The office laptop is finally shut. The last meeting is over, and the workday is officially done.

But for many working women, the day is far from over.

There are groceries to pick up, festive clothes to check, gifts to arrange, the house to clean, sweets to order and family plans to coordinate. Somewhere between all this, there is also a child’s school activity to remember and a family WhatsApp group waiting for responses.

Sounds familiar?

The festive season is supposed to be about happiness, celebrations and spending time with loved ones. But for many working women, it also brings an additional workload that nobody really talks about.

At work, there are quarterly targets, client deadlines, performance reviews and year-end responsibilities. At home, there is an entirely different list of things that need attention.

And somehow, women are expected to manage both without letting either one show.

This is what we often call the second shift. During the festive season, it can feel like a second job with no fixed working hours, no weekends off and certainly no performance bonus!

Think about what goes into preparing a home for Diwali or any major festival.

The cleaning doesn’t happen on its own. Someone has to decide which cupboards need attention, which curtains need washing, what needs repairing and what needs to be purchased.

Then come the shopping lists, decorations, sweets, gifts and arrangements for guests.

For a working woman, this often means spending the day in office meetings and returning home to manage another set of responsibilities.

Imagine a woman who has spent the entire day handling client escalations and reviewing business targets. By the time she reaches home, she is already tired. But there is still a shopping list to complete, dinner to prepare and festive arrangements to check.

And this isn’t necessarily a one-day situation. It can continue for weeks.

We often appreciate a beautifully decorated home or a perfectly organised celebration. But we rarely think about the person who spent so much time making it happen.

At work, project management is recognised as a skill. At home, the same planning and coordination are often treated as something women will naturally take care of.

Sometimes, the most exhausting part isn’t the physical work. It’s remembering everything that needs to be done.

Who needs a gift? Have the sweets been ordered? When are the relatives visiting? Are the children’s festive clothes ready? Did someone remember to book the decorator? Is there enough grocery stock at home?

These thoughts keep running in the background, even when a woman is sitting in an office meeting or trying to concentrate on an important presentation.

At work, we have reminders, dashboards, trackers and task management tools to ensure nothing is missed.

At home, there is no such system. Yet someone is expected to remember almost everything.

And the difficult part is that this work often goes unnoticed because nothing visibly appears to be happening. But the planning, remembering and following up take time and energy too.

This is why simply asking women to manage their time better doesn’t always solve the problem. Sometimes, the issue isn’t time management. It’s the number of responsibilities one person is expected to manage.

There is another side to this conversation that workplaces should pay attention to.

During the festive season, some employees may appear tired, less energetic or less available than usual. It is easy to assume that their attention is shifting towards celebrations.

But what if we looked at the bigger picture?

A woman might spend eight to nine hours managing her professional responsibilities and then another few hours handling household preparations.

She may be leading a team during the day, managing budgets, resolving employee concerns and attending client calls. After logging off, she switches roles to become a caregiver, organiser, cook, host and family coordinator.

The next morning, she is expected to be equally prepared for another working day.

The question is not whether she is committed to her job. It is whether we are recognising the additional responsibilities she is carrying outside it.

We talk a lot about employee productivity, but perhaps we should also talk about the invisible workload that affects it.

Festivals are not just about cleaning, shopping and cooking. They are also about people.

Someone has to remember which relatives need to be invited, coordinate family visits, ensure traditions are followed and make sure everyone feels included.

There are expectations to keep everyone happy, avoid family disagreements and create special memories for children.

These responsibilities may not appear on a shopping list, but they require considerable emotional energy.

And often, women end up taking responsibility for making sure that everyone else enjoys the festival.

After an entire day of solving problems at work, they are expected to come home and make sure everything is perfect for everyone.

But who asks them whether they are enjoying the festival?

Perhaps that is a question worth asking more often.

Interestingly, the additional responsibilities don’t always stop at home.

In some workplaces, organising festive celebrations also becomes an unofficial responsibility of female employees.

Think about the office Diwali celebration. Someone has to arrange decorations, coordinate the dress code, organise a potluck, plan competitions, select gifts and ensure everyone participates.

These activities are meant to bring people together, and they absolutely have their place in building a positive workplace culture.

But why do these responsibilities so often fall on the same few people, particularly women?

If an employee is already managing her regular targets and responsibilities, organising office celebrations becomes one more task added to her list.

Festive engagement should be a team activity, not an additional assignment that a few employees are expected to manage.

If we want everyone to enjoy workplace celebrations, everyone should also share the effort behind organising them.

The solution isn’t to stop celebrating festivals or expect employees to choose between work and family.

It is about being a little more thoughtful about the additional pressures people may be dealing with during this time.

A few simple changes can make a difference:

• Plan deadlines realistically: If possible, avoid unnecessary last-minute deliverables during major festive periods.
• Share the celebration workload: Rotate responsibility for office events instead of expecting the same employees to organise everything.
• Encourage flexibility: Allow employees some flexibility in working hours when business requirements permit.
• Avoid unnecessary meetings: Not every discussion needs to happen during an already busy week.
• Focus on outcomes: Evaluate employees on the quality of their work rather than simply the hours they spend online.
• Make support conversations easier: Managers should create an environment where employees can openly discuss workload challenges without feeling guilty.

And perhaps most importantly, organisations should remember that employee wellbeing doesn’t begin and end at the office entrance.

Festivals should bring happiness, not leave one person exhausted while everyone else enjoys the celebrations.

Perhaps this festive season, we can start with something simple at home. Share the shopping. Divide the cleaning. Let someone else take responsibility for gifts and family arrangements. Don’t wait to be asked for help.

And workplaces can do their bit too, by recognising additional responsibilities, distributing work fairly and giving employees room to manage both sides of their lives.

We often admire a beautifully decorated home, enjoy the festive food, appreciate the celebrations and capture happy family photographs.

But how often do we stop to think about the effort behind all of it?

Behind many perfectly organised festivals is someone who has spent weeks planning, coordinating and making sure everyone else is happy.

For countless working women, the most demanding deadline of the festive season isn’t on the office calendar.

It’s the one waiting at home after work ends.

Women have been managing both for years. Perhaps it’s time we stopped treating that as something they should simply be expected to do.

This festive season, let’s not just celebrate together. Let’s share the work that makes the celebration possible.