). Particularly the chapters on the hidden cost of being the person everyone leans on.

The people who hold your team together are usually not the loudest ones in the room. Make sure they know you see them and their wider contribution.