The Double-Duty Trap

By: Tiffany Dufu

Narrated by: Tiffany Dufu

Length: 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Taking on extra tasks in the workplace - even those we may love doing, or find particularly easy to add to our plate - doesn’t always translate into the recognition and success we imagine. In fact, the opposite is more often the case, particularly for women. 

In this workshop, Tiffany Dufu, a career coach for women and author of Drop the Ball, explores the ways in which women are often expected to take on extra, non-job-related projects at work that ultimately hinder their professional growth and how women can "drop the ball" while building a framework for success. 

Key Takeaways:

• How doing “double duty” tasks can hold you back and consume your time 
• Identifying negative bias and how to counter it 
• Why certain tasks feel “comfortable” but are better delegated to help others grow 
• How to negotiate your personal choices without losing your unique self 
• Revealing the “likeability” gap and ways to combat this phenomenon 
• How to leverage your voice in the workplace

About the Mentor: 

Tiffany Dufu is a catalyst-at-large in the world of women’s leadership. Named to Fast Company’s League of Extraordinary Women, she’s the author of Drop the Ball and is Founder and CEO of The Cru, a peer coaching platform for women looking to accelerate their professional and personal growth. She serves on the board of Girls Who Code and Simmons College.

©2019 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC.

gained a new perspective

I'm the weirdo guy who plans potlucks at work and helps plan parties. I never thought about this problem and how these tasks are pushed into people. I'm lucky that my organization actually had hired people where a lot of event planning is their main duties. I hope more people read this and organizations adjust.

Stop volunteering because it's expected from women

There is some good information here, but it covers two topics. The primary topic is that often women volunteer (or are expected) to do extra work outside of their jobs, like plan company events, manage mentoring programs, and coordinate team building activities. If a man volunteers to help, he is recognized for the extra effort while women rarely get any acknowledgment. This is a short audiobook so it doesn't include much advice except start with having conversations about the disparity. The other topic that the author touched on was biases. When she didn't get the promotion again and asked for feedback, she was told she wore "too much gold." For the first time comparing how she looked (a black woman) with other people at her level, she realized she didn't have the typical conservative executive appearance. She chose to compromise somewhat by replacing her bold gold jewelry with a few simple pieces but kept her hairstyle as it was. This book is a good introduction for women navigating the workplace.

Pretty Neat

It doesn't offer much advice on countering the double-duty trap, but it does give good points to think about. It makes good use of 30 minutes to talk about simple concepts and isn't overly bloated. Overall a nice thing to listen to on your break.

That's me!

Such a validation of my female role in the workplace! I stared my career in the 80s when there were few female admintrators it was all this and more!

I really enjoyed listening to this book.

This book has great key points for navigating through your career. Think of the message a person is trying to convey and don't get caught up in their tone or wording. Look at it from a positive space and it will be beneficial.

It’s a trap

Cannot delete from my library after I got it with membership. Now what? I cannot listen to it and I cannot delete it.

Is this a computer glitch or a purposeful annoyance.