Key Takeaways
A clear subject from the start
This article tells the story of invisible work at night and unpaid care work in many countries, especially in places often shown in grey on world maps.
People who keep moving while others sleep
From bus drivers and guards to cleaners, market workers and carers, millions of people work when most neighbours are at home and resting.
Work that rarely counts as “work”
Unpaid care in the home, usually done by women and girls, is a huge part of the global economy, but it is still missing from most labour statistics.
A shared reality across continents
The same kind of hidden labour appears in Honduras (North America), Nepal (Asia), Burkina Faso (Africa), Laos (Asia), Yemen (Asia), Ethiopia (Africa), Haiti (North America), Uganda (Africa), Paraguay (South America), Kyrgyzstan (Asia), Cambodia (Asia), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Africa), Tanzania (Africa), Bolivia (South America), Madagascar (Africa), Rwanda (Africa), El Salvador (North America) and many other countries.
A simple wish behind the words
The goal is not to give advice or a plan, but to put into words that this work exists, that it matters, and that lives built around it deserve to be seen.
Story & Details
Cities that hurry home, and those who cannot
In many cities of Honduras (North America) and El Salvador (North America), the air changes after dark. People try to reach home fast. Streets feel tense. Doors close early. Yet not everyone can disappear inside.
A bus driver sits in a half-empty vehicle for the last trip of the night. Without that journey, some passengers would sleep on a bench or outside a station. A street seller folds a stall by the light of one weak bulb, counting the small coins of the day and asking if the risk was worth it. A delivery rider crosses neighbourhoods that even police avoid, only turning back once the quota is paid and the food is delivered.
When nothing happens, no one thanks the driver of the last bus or the rider on the last order. If something bad happens, their names are rarely in the headlines. Still, every night, they keep moving.
A pot of tea in the mountain cold
In Kathmandu and in small villages in Nepal (Asia), the night brings a hard, dry cold. Many people pull a blanket over their shoulders and sleep. Someone else quietly unlocks a small stall and lights a stove.
A metal pot starts to boil. Tea and simple soup are prepared for bus drivers, police officers, workers from long-distance trucks and travellers on the road. Outside, temples and trekking routes may be the pictures seen abroad. Inside this stall, the country looks very different: tired hands, simple cups, short talk, steam on glass.
This is also Nepal (Asia). A life that begins while most houses are dark.
Shining floors that hide the night
In Bolivia (South America) and Paraguay (South America), office towers gleam in the early morning. Floors are bright. Windows are clear. Bins are empty. Visitors see comfort, order and a clean workday.
The invisible part happened hours before.
Cleaners entered after the last meeting ended. They moved from room to room, wiping desks where they will never sit, cleaning toilets, taking out trash, sweeping corridors. For many, this work is part-time, low paid and hard on the body. The next day a manager might say, “It looks very clean today.” Most days, no one asks who did it.
Yet without these workers, the office could not open its doors.
Hospitals that never sleep
In Ethiopia (Africa) and Rwanda (Africa), hospitals stay bright all night. Machines beep. Doors open and close. Families wait on hard chairs.
Nurses check vital signs again and again. A cleaner moves slowly along a corridor with a bucket and a mop, making sure that infection does not spread. A guard remains at the gate, keeping trouble away. A doctor, near the end of a long shift, drinks a quick coffee and tries to stay focused for the next patient.
Somewhere, a baby is born into a noisy ward. Somewhere else, a relative sits with folded hands and quiet hope.
These workers do not often appear in television dramas or glossy adverts. Still, without them, health care cannot exist.
Food as survival, not as a brand
Yemen (Asia) and Haiti (North America) are often linked in news only with war, disaster or crisis. At night, another story unfolds.
In many areas, people cook not for a lifestyle blog but for survival. A woman opens a small kitchen window to sell rice and stew to people leaving late shifts. A man lights a charcoal stove in an alley and fries snacks until the fuel almost runs out. Power cuts are common. Lights fail without warning. The work is hot, tiring and uncertain.
There are no photos on social media of these plates and pots. Yet they feed nurses, guards, drivers and cleaners who must go on.
Markets, motorbikes and moving goods
In Uganda (Africa) and Tanzania (Africa), night life has many faces. Outside clubs and bars, another rhythm beats.
Boda boda motorcycle taxis weave through traffic, carrying people home from late work or night shifts. Long trucks roll towards the next town. In large markets, staff unload sacks of vegetables, grain and fruit in the dark. By dawn, stalls will look full and fresh. Few shoppers think about who carried those heavy loads while most of the city slept.
These hands are part of the silent engine of trade.
Guards at the edge of the light
In Burkina Faso (Africa) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Africa), the line between safety and fear can feel thin. Many homes, small shops and offices have a guard on duty.
Often the guard sits on a plastic chair by a gate, with a torch, a radio or an old phone. In Madagascar (Africa) and Laos (Asia), security can also be a neighbour who takes a turn to walk the street at night, or a caretaker who sleeps in a corner of a shop.
The job is simple to describe and hard to carry: stay awake, notice danger, be there. If nothing happens, almost no one says, “Thank you for your night.” If something does happen, questions often come too fast and too late.
The work that does not look like a job
In Kyrgyzstan (Asia), Cambodia (Asia), Malawi (Africa), Benin (Africa) and almost everywhere else, another kind of night work fills homes.
One person, most often a woman or an older girl, stays up to wash dishes, sweep the floor, prepare food for the next day, iron or fix school uniforms, check homework, and look after sick or very young family members. A baby cries and needs to be fed again. A child wakes from a bad dream and needs comfort. Medicine must be given at regular times.
There is no wage for this work. There is no payslip to prove it. It does not show up in most economic charts, even though international organisations count more than 16 billion hours of unpaid domestic and care work every single day across the world. [1][2]
This quiet work keeps families standing.
One world, many nights
From Haiti (North America) to Nepal (Asia), from Bolivia (South America) to Uganda (Africa), from Ethiopia (Africa) to Cambodia (Asia) and from Rwanda (Africa) to El Salvador (North America), there are thousands of versions of the same story.
Someone is on a bus, at a gate, in a ward, by a stove or at a sink while other people sleep. Someone counts coins, checks locks, cleans a floor or holds a hand. Pay may be low or not exist at all. Respect may be missing. Still, these people hold together homes, streets and services.
The world works at night, even when the world prefers not to see it.
Conclusions
A quiet recognition
The reality of night work and unpaid care work is not new. What changes is whether it is named.
Studies now show in numbers what many already know in daily life: unpaid care keeps hundreds of millions of women outside paid jobs, and night workers often face health risks and broken sleep. [1][2][3] Behind these numbers stand cleaners, guards, drivers, nurses, market workers and carers who are rarely at the centre of stories.
This article simply places a light over that reality. When a clean office, a safe door, a warm meal or a calm patient appears in the morning, there is almost always someone behind it whose working day did not match the clock on the wall.
A world that takes their work seriously becomes easier to live in for everyone, not only for those who already sleep well.
Selected References
[1] International Labour Organization, “Women do 4 times more unpaid care work than men in Asia and the Pacific”, 27 June 2018.
https://www.ilo.org/resource/news/ilo-women-do-4-times-more-unpaid-care-work-men-asia-and-pacific
[2] International Labour Organization, “Unpaid care work prevents 708 million women from participating in the labour market”, statistical brief and news release, 29 October 2024.
https://www.ilo.org/resource/news/unpaid-care-work-prevents-708-million-women-participating-labour-market
[3] Health Council of the Netherlands, “Health risks of night shift work”, advisory report, 24 October 2017.
https://www.healthcouncil.nl/documents/2017/10/24/health-risks-of-night-shift-work
[4] United Nations Development Programme, Latin America and the Caribbean, “The missing piece: valuing women’s unrecognized contribution to the economy”, 8 March 2024.
https://www.undp.org/latin-america/blog/missing-piece-valuing-womens-unrecognized-contribution-economy
[5] International Labour Organization, “Decent Work in the Care Economy” (video).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed8kOnv0aWw
Appendix
Boda boda
Boda boda is a common term in East Africa for a motorcycle taxi that carries passengers or goods, often used by people travelling at night in countries such as Uganda (Africa) and Tanzania (Africa).
Care economy
Care economy refers to all paid and unpaid work that involves looking after children, older people, sick people and adults who need help, including both formal care services and informal support in homes and communities.
Grey countries
Grey countries describes nations that are often shown in dull colours or as simple blocks on global charts and maps, which makes their people and stories seem less visible than those from richer or more powerful regions.
Invisible work
Invisible work is labour that is real and necessary, such as cleaning, guarding, driving, cooking or caring, but that is rarely noticed, properly paid or counted in official statistics.
Night work
Night work means any work, paid or unpaid, done during the hours when most people in a place are usually asleep, including late shifts in hospitals, security rounds, market unloading and domestic chores after dark.
Unpaid care work
Unpaid care work includes looking after children, older relatives, sick family members and doing daily chores such as cooking, cleaning and washing clothes at home, without direct pay, even though it takes time and energy every day.
My Diary - Leonardo Cardillo 