Join over 4 million Americans who start their day with 1440 – your daily digest for unbiased, fact-centric news. From politics to sports, we cover it all by analyzing over 100 sources. Our concise, 5-minute read lands in your inbox each morning at no cost. Experience news without the noise; let 1440 help you make up your own mind. Sign up now and invite your friends and family to be part of the informed.

Subscribe to 1440 today.

Hey friend,

Your job description forgot some things.
It listed deliverables, deadlines, and “other duties as assigned.”

But not the part where you manage emotions like a full-time therapist.
Or smooth chaos before it reaches your boss.
Or carry invisible loads labeled “team player.”

Then there are the unspoken expectations, like the Slack pings at 9 pm from your boss that expect a response, and all the other invisible tasks that you do that are the real glue that keeps everything from falling apart.

That’s the real job, and somehow, it never makes the performance review.

Next time you catch yourself doing one of the off-the-menu jobs like
emotional support person, vibe manager, or unpaid chaos coordinator, pause.

Take a deep breath.

Inhale:
“Did I sign up for this?”
Exhale:
“This isn’t mine.”

Then write it down.
Name what it costs.
Then cross it out, as a micro no.

You can even tear it up and throw it away.

Then clap for yourself like you just deleted Slack from your phone and ate your lunch away from your desk like the main character you are.

Because letting go of even one unpaid emotional labor task (even if just on paper) is how you stop paying overtime with your soul.

You may not be able to quit these unpaid tasks because they have become expected of you, your job, your role, or just the reality right now, but you can stop carrying the feelings it keeps handing you.

Writing it down is a micro-boundary, a way to say:
“Even if I can’t stop doing this task that has nothing to do with my actual job description, I can stop letting it take up emotional real estate.”

That’s agency: not control over everything, but the power to decide what gets to live inside you.

Getting it on the page makes it real.
What we write down stops owning us, because it stops living in our guts.
Crossing it out marks your boundary.
Throwing it away says: “This isn’t mine to keep.”

Even if it’s just on paper, letting it go is a win.

And burnout? Yeah, it hates that.

(It will sneak into your Downloads folder.) For releasing invisible labor. No manager approval required. Print it, put it where you’ll see it.

Time to Vote

They pay you to do your job, and depend on you for everything else.
You don’t owe them both.

✨See you next Sunday,