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Based on a case study from a French university, this article explores the dynamics and hidden premises of a little-known form of academic work, historically carried out as an activist, voluntary and feminist engagement: accompanying and supporting victims of sexual violence within the institution. It reveals the costs of this work on the careers and personal lives of the women who perform it. Both active listening to the victims and public advocacy for their cases, sometimes against the interests of the institution, take a toll on their working conditions: exhaustion, stigmatization and reprisals punctuate their daily lives. Recent moves to institutionalize this work has only slightly modified the devalued character of this involvement in managing and regulating intimacy on the job, and has not changed the fact that it is largely unpaid. At a moment when neoliberalization of higher education reinforces pre-existing career gaps, the article re-examines the full gambit of academic work carried out by women, and the barriers to its recognition.