UNSEEN WORK
A definition and diagnostic
Unseen work is the labour that sustains continuity, prevents breakdown and enables transformation, while remaining structurally unrecognised.
It is not simply work that goes unnoticed.
It is work that a system depends on but does not formally name, resource, measure or distribute as a core function.
Because it does not appear as output, it is absorbed into professionalism, care, competence or character.
It is carried — and it accumulates.
The misrecognition of essential labour
Most organisations publicly value what can be counted:
deliverables
activity
growth
crisis response
Yet their survival depends on a different set of activities:
monitoring emerging risk
maintaining relational conditions
holding ethical boundaries
preparing for what has not yet occurred
These forms of labour produce stability rather than event. Their success is measured by the absence of failure.
When nothing goes wrong, nothing is recorded.
This disappearance is structural.
A working definition
Unseen work is the ongoing labour required to sustain viable conditions for people, systems and transformation, which is not recognised as work within the formal structure of value.
Three elements are always present:
The work is essential
The work is unrecognised or misrecognised
The work is carried by specific people
Where these coincide, depletion is predictable.
How to recognise unseen work
A diagnostic checklist
You are likely looking at unseen work if:
The system would become unstable if this work stopped.
It is not formally allocated time, authority or resources.
It is described as a personal quality rather than a role function
(“she’s just very organised”, “he’s good with people”).It prevents problems rather than producing visible outputs.
It sits between roles or falls outside position descriptions.
It is picked up by the same reliable people.
It increases during periods of change, pressure or uncertainty.
When it is done well, nothing happens.
When it is not done, failure is sudden and attributed elsewhere.
The people carrying it are described as “resilient”, “committed” or “natural leaders”.
It is expected but not acknowledged.
It is difficult to refuse without ethical discomfort.
At an individual level, you are probably carrying unseen work if:
You are the person who notices early risk.
You translate between groups so work can continue.
You maintain standards no one else is tracking.
You hold relational stability for a team or system.
You carry responsibility without matching authority.
You are told to “let go” of things that have no structural home.
You are exhausted by work that is not in your social role/job description.
This is not a personality pattern.
It is a social/structural position.
The major forms of unseen work
Unseen work appears in multiple domains at once.
Continuity work
The labour that keeps things functional over time.
Preventative work
The labour that reduces the likelihood of crisis.
Relational holding
The maintenance of usable human environments.
Ethical labour
Remaining in responsibility for consequence.
Transitional work
Holding stability while real change occurs.
These forms of work produce the conditions in which visible performance becomes possible.
The language of misrecognition
Unseen work is routinely recoded as:
dedication
professionalism
care
leadership capacity
resilience
These are not traits.
They are indicators that a person is carrying structural labour.
As long as the language remains personal, the solution will be framed as self-care.
When the language becomes structural, the solution becomes redesign.
From coping to design
Naming unseen work allows different questions to be asked:
Where does continuity currently sit?
Who is holding relational stability?
Where is ethical responsibility located?
What labour has no formal home?
These are design questions, not wellbeing questions.
The cultural dimension
Every functioning culture depends on forms of labour it does not celebrate.
The Roman figure of Cloacina presided over the hidden infrastructure that allowed the visible city to exist. Her domain marked the recognition that what is unseen is civilisational.
To bring unseen work into language is to change what a system understands as valuable.
Redistribution
Unseen work cannot simply be made visible and left in the same place.
Once named, it must be:
recognised as work
resourced
distributed
accompanied by authority
Otherwise visibility becomes an additional burden.
The condition beneath all other work
Unseen work is not an optional layer beneath real activity.
It is the condition that makes all other work viable.
Where it is structurally supported:
burnout reduces
ethical authority becomes sustainable
transformation becomes possible
Not because individuals give more, but because the system begins to support what it already depends on.
© Pamela Weatherill. Please cite the original source when sharing or referencing this work.
Dr Pamela-June Weatherill is the founder of The Cloacina Collective and originator of the Unseen Work framework, a body of work examining maintenance, ethical authority and structural burnout in leadership and organisational life.