Beyond Pride Month: LGBTQ+ Inclusion Is About Every Single Day

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LGBTQ+ InclusionLGBTQ+ is a form of invisible diversity that is both growing and significantly changing, especially among younger generations. Yet, many LGBTQ+ employees continue to report a lack of real inclusion and safety in the workplace.

During Pride Month, let’s remember why valuing LGBTQ+ employees is not just about a month of celebration, adapted logos and rainbow flags – but about a deep commitment to building LGBTQ+ inclusive and safe workplaces that allow all individuals to contribute and thrive every single day.

Underrepresentation for LGBTQ+ From Entry to Leadership

According to Gallup in 2021, 7.1% of the U.S. identifies as LGBTQ+ (doubling since 2012) and 21% of Gen Z do (twice the proportion of millennials). LGBTQ+ identification is increasing across major racial and ethnic groups – giving rise to more diverse, intersectional identities.

Yet under-representation in the workplace for LGBTQ+ groups begins at entry level. McKinsey found that LGBTQ+ women are underrepresented by more than half, even at entry level. Meanwhile at the top, only .5% of the board seats in the Fortune 500 are held by openly LGBTQ+ directors and only a few Fortune 500 CEOs are openly gay, including one woman. One transgender woman leads a Fortune 1000 company. The lack of visible LGBTQ+ executive leadership limits visible role models for younger talent.

LGBTQ+ men (80%) are more likely to be out than LGBTQ+ women (58%). Senior LGBTQ+ leaders (80%) are more out than junior employees (32%), even though their peers are more accepting and demand inclusivity in the workplace.

Globally, the World Economic Forum is advocating for LGBTQ+ visibilty: more LGBTQ+ representation in business and media that tells more diverse and inclusive stories of LGBTQ+ individuals, to advance both equality and acceptance. LGBTQ+ community members report feeling least authentically represented in media depictions. And while 63% of non-LGBTQ+ people perceive the “community” as one collective group with similar needs, the reality of a changing LGBTQ+ culture has never been further away.

While LGBTQ+ acceptance has grown globally since 1981, an unprecedented number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills are proposed in U.S. state legislatures, 71 countries still criminalize consensual same-sex sexual activity, 15 countries criminalize the gender identity and/or expression of transgender people and 11 countries deem consensual same-sex relations punishable by death.

LGBTQ+ Experiences In the Workplace

A LinkedIn survey of LBGTQ professionals found 24% were not open about their identity at work and 26% feared they’d be treated differently by coworkers, echoing McKinsey’s findings that one in four LGBTQ+ employees are not out at work.

McKinsey research found that half of out LGBTQ+ individuals have to come out at least once a week: especially challenging for women, junior employees, and people outside Europe and North America. BCG found 40% of U.S. LGBTQ employees are closeted at work and that 75% have experienced negative day-to-day workplace interactions related to their identity.

Yet being out has helped many to access more of their potential. According to LinkedIn, LGBTQ+ individuals report being open at work helps them connect with others for support and build better relationships. According to McKinsey, individuals experience greater well-being and are more able to focus on work. Those who are out are far less likely to plan to leave their current employer. But in absence of strong cultures of inclusion, many are deterred or facing headwinds.

According to CIPD research on LGBTQ+ inclusion, LGB+ employees (40%) and trans employees (55%) experience more workplace conflict and harassment than heterosexual employees (29%) and feel less psychological safety. LinkedIn found 31% reported facing discrimination or microaggressions at work.

Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law also found that nearly half (46%) of LGBT workers have experienced unfair treatment at work, such as harassment, dismissal or hiring discrimination based on their LGBT status. Nearly one-fourth have experienced discrimination when applying for jobs, and even more so for transgender workers.

67% of LGBT workers have heard slurs, jokes and negative comments about LGBT people. Half are not out to their supervisors. While 40% of LGBT cis-gender employees are likely to adopt behaviors to “cover,” nearly 60% of transgender employees are. Trans individuals are twice as likely to hear sexist jokes about people of their gender, three times more likely to feel they can’t talk about life outside of work, and think more often about leaving.

When it comes to advancing, McKinsey reports that many LGBTQ+ employees believe they have to outperform non-LGBTQ+ colleagues to gain recognition and 40% of LGBTQ+ women feel they need to provide extra evidence of their competence. Compared to 2/3 of non-LGBTQ+ employees, only half of LGBTQ+ respondents saw people like themselves in management positions at their organizations. Less than 1 in 4 of have an LGBTQ+ sponsor, even though senior LGBTQ+ leaders are twice as likely as straight and cis-gender peers to credit sponsors for their own career growth.

LGBTQ+ employees earn 90% on every $1 and transgender employees make 32% less per year than their cisgender peers. 1 in 3 LGBTQ+ U.S. employees feel discrimination has impacted their promotion or salary levels.

And a study published in the Journal of Business and Psychology found that leaders with same-sex sexual orientation are perceived to be less effective and receive less follower conformity than heterosexual leaders, regardless of gender presentation or biological gender, especially among male followers (women followers were more supportive). The researchers note that extra care must be taken to ensure same-sex sexual orientation leaders are evaluated fairly in performance reviews.

The Remote Workplace Has Mixed Impacts on LGBTQ+ Inclusion

In a global study, McKinsey found that LGBTQ+ employees in the remote workplace were 1.4 times more likely (twice as likely in Asia) than straight and cis-gender peers to report acute challenges with workload increase and fair performance reviews. They struggled more from a loss of workplace connectivity and belonging. Two of three LGBTQ+ employees reported acute or moderate challenges with mental health. Additionally, a survey of remote workers in tech reported that online harassment and hostility went up for LGBTQ workers during the pandemic.

McKinsey researchers noted: “The allyship found in social and work settings is an important source of belonging among many in the LBGTQ+ community.”

On the other hand, some LGBTQ+ employees found remote work to be a ‘game changer for inclusion.’ With remote work, employees can remain in a place where they have a supportive community and work for an employer in a different location. Some find the remote office reduces the pressure of office interactions and helps avoid appearance-based comments. It also makes it straight-forward to introduce pronouns.

The Cost for Lacking LGBTQ+ Inclusion

It’s been estimated that the US economy could save $9 billion annually if organizations had more effective inclusion policies for LGBTQ+ employees.

A recent argument in Forbes demonstrated that a lack of LGBTQ+ inclusion is costing companies. If an LGBTQ+ employee – either out or closeted – spends even 15 minutes of their day either explaining or evading uncomfortable situations related to their identity, it amounts to 65 hours a year, or over $1500 per LGBTQ+ employee based on median income, to compensate for a workplace that isn’t LGBTQ+ inclusive: which sums to a quarter million for a company with 10,000 employees or $2 billion for U.S. employers, annually.

“Add it all up, and employers are wasting a huge amount of money by not creating spaces where LGBTQ+ folks can bring their whole selves to work, do their jobs and be successful,” writes Michael Bach.

Meanwhile, many studies confirm that when employees are within a genuinely inclusive organizational culture, it benefits individuals, teams, organizations and the bottom line.

LGBTQ+ Inclusion Is a Cultural Commitment

While Pride Month is a celebration that lasts for a month, a LGBTQ+ employee needs to feel included – and protected from homophobia and transphobia – every day, and regardless if they choose to share their identity in the workplace. Because LGBTQ+ individuals are less visible than other underrepresented groups, organizations must go the extra mile.

Inclusion is not performative but about mitigating biases, creating authentic belonging, valuing LGBTQ+ voices and providing equal opportunity to contribute and fulfill potential. When it comes to LGBTQ+ inclusion, dedicated corporations advocate for legislative change and oppose legislative discrimination.

At a DEI commitment level, LGBTQ+ inclusion must be a specific priority and companies must seek to understand how individuals who are LGBTQ+ experience the office differently to other groups. It means visible leadership commitment to inclusion and leadership representation, and activating sponsorship of LGBTQ+ talent.

At an advocacy level, it means leveraging the corporate voice to oppose discriminatory legislation that targets the LGBTQ+ community and even leading the charge as powerful allies on LGBTQ+ rights.

At a policy and processes level, inclusion means making sure policies are LGBTQ+ inclusive such as domestic-partner benefit and trans-inclusive healthcare coverage as well as clear about non-discrimination on gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation regardless of whether employees are “out”; mitigating assumptions and bias in hiring, reviews, pay and promotions; adapting technological interfaces to be inclusive (such as freedom to input chosen names in data fields); providing gender-neutral restrooms; and protecting employees from bullying whether in-office or online.

At the level of everyday cultural interactions, it means cultivating compassion and awareness among employees; using inclusive and gender-neutral language in the workplace; actively encouraging allyship, empowering better allyship and making allyship visible; investing in LGBTQ+ networks and rewarding contributions; setting aside safe spaces for voices to come forth; normalizing the adding of pronouns on LinkedIn and social media profiles; recognizing that identifies are fluent and complex and letting people tell you how they identify on their terms; celebrating LGBTQ+ calendar events and days; and most of all creating a culture of learning, openness and psychological safety.

It’s the organizations and leaders that champion not a month, but a sustained and iterative commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion, that will make a real difference to LGBTQ+ lives.

By Aimee Hansen

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Op-ED: How to Navigate Your Career as a Working Mother in Technology

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Working Mother In TechnologyNavigating one’s career as a working mother in technology is akin to holding a porcupine, while jumping through a ring of fire, and trying to put mascara on at the same time. It can be uncomfortable, it can make you feel hot, and we try to look our best while doing it all. In fact, our survey of over 300 mothers worldwide, published in our book Pressing ON As A Tech Mom: How Tech Industry Mothers Set Goals, Define Boundaries And Raise the Bar for Success, revealed that 34 percent felt that working in such a hectic, high-speed environment was incredibly tough and sometimes downright impossible. Being a woman in tech is challenging, but being a mother makes it even more so challenging.


With just 27 percent of female representation in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) industries, women are underrepresented. Mothers who remain in these fields are even fewer, with 43 percent of women leaving full-time STEM employment after their first child (PNAS). Since women in tech studies report that $12 trillion could be added to global GDP by 2025 with a more gender-diverse workforce, where balanced contributions can lead to the creation of workplaces in which “employees feel safe to innovate, knowing that their unique experiences and contributions are valued” (JAB), there are compelling reasons for change.

As mothers in tech, what can we do to overcome the obstacles, and rise above to thrive in our careers, rather than only survive?

Here are three key steps to navigating motherhood and their STEM careers:
  • Squash Imposter Syndrome – When we believe that we are unworthy of the role that we are in or feel that we lack the skills to be successful, we often feel like imposters. According to Forbes, 75 percent of professional women report experiencing this unsavory feeling. When these thoughts and ideas enter our minds, we need to invoke a strategy to dismiss that negative feedback loop. Instead of telling yourself “I don’t know what I’m doing,” leverage positive self-talk and think about the skills that you are bringing to a role or situation. If you are a leader, be mindful about providing positive reinforcement for a job well done and enable an emotionally safe space where giving and receiving feedback is welcome.

 

  • Find A Mentor And A Sponsor – Mentorship and sponsorship are one of the most important ways to enable a woman to rise. Yet in our survey for our book, we found that just 41 percent of women ever had the benefit of these champion roles boosting their careers. Understanding the difference between the two is one place to start: A mentor is someone with whom you can brainstorm ideas based on shared values. A sponsor is someone who can influence decisions about your career and/or compensation. Note that your sponsor and mentor can be male or female so long as they are your true advocate, in tune with your accomplishments and career goals. A second step to take is to seek these crucial advocacy roles out by simply asking mentor and sponsor candidates. Most people are willing to help, which leads us to our third tip:

 

  • Lift Up Other Women – Live by the “golden rule” – treating other mothers in tech the way that you want to be treated. In past decades, women like my mom recount stories of women mistreating one another in favor of their own advancement (“To climb the corporate ladder, I needed to beat out the other women who were vying for the same limited roles.”).  While competition can be healthy, mindfully supporting one another is most important to nurture a balanced workplace where women can rise, and thrive, together. Lend a helping hand to a mother reintegrating into the workplace after parental leave. Invite another woman to join an important meeting as part of a career development initiative. Oblige when asked to serve as a sponsor and/or mentor for others.

By being confident, seeking out allyship, and practicing benevolence, mothers in technology have a greater chance of breaking down barriers and invoking change. With more mothers staying in technology, a more inclusive environment will emerge that sets the precedent for future generations. So, while the day-to-day routine of a working mom may feel like a circus act, continue to show up. Persist. Persevere. Your efforts are part of our movement to change the future for our daughters and their allies.

Other resources to nurture and inspire your journey that we often use include:
  • How Women Rise: Break the 12 Habits Holding You Back from Your Next Raise, Promotion, Or Job. In their book, Marshall Goldsmith and Sally Helgesen identify twelve habits that women typically have that limit their ability to grow professionally and ways to change those behaviors.
  • The Adventures of Women in Technology: How We Got Here And Why We Stay, by Alana Karen. Alana is Senior Software Engineer at Google, where she’s worked for over a decade. She has seen it all and remains loyal to her craft. Learn how she does it, and more importantly, why she is still in tech.
  • Nevertheless, She Persisted: True Stories of Women Leaders in Tech. This book by Pratima Rao Gluckman recounts the stories of hundreds of women leaders who faced adversity and hardship in their tech careers, yet managed to find success.

About:
Sabina M. Pons is a management consultant whose focus is on driving revenue protection and growth for technology companies. In her 20+ year career, she has led global corporate teams, managed multi-million-dollar P&Ls, and built teams from the ground up. Now, she serves as the Managing Director of the emerging management consulting company, Growth Molecules.

With a master’s degree in Communication, Leadership & Organizational Behavior from Gonzaga University and a bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Southern California, Sabina is passionate about igniting corporate transformational change. She also sits on several boards, participates in many mentorship programs, and recently obtained a First-Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo. Sabina resides in Orange County in Southern California with her husband, two young children, and Goldendoodle dog, Riley. Pressing ON as a Tech Mom: How Tech Industry Mothers Set Goals, Define Boundaries & Raise the Bar for Success is Sabina’s first book.

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Avoid These Four Leadership Failures To Retain Employees Through The Great Resignation

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Great ResignationFor more than a year, the employment world has experienced significant upheaval as millions of workers make a mass exodus from the traditional workplace: a phenomenon now commonly called ‘the Great Resignation’. Women leaders who recognize and avoid four common leadership failures in the workplace will be better placed to retain their best employees through these turbulent times.

World-wide, leaders are grappling to understand what is fueling ‘the Great Resignation’. Also known as ‘the Big Quit’ and ‘the Great Reshuffle’, this is an ongoing economic trend in which employees have voluntarily resigned from their jobs en masse since early 2021, primarily in the US.

Research into this phenomenon that is wreaking havoc in the employment world suggests that many people are rethinking their careers, seeking a better work-life balance, facing up to long-endured job dissatisfaction, and preferring the flexibility of remote work.

As ‘the Great Resignation’ unfolds, there has never been a more important time for business leaders to think smart to ensure their work environment appeals to the post-Covid generation of workers.

Here are the four fundamental leadership failures that drive good employees away. Recognizing and rectifying these leadership failures will provide women leaders with an edge to help them retain good employees amid a mass exodus.

Rectifying leadership failure 1: Treating employees as the primary customers

The first crucial leadership failure is not recognizing that the employee is actually the primary customer.

Employees are initially drawn to work for a company because of various reasons, such as the company’s reputation. Ultimately, however, good employees stick around because of how well a company looks after them.

 Employees should therefore be treated as the primary customer. This means that each employee should be treated, cared for, managed, and responded to in a way that is consistent with how the company wants its customers to be treated.

Not only does it set a good example to manage employees this way, but it also increases one of the most important assets of any company: credibility, and the trust it brings. Employees want to work with and for a company that they can trust.

Rectifying leadership failure 2 – Recognizing leadership is not management

Another crucial leadership failure is not recognizing the difference between leadership and management.

Most companies have a management culture, which is not the same as proper leadership. Management is important and is a part of leadership responsibility. Managers have to make people follow, but leaders make people want to follow. Managers bring about compliance, but what leaders are able to create is buy-in, and this increases the likelihood of employees bringing their best self to work.

Recognizing the difference between management and leadership not only increases the likelihood of recruiting and retaining good employees, it also increases the chances of having a team that gives their best effort and go beyond the regular call of duty.

Rectifying leadership failure 3 – Realizing valued compensation is not just financial

The failure to recognize that finances are not the only form of valued compensation is a third common leadership failure today.

This is a recent development and is clear when considering the work patterns of the Millennium generation. This is the first generation in some time that does not out earn the previous generation. And it’s not because this generation is not capable or competent, but rather because they value some things more than money, such as flexibility, being part of something bigger or being valued as individuals.

Whereas paying employees so well that they tolerate toxicity in their working environment – often called ‘golden handcuffs’ – may have worked in the past, but will not work in the future.

Rectifying leadership failure 4 – Recognizing that EQ is the IQ multiplier

Last, but certainly not least, is the leadership failure of not recognizing that EQ (Emotional Intelligence) is the IQ (Intelligence Quotient) multiplier, especially now during ‘the Great Resignation’. 

It’s not that employees are avoiding work, or that they prefer to stay at home, but rather that many have had a glimpse of what it’s like to work in peace and don’t want to return to a toxic work culture.

For this reason, building Emotional Intelligence is a core leadership competency. Fortunately, building EQ is possible, and requires attention to each of the four qualities of EQ, briefly described below.


The four qualities of EQ
  1. Self-awareness, referring to how well you are aware of yourself as a leader.
  2. Self-management, which is the ability to manage yourself based on what you know about yourself.
  3. Social awareness, or the ability to discern the difference in others’ relationship management approaches.
  4. Relationship management, which is determining how different people communicate, comprehend and are motivated, and the ability to lead and respond accordingly.

In a post-COVID work world, dominated by ‘the Big Resignation”, being an emotionally intelligent leader – able to manage yourself and others – is key and critical to recruiting and keeping good employees.

By: Dr. Dharius Daniels is an emotional intelligence expert, author of Relational Intelligence: The People Skills You Need For The Life Of Purpose You Want, and former professor at Princeton University.

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Mental Health Month: Racism and Women of Color at Work

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women of color at workIt is no secret that the workplace has been completely transformed since the global pandemic and racial reckoning that swept 2020. Some of the disruption has been good for business, forcing an agility on companies who must learn to be more responsive in a rapidly evolving marketplace. It has been good for people, too, with remote work offering the increased flexibility we’ve been wanting for years but were slow to implement. For women at work, flexibility is becoming a stake in the ground instead of the benefit it once was. For women of color, however, the story is much more complicated.

According to a recent survey by Fairy Godboss and nFormation in 2021, one third of women of color planned to leave their workplaces in the next year, with burnout being the leading factor at 51%, followed by different career/greater purpose and salary/benefits tied at 47%. When we dig deeper, “burnout” for women of color is fueled by multiple competing ideas: more work with less appreciation, more discussions about racism without meaningful and effective mitigation of its effects, and greater focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion softened by little measurable progress.

Despite statements about commitments to diversity, the same survey revealed that nearly two thirds of women of color aren’t satisfied with their company’s diversity and inclusion initiatives, with 60% saying their companies are not properly prepared to handle racist incidents in the workplace.

Is it no shock then that merely 3% percent of Black knowledge workers want to return to full-time on-site work, as opposed to 21% of their white peers, and that Asian and LatinX also prefer a hybrid or fully remote work environment.

Many are wondering why, with dominant assumptions centering on the ability to manage home and work harmoniously. While flexibility has in fact brought unintended benefits to many women, especially those with young children, the pandemic has given women of color another gift that’s growing more valuable with time: psychological safety.

According to McKinsey and LeanIn’s 2021 Women in the Workplace study, women of color are far more likely to be on the receiving end of disrespectful and othering behavior, which includes race-based insults or inappropriate comments. These microaggressions, or subtle acts of indignity that communicate to outgroups that they do not belong, can range from judgments about attire or hairstyle, to ignoring one’s presence in a room, to discounting input or decisions, and even tolerating overt acts of racism or gender discrimination.

During the pandemic, Black and brown women enjoyed a respite from race-based offense and trauma. Working from home meant the avoidance of harmful people, conversations, and spaces while still receiving (most of) the critical information they needed to do their jobs.

Racism wears women of color out, literally and figuratively. The emotional and psychological weight associated with bracing for offense, overthinking whether and how to respond to offense, feeling unsafe in the world and consequently at work, and knowing you must work harder to achieve half the credit and opportunity is not only burdensome, but extremely damaging to the mental and physical health of women of color at work.

We can’t afford to dabble in healing. For businesses that desire to thrive into the future, the path forward is multi-dimensional and urgent.

Be courageous and compassionate.

As a leader, you have an opportunity to “show up” for the people with whom you work in ways that help and heal. When harm is inflicted upon their communities, engaging women of color at work with curiosity and compassion helps them feel seen by you. We want to be seen at work, and ignoring racial trauma makes people feel their pain is invisible to you. Failing to make compassionate connections during times of emotional need also chips away at psychological safety, which is key to creativity and innovation, and a precursor to true inclusion. Another way to show up for people is to intervene directly and immediately when you personally witness race-based offense.

Beware of overwork and undervalue.

Many women of color feel overworked and undervalued. In a LinkedIn poll I conducted earlier this year, the comments section overflowed with anecdotes about this very imbalance. Black women have long felt they must work twice as hard as their white peers—a feeling that is validated by Gender Action Portal research that revealed they are evaluated more negatively than Black men, white women, or white men. This “overwork” requirement stands in sharp contrast to the underrepresentation of women of color, who enter the workforce at 17% but hold only 4% of top jobs. Clearly, it is not paying off in greater opportunity. It’s every leader’s responsibility to ensure they are not requiring more proof, more effort, and stronger results from women of color than from others at work, and that you are not seeing some as perpetual “doers” and others as “leaders,” the definition of which is often based on white male models.

Build bridges.

For every practice or process we interrogate, we should build a relationship across difference. Relationships are the great accelerator in the workplace, and while systems matter greatly for sustainable impact, getting to know the people on your team – what they aspire to, what they’re good at, what their concerns are, what great looks like to them – is a powerful way to open doors for others and make them feel they truly belong. Belonging is an antidote to the isolation and trauma racism creates in any given environment and is foundational to racial equity. Your women of color need to know they are not alone, yes, but also that they are an equally valuable member of the team. Women of color, and especially Black women, aspire to higher levels of contribution. The inability to realize career aspirations can erode general optimism and taint one’s belief in their career possibilities.

Racism has long been a destroyer of people and places, and work is no exception. It divides us, harms us, and prevents us from working collaboratively in life and in business. Every leader has an opportunity and responsibility to better understand the roots of racism and how it manifests in your given work environment. Assessing your employee experience is a critical first step. Then, take responsibility for what you learn, and commit to a safer, more equitable future. This is the workplace culture your women of color, and all your employees, deserve.

By: Tara Jaye Frank is a sought-after Equity Strategist and author of The Waymakers: Clearing the Path to Workplace Equity with Competence and Confidence (May 3, 2022). Tara has worked with thousands of leaders at Fortune 500 companies to help solve culture-based and leadership problems. Before founding her culture and leadership consultancy, Frank spent twenty-one years at Hallmark Cards, where she served in multiple roles, including Vice President of Multicultural Strategy and Corporate Culture Advisor to the President. Frank’s work, fueled by a deep belief in the creative power and potential of everyone, focused on equity and building bridges between people, ideas, and opportunity.

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Mother’s Day: Tasks at Home and Work that Hold You Back

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working mothers dayAs we aim to reduce inequities in pay in the workforce, we need to focus not only on how men and women spend their time at work but also how household duties are divided at home. Research shows that women who have male partners and work outside the home handle more tasks at home. A study by Oxfam and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research looked at the amount of time women and men in the US spend on unpaid labor in the home. Women who work full-time outside the home spend almost 5 hours a day on unpaid work at home compared with about 4 hours for men. If you are one of the women who picks up the slack, this is unlikely to surprise you. Data on the division of household tasks suggest that people in same-sex relationships divide household tasks more equally than those in opposite-sex households.

There are things you can do to lighten your load. Talk with your family about how communities and societies function best when everyone shares equitably in the work. List all your household’s chores and who currently does them. If they’re not assigned equally, then reassign tasks to the family members capable of doing them. Relieving yourself of an excessive workload at home matters because our research shows that you may not be overloaded only at home. As previously written on theglasshammer, women are subject to a double whammy of doing more of the thankless tasks at home in addition to more non-promotable tasks (NPTs) at work.

Non-promotable tasks help organizations move forward in a myriad of ways, but they come with a catch—they don’t necessarily benefit the person who does them. While it is important to help co-workers, organize events, or make presentations look great, no one gets a raise or a promotion for doing unrewarded work. Our research definitively shows that women are much more likely to do these tasks, and that this shrinks their potential for advancement. Their organizations suffer too. When women handle the non-promotable work, their organizations forfeit the contributions women could be making to the bottom line.

We want to change that, and here are five ideas you can use to free yourself (and your female colleagues) from this dead-end work. These changes will help not only you, but also your organization!

  1. Determine how much non-promotable work you should do. Start by identifying the non-promotable work that you currently do. Learn what your organization values for its growth and for your career advancement. Those activities, the promotable tasks, are where you should spend most of your time. You’ll still need to do some non-promotable work, but you don’t want to do too much. Start discussing NPTs with your co-workers. What type of NPTs are they doing, and how much time are they spending on them? Your goal is to have a load that is similar to that of your peers—women and men.
  2. Balance your load of promotable and non-promotable work. Identify what you should and shouldn’t be doing. Gradually, remove the non-promotable work to focus on the tasks that benefit your organization (and your career) the most.
  3. Learn to say no. This, unfortunately, is harder than it sounds. Women are expected to say yes, and you need to use caution to avoid backlash. Understand when and how you can say no. Explain what work will suffer if you take on the task. Offer an alternative (“I’m leading the new product launch, but I think Joe has some time since he’s just completed a big project”), or turn the request into a negotiation (“I can take it on if you reassign one of my other tasks”).
  4. Communicate alternatives for assigning NPTs. Suggest that everyone takes turns recording meeting notes, or that event planning is randomly assigned. These are such easy solutions, and so fair, that it’s hard for anyone to object to them
  5. Identify allies to help create broad organizational change. Both you and your organization will be better off if all employees do NPTs—and your organization is ultimately responsible for this. But you may need to start the process, and you’ll need people who have influence to help you kick start the change. These may be supervisors, women’s affinity groups, people in HR or DEI, and the men who champion equality for women. Men with daughters or female partners can be particularly sensitive to the demands placed on those they love. Help them see how this burden is harmful.

When you lighten your load of NPTs, you’ll be able to make even greater contributions to your organization. By distributing NPTs the right way, your employer will be using its talent to the fullest, which means an improved bottom line, a more engaged and satisfied workforce, lower turnover, and a reputation for being a great place to work. Remember too, to relieve yourself of the burden of thankless tasks at home–you can use some of the steps above to do that. When you have achieved the balance you want at work and at home, you might find that the next Mother’s Day will look a whole lot different for you.

Contributors Bios: Professors Linda Babcock, Brenda Peyser, Lise Vesterlund, and Laurie Weingart are the authors of The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead-End Work. They can be followed here: @thenoclub on Twitter, #thenoclub on Instagram, and www.thenoclub.com

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Why Micro-affirmations Matter as a Leader

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micro-affirmationsWhile microaggressions and micro-inequities contribute to experiences of exclusion for many at work, frequent experiences of micro-affirmations could help to cultivate a culture of inclusion. Every single person is capable of being an agent of micro-affirmations – and as a woman leader, you’re more likely to be ahead of the curve.

Microaggressions and Micro-Inequities Create Exclusion

Microaggressions are the brief and everyday slights, insults, indignities, and denigrating messages sent to marginalized groups. Though often unconscious, they perpetuate a devalued “otherness” by: establishing the majority group as the norm, “highlighting a person’s ‘difference’ from the majority represented group” in a way that diminishes, discomforts or disapproves, and reinforcing thinly veiled stereotypes. This includes “complimenting” an individual in a way that implies “exception” to a hidden underlying group assumption.

Verbal examples that different members of BIPOC communities experience include:

  • “Your name is hard to pronounce.”
  • “You’re so articulate.”
  • “But, where are you really from?”
  • “I don’t see color.”
  • “Your English is really good.”

In a similar vein, micro-inequities are “cumulative, subtle messages that promote a negative bias and demoralize.” These reaffirm the status quo of power dynamics and discourage, devalue and impair workplace performance for non-majority groups.

Common gender related examples that women face include:

  • Asking the woman in the room to get the coffees
  • Mansplaining and manterruption
  • More multi-tasking on phones while a woman is speaking
  • A woman’s idea being dismissed and later mis-attributed to a man
  • Women in the room receiving less eye contact from the speaker

Microaggressions create cumulative psychological harm – impacting upon mental, emotional, and physical health. Long-term exposure is associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety and can be corrosive to self-worth and self-esteem.

In Forbes, Paolo Gaudino suggests that one effective way to measure inclusion is to ask people whether and how often they have incidents of exclusion. The sum impact of microaggressions and micro-inequities is the substantial harm of exclusion.

Micro-affirmations Help to Creating Inclusion

According to Mary Rowe at MIT, “micro-affirmations” are “apparently small acts, which are often ephemeral and hard-to-see, events that are public and private, often unconscious but very effective, which occur wherever people wish to help others to succeed.” They foster inclusion, listening, comfort, and support for people who may feel unwelcome or invisible in an environment. Micro-affirmations can proactively affirm belonging, value and sense of self.

As shared by The Harriet W. Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning at Brown University, “Micro-affirmations substitute messages about deficit and exclusion with messages of excellence, openness, and opportunity.”

Drawing on her own experience as an executive at an international engineering firm years ago, Change Catalyst CEO Melinda Briana Epler, defines micro-affirmations as “little ways that you can affirm someone’s identity; recognize and validate their experience and expertise; build confidence; develop trust; foster belonging; and support someone in their career.”

University of Kansas research found that being aware of a male ally who is vocal about gender equality reduces anticipated feelings of isolation for women in STEM and increases anticipation of support and respect. Research has shown that experiencing micro-affirmations – such as “affirmations that people of your culture/ethnicity/gender/sexual orientation are important contributors to advancing knowledge,” “affirmations that you are a scientist,” and “affirmations that you can complete your degree” – help increase student’s integration into the science community and intentions to persist in the STEM field. Other research has suggested that integrating micro-affirmations in academic advising in the college environment could fuel optimal student development and better engagement, retention and graduation outcomes.

Rowe hypothesizes that regular practice of using micro-affirmations could increase one’s tendency to be “universally respectful” to others. Affirming others has the potential to create a positivity loop that ultimately fosters a more inclusive culture – supporting both marginalized voices in the workplace and your female peers and colleagues.

What Do Micro-affirmations Look Like in Action?

As found in the Women in the Workplace 2021 Report, employees report women are more likely showing concern for the overall well-being of their reports, supporting them emotionally and checking in on their work/life challenges

“Allyship is really seeing the person next to us,” says Epler. “And the person missing, who should be standing next to us.” She encourages us to all be allies to each other.

Here are examples of everyday micro-affirmations that you can use to help support others, especially those underrepresented and marginalized voices in your teams:

  • Give your undivided presence when others are speaking or presenting. As a leader, you have the opportunity to model being attentive to and listening to others. Notice when you go for your phone or an e-mail. Ask thoughtful questions that reflect real engagement.
  • Be an active listener. Use reinforcing body language. Eye contact, nods, facial expressions, tone of voice and choice of words all contribute to convey care and listening. By repeating back key points that struck you, you can let others know you were attentive and valued what they shared.
  • Invite individuals from marginalized communities into the room with you to be part of the discussion. Also help to create the space so they are heard, which may include leveraging your position of relative power to intercept an interruption. Using your voice to advocate for the voices of others is empowering to everyone.
  • Echo good ideas that members of your team raise and attribute those ideas back to the person, especially when you see their ideas being overlooked or highjacked. Support your female colleagues and underrepresented voices to receive the due credit for their contributions. “Building upon what Jasmine said” is one approach.
  • Publicly acknowledge the accomplishments, expertise and skills of marginalized team members and help raise their profile with others, especially as many have to reassert these more just to be heard. Reflecting back qualities or contributions you appreciate to individuals can also impact upon feeling seen and valued.
  • “Mirror” the language that people use to describe their identity. Epler emphasizes to listen and learn to how people describe themselves so you can use that language. Pay attention to how someone refers to their gender or pronouns. Don’t make assumptions about sexual orientation. If you don’t know how to say a name, ask and then, get it right.
  • Create openings for the underrepresented voices in the room. If someone is consistently quiet or not participating, check in on them, also as they may feel more comfortable to share ideas in another forum. Invite the less heard voices in the room to contribute on topics where you know they have value to add and encourage in confidence with your desire to hear it.
  • Give opportunities for visibility. When you receive an invitation to a networking opportunity, consider if you can bring an underrepresented individual along. When you have a speaking invitation, can you also use highlight an expert in your team and share the spotlight? For events you participate in, hold event organizers accountable for having diversity of representation. Refer and encourage underrepresented people to go for opportunities – help to close the confidence gap and mentor or sponsor them.
  • Acknowledge important moments – birthdays, milestones, holidays, anniversaries – which shows that you are paying attention to others and care. Overcome affinity bias by taking a genuine interest in people in your team who are less like you and in what their lives might be like outside of work.
  • Provide honest feedback, formal and informal, and both positive and constructive. Epler notes women tend to receive less quality feedback, and more on communication style than actionable developmental skills. While everyone needs to hear what they are doing well, make sure you are not shying away from giving constructive input to anyone out of discomfort, if it will serve their growth and development.

As Rowe says, micro-affirmations may often even be unconscious, too, as they just feel like caring. But you can actively create inclusion for others by intentionally affirming the value and contribution that we each bring to the table.

By Aimee Hansen

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How To Weigh The Risks Of Your Next Career Move

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Career Move“The Great Resignation” has been circling headlines for months as employers look to fill open positions post-pandemic, and employees look for greener pastures with a career move. The job hunt is increasingly competitive as 44% of employees are actively looking for new roles and 53% are open to leaving their current job.

The good news is that there’s no shortage of open positions. As of January 2022, the U.S. had 11.26 million jobs available — a 55% increase from January of 2021. The pressure to hire has encouraged employers to consider increased pay, benefits, and flexibility at work.

Diving into a new job presents plenty of opportunities to develop your career, skills, and financial wellness. It can also be intimidating to learn new processes, develop new relationships, and potentially find yourself in a less-than-ideal working environment.

After refining your resume, applying to positions daily, and attending a few interviews, you may finally find yourself presented with a job offer. A gleaming opportunity that may offer higher pay or a more prestigious job title, but you can’t be sure of its work-life balance or career challenges yet.

Some well-deserving workers may even receive multiple offers to consider. These situations create pressure to make a decision relatively quickly. It’s a good spot to be in, but having the skills to evaluate risk and rewards lets you fully enjoy the moment and guides you to make a confident decision.

If you’re in the middle of a job hunt or considering other career opportunities, here are some steps to help you weigh the options.

1. Identify Your Priorities

Your individual needs for your next career move are unique to you, and understanding those goals helps you create a framework for comparing offers. A majority of workers (56%) are looking for a pay raise, but there are several job benefits to consider, including:

  • Health benefits
  • Job security
  • Flexibility at work
  • Career goals
  • Employer culture

Take time to list the potential benefits of a new job and rank what’s most important to you. This is a great practice before you start applying so you can save your time and energy for positions that best fit your needs. It can also help you decide how well your current position matches your needs to consider if you’re ready for a change or not.

Next, make a spreadsheet or other list that includes all of these benefits and rank how well each job opportunity meets these criteria. This creates an easy and objective reference to compare jobs that you can update to reflect your needs as they evolve.

2. Research The Position

The internet age has given us a range of resources to evaluate employers and job expectations that too many employees don’t take advantage of. While you likely studied a company, its values, and the position itself throughout the interview process, another review before signing on is worth your time.

Start with the company itself and explore its communication channels. YouTube videos, press releases, and the About page can help you identify cultural values, how the company has and continues to grow, and insights into management. Some companies even go as far as to share their hiring secrets — a great reference in the interview phase.

Review sites like Glassdoor provide a peek into the employee experience through position and interview reviews. Check out the site to vet your priorities against what other employees report their experience with the company was. You’ll also have access to salary ranges that will help you negotiate your pay.

Finally, you’ll get the best information straight from current and former employees. Check out the company’s LinkedIn page to find current employees and search the company name to find anyone who previously worked there. You can connect with workers and send a quick chat that you’d like to know more about their experiences. You may be surprised to find how willing people are to help you find a job that fits.

3. List Your Risks

Most people stuck between two options are worried about making the wrong decision more than they are making the best decision. They’re hung up on the risks, wondering if it’s a step backward or if they’re really cut out for the position.

Imposter syndrome aside, it’s important to consider the risks of a new position. To compare the risks of staying and leaving, you need to start by identifying them. Sit with the moment and feel your excitement, fear, hesitation, and joy. What’s the root of each of these feelings? You may think:

  • “There’s no room to grow in my current position.”
  • “What if I don’t work well with my new manager?”
  • “If this career change doesn’t work out, I may have to restart where I am now.”
  • “If this startup goes under, I have to job hunt again.”

List these risks under the decision it ties to. Visually seeing the number of risks for each choice is helpful, but not all risks are equal. Place the biggest risks at the top of each list and continue the list from most to least risky.

moving careers

 

4. Evaluate And Control Risk

Now that you have clear lists of your potential risks and rewards, go back and consider how you can negate some of the risks. Here are some examples from the previous exercise:

  • If there’s no room to grow in your current position, is there a new skill you can develop to open higher career opportunities?
  • If you’re worried about your next manager, can you set up a meet and greet through the employer?

This practice can also uncover that the risks aren’t holding you back so much as a fear of change. That’s absolutely natural. Especially considering the economic turbulence of the last two years. Still, 80% of employees that quit their job in the last two years have no regrets.

5. Make The Decision That’s Right For You

Changing jobs is an excellent way to advance your career and financial health. Salaries increase an average 14.8% with a new role — especially if you’re early in your career. On the other hand, you’re placed in a new environment to develop new working relationships, which comes with its own networking benefits.

Ultimately, there’s probably not a right or wrong answer. No matter what you choose, you have the option to continue looking for new opportunities if you don’t love where you land. If you land in a position that helps you thrive, that’s a huge win for your well-being and career.

Following the steps above can give you peace of mind that you’re making the best choice with the information available to you. But remember that your next job is far from the end of the line, and there’s always another opportunity around the corner.

By: Bri Marvell is a content creator from Austin with interests in financial wellness and career development. When she’s not at her desk, you can find her exploring the city with her dog, Miko, or getting creative with a new craft.

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Inclusion: One Destination, Many Intersectional Paths?

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Over 2/3 of companies say that DEI work is critical, and the conversation these days centers on fostering cultures of inclusion to support the diversity of workplaces we need to have, do have and will have – if organizations are optimizing potential. Organizations are increasingly aware that “diversity without inclusion is exclusion.”

According to a new Bain report from a survey of 10,000 people (4,500 women) in seven countries entitled “The Fabric of Belonging: How to Weave an Inclusive Culture,” most people agree on what inclusion looks and feels like, but what actually creates the outcome of feeling fully included is more complicated – not only to organizations, but also to individuals, themselves.

Inclusion is Nearly Universally Defined, But Rare?

We all want to belong, but how we get there, together, can feel enigmatic and the solution is far from a one-size-fits-all approach. People, regardless of individual identities, levels and experiences – describe what inclusion feels like and what it looks like in very similar, nearly universal ways.

When it comes to what inclusion feels like, the researchers define inclusion as: “the feeling of belonging in your organization and team, feeling treated with dignity as an individual, and feeling encouraged to fully participate and bring your uniqueness to work every day.” When it comes to what it looks like, people to tend to come together on the notion that an inclusive organization is diverse and where people are heard, valued and supported. Other research has shown that we feel inclusion only when our needs for both uniqueness and belongingness are met.

While people hold a universal ideal of what inclusion means to them, one of the most “stark” takeaways Bain asserts is that the majority of employees – regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation – do not feel fully included (less than 30%), including those we tend to regard as most favored by the system and in positions of influence and power (straight white men). And no one demographic indicator can predict who feels excluded.

However, as Bain points out, “Even though the feeling of inclusion is fundamentally the same across groups, our research shows that the lived experience of inclusion is driven for various groups by a diverse variety of factors.”

To add some grounding, too, another perspective is that inclusion is really a net effect of day-to-day interactions, and individuals in particular groups experience acts and outcomes of exclusion far more frequently than individuals in other groups. In Forbes, Gaudino writes that “inclusion is invisible to those who enjoy it, because inclusion reflects the absence of negative incidents that make one feel excluded.”

Among the many examples we could draw on, McKinsey notes that black employees are 23% less likely to see there is support to advance and 41% less likely to view the promotion process as fair. Or consider that 59% of black women reported never having a casual interaction with a senior leader, versus 40% for all men and 49% for all women. Or that Asian American women have been the least likely group to experience being promoted to management.

If the experience of feeling “fully included” is pretty low in general, the evidence of exclusion is still highly punctuated for individuals in particular groups.

Feeling Included Matters For Individuals and Organizations

Amidst The Great Resignation, the feeling of inclusion is important to retention. Women who feel excluded at work are 3 times more likely to quit. Employees experiencing low inclusion are up to six times more likely to actively pursue new jobs compared with those in similar demographics experiencing high inclusion.

On the flip side, Bain found that approximately 65% of people across identity groups view an inclusive environment as “very important when considering new roles.” Employees who do feel fully included are much more likely to promote positive word of mouth about their organization. People in more inclusive environments, where psychologically safety is present, are more likely to innovate, challenge the status quo, and bring new ideas to the table. Bain argues the gains in creative thinking from inclusiveness are much greater than increasing diversity alone.

Just What Creates Inclusion?

Not surprisingly, the researchers found people hold different deep-seated notions on what creates inclusion, and those beliefs can clash in ways that create strong discomfort.

What is even more critical is that individual’s perceived notions of which “behavioral” and “systemic changes” would create more inclusion do not always match up to what actually drives impact or the experience of inclusion, so leaders are advised to “listen first for problem identification, not solution design.”

As an example, black women’s perception of how certain enablers are important to their sense of inclusion matched up 55% of the time – high perceived enablers corresponded to actual high impact on their sense of inclusion and same with low perceived enablers. But enablers such as “open and honest communication” and “coaching and professional development” were undervalued in perception, relative to how highly they were attributed to feeling a sense of inclusion for black women. And enablers such as “engagement check-ins” and “team feedback sessions” were overrated in perception relative to how attributed they were to feeling a sense of inclusion.

In inclusive cultures, people feel able to be authentic and supported to fulfill their potential, and Bain found that a common denominator of inclusion for everyone is opportunities for professional development and growth – in which there is much room for more equitable access to opportunities – and where employers can focus effectively.

When it comes to what individuals truly need, or different demographic groups, Bain emphasizes a data-informed intersectional approach that incorporates geography, demographics, and seniority to understand how to identify the systemic and behavioral enablers that can increase a sense of inclusion.

Other research has also indicated that inclusive leadership is fundamental, as Bourke and Titus point out: “what leaders say and do makes up to a 70% difference as to whether an individual reports feeling included.” They found the most important factors in cultivating a culture of inclusion are leadership commitment and demonstrating a visible awareness of the bias within oneself and the organization.

Ultimately, everyone wants to feel a sense of both authenticity and belonging and like they have access to the opportunity to thrive and fulfill their potential. People look to see if leadership is listening to this, and whether they are committed not only to the cause, but to understanding the real needs of their people.

By Aimee Hansen

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Will Companies Value the Leaders Who Invest In Inclusion?

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DEI leadersWhile women report being both increasingly burned out from the pandemic years and vulnerable to leave the workforce, they are also most likely to be rising up to embody the leadership our times ask for.

Will companies begin to put their money (financial and career trajectory rewards) where their mouths are? If not, allowing women to disproportionally shoulder the “unpaid work” of empathetic management and DEI is a strategy for losing the leaders who are tapped in and more valuable than ever.

Our Times Call for Compassionate Leadership

Amidst the pandemic, leadership has become more oriented towards supporting individuals as a whole person, not just as employees, with qualities such as emotional intelligence and active listening. As written in Forbes: “One of the key lessons young people can take from today’s successful executives and leaders is the value of taking care of your people.”

According to Catalyst, employees who report their leaders are empathetic are far more likely to feel engaged, respected and valued, are more likely to stay in their place of work, be innovative and feel a sense of inclusion. When people sense their leaders are empathetic, they also feel more able to navigate the demands of work and family life.

People who see their leadership as empathetic in decision making are also likely to be collaborative and empathetic themselves. And when leaders are more empathetic, it fosters better levels of mental health in their organization. Using empathy as the catalyst for leading with more compassion (not ‘I feel with you’ but ‘I am here to help,’ as we are inherently interconnected) creates even more effective leadership.

As Tracy Bower, Ph.D. sociologist and the author of The Secrets to Happiness at Work, writes in Forbes, “Leaders don’t have to be experts in mental health in order to demonstrate they care and are paying attention. It’s enough to check in, ask questions and take cues from the employee about how much they want to share” – and this drives positive relationships, engagement and organizational results.

Women Are Leading The Deep Cultural Work

According to the Women in the Workplace 2021 Report – a collaboration between McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org collected from over 423 organizations and 65,000 employee surveys – women are more likely to be carrying the torch of the “deep cultural work” necessary to transform workplaces “healthily and sustainably” in these times.

Women managers are consistently more likely to be supporting employees in their work lives (making the workload manageable, navigating work/life challenges, preventing and managing burnout). Women are also much more likely to be checking in on employee’s overall well-being and supporting them emotionally. In essence, employees are reporting that their female managers are showing up more with the active compassion of ‘how can I help?’

Also, women are more likely to be doing informal DEI work, beyond formal job responsibilities, and spending substantial time doing so. Compared to their male peers, senior female leaders are twice as likely to be making DEI work a part of their weekly work flow (1 in 5 vs 1 in 10). Women are also likely to recruit from and support underrepresented groups, be allies to women of color, to educate themselves, to speak out again discrimination, and to advocate for, mentor or sponsor women of color – although it’s important to note there are still big gaps to bridge in embodying the allies people would most value.

Ultimately, the work women are doing is driving better outcomes for everyone – because employees who feel their managers support their well-being, or who feel DEI is a priority and strong allies are present, are significantly happier, less burned out and more likely to stay around.

Women Are Stepping Up, And Burning Out

Yet while women managers and leaders are heeding the leadership call of our times, they are also undeniably overburdened themselves, with many not only carrying the double-shift of childcare and work, but also feeling the expectation to be “always on” in the absence of clear work/life boundaries in the remote and hybrid workplaces – another issue companies can help to address.

In 2021, 1 in 3 women were thinking about downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce, up from 1 in 4 women a few months into the pandemic in 2020. 4 in 10 women were looking to leave their company or switch jobs. 42% of women felt often or almost always burned out in 2021, a big jump up from 32% in 2020, and compared to 35% of men. That burnout feeling escalates with responsibility level. Among senior women who are managing entire teams, 50% were often or always burned out, and 40% were considering leaving the workforce or downshifting their careers.

Valued in Words, But Not In Actions

Companies are espousing that DEI and employee well-being are important to them. But while 87% of companies say that supporting employee well-being is critical and 70% say DEI work is critical, only about 25% are formally recognizing this work – and even fewer are rewarding it.

Despite stating gender and racial diversity as top priorities, only two-thirds of companies hold senior leaders accountable for progress on DEI goals, and less than one-third hold managers accountable, who are essential to creating cultures of inclusion. Among those who hold senior leaders accountable, fewer than half factor progress on diversity metrics into their performance reviews and less than a quarter build in financial incentives for progress on performance goals – meaning ultimately, the work is overlooked.

Right now, these highly sought leadership behaviors are adding up to be the new “unpaid work” highlighting where companies need to put more value. That women are disproportionally carrying this is a dangerous liability for employers during the Great Resignation. According to the report authors, “Companies risk losing the very leaders they need right now, and it’s hard to imagine organizations navigating the pandemic and building inclusive workplaces if this work isn’t truly prioritized.”

The authors urge organizations to treat DEI like any business priority, including following goals through to assessing effort and progress within performance reviews, and relating that to career advancement and compensation.

It’s Time to Recognize and Reward The Work

Right now, women are feeling burned out while taking personal leadership initiative on collective responsibilities. Companies are sabotaging progress on what they allege to be business priorities by not threading that priority through to enacting accountability, monitoring results and rewarding effectiveness.

“Companies need to incentivize and reward the things that women are doing to create these better working cultures,” says Jess Huang, co-author of the report. “This helps all employees because if it’s rewarded, more leaders will do it.”

Going further, she suggests: ”One solution companies should consider is incorporating criteria into performance reviews that recognizes the work managers are putting into supporting their teams and DEI efforts. Companies should use upward feedback provided by employees on their managers to help take this into account.”

It’s not enough to talk about valuing DEI and supporting the well-being of your employees. More companies need to demonstrate they value the work it takes to make it happen – to retain the leaders that are doing that work.

By Aimee Hansen

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OP-Ed: International Women’s Day 2022: Burnout, Sustainability and What Matters?

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International Women's Day 2022Many companies focus myopically on International Women’s Day. This year #BreaktheBias and
 gender and climate are the annual themes, depending on your source. But, as founder and fifteen 
years in here at theglasshammer, it is hard to believe that these slogans and themes that come and
 go every year create any change at all. People wants Acts, Not Ads from companies, and
 professional hard-working women are tired of the lip service and want to see the talk, walked.

As 
we enter year three of the global pandemic, with so many of us doing extreme amounts of work, 
and some of us also still balancing childcare with covid related closures of daycares and schools, 
isn’t it time to ask ourselves how can professional women and men (and especially anyone who 
has second and third shifts with kids and aging parents) do balance and self-care, better? What 
matters? And what role do firms have in creating the workplace of the future that we are ready to 
be in, now? This International Women’s Day, the manifesto should be to take a day off.
 Tomorrow the work will still be there!

Overwork and Burnout


There is work and then there is overwork. Chances are if you are reading this article, you have 
spent at least some of your career in the overwork zone. You probably work in financial, legal or
 professional services, in technology firms, big pharma, manufacturing, media or Fortune 500.
 You are probably a go-getter, highly ambitious and very successful. You probably have engaged
 some of the usual methods and possess some of the characteristics often needed to get to the top, including old fashioned hard and long work, a
 competitive nature, cognitive smarts, higher than average EQ to read the room, and a belief that
 improvement is always possible. Possibly three generations of professional women are reading 
this article with similar, yet evolving, culturally programmed definitions of success regarding wealth, status
 and career ladder climb concepts.

Is the extreme achievement mindset in sync with your life
goals, your health and mental wellness? Is overachievement about meeting other people’s 
standards or earning your worth?


Dr. Devon Price, like many of us, came to his senses regarding extreme productivity after a health
 emergency. He insists that we should stop valuing ourselves in terms of our productivity at
 work. In the book, Laziness Does Not Exist, he affirms that ‘we don’t have to earn our
 right to exist’ with overwork and endless achievement.

Advice includes to listen to your body and to forget grinding away all the time to meet arbitrary
 standards. By reframing what being ‘lazy’ means, versus the allure of validation through
 achievement, a healthier, happier you can emerge.

“Laziness is usually a warning sign from our bodies and our mind that we need a break.”

In an interview with NPR, he discusses why we rationalize working so hard, and how asking for 
help, and helping others to helps us, prevents tiredness from overwork but also facilitates us to be better
, due to feeling less exhausted as “our brains take micro-naps either way.”


It isn’t just you.

In several recent studies, isolated overwork came up as the most demotivating factor and biggest
 reason people are quitting jobs. This isn’t new news. Back in 2017, Inc magazine reported on employees 
quitting when leaders overwork people, show zero empathy and don’t respect time when people
 are out of the office living their lives, but it is further accentuated by the pandemic. 
Microsoft conducted an employee indexing survey of 30,000 that resulted in a study called
 “The Next Great Disruption is Hybrid Work – Are we Ready?”

By looking at trends including 
desire for flexible work and hybrid structures, the study reiterated what their CEO Satya Nadella 
called the hybrid work paradox. This study reveals that while people want more flexibility and remote 
options, they also seek deep human social connection. The same study reveals that high
 productivity is masking employee exhaustion and overwork. It states measurable uptick over the
 course of the year –  February 2020 to February 2021 –  on volume of emails sent, 66% increase on 
people working on documents, and meeting usage on teams increased in volume and time on
 meeting applications.

Uncovering your own Competing Agendas

Isn’t it time you figured out what you want for you? Start with your values. Take a look at what
 matters to you on this worksheet – literally, pick ten words that mean the most and then rank them
 1-10, with one being what you value most. Are your actions matching your values? Are you
 living a humdrum existence while your top value is adventure? Are you spending fourteen hours 
a day at work when your top value is family? Now is a great to re-evaluate what matters to 
you. Be yourself, everyone else is taken as the adage goes.

If you had trouble thinking about how all of this meets reality, or deciding what your values are
, or felt conflicted, that is part of the journey too. Hyper achievement and superhuman
 productivity are sometimes part of deep developmental gremlins that have made their way into 
our heads over time, so we can’t see any other way to be, making them our base operating 
system with everything else being an app on top. Kegan and Lahey, Developmental 
psychologists at Harvard, really have a superb method in their book, Immunity to Change, to 
help you figure out what your unconscious mind is doing to you while you happily goal set in
 your conscious mind all day long regarding work, fitness and home life. We are all a product of 
whatever beliefs and paradigms that we have accumulated throughout our life and if your
 granny/dad/mother/friend told you words to live by, chances are you are doing just that, 
implicitly following some guidelines without even knowing.

What are your saboteurs? There is another easy way to find out what is going on inside your own 
head by taking this short quiz on “How we self-sabotage” by Positive Intelligence. It is key to
 understand what is going on with yourself and what your self-talk is likely to be telling you.
 Let’s start with the gremlins. If you have something like hyperachievement as your top saboteur,
 then it is likely you will justify the overworking with sentences like ‘I must be effective and 
efficient, and ’emotions get in the way of performance.’ Or if you have a high control saboteur,
 you might be telling yourself things like, ‘well if I don’t do it, who will?’ Or, that people need
 people like you to get the job done. Show yourself some compassion and a great book to
 understand how to even begin to approach such a daunting task is Radical Compassion by Tara
 Brach. It is normal to feel your feelings and that includes joy.

In short, honor yourself on International Women’s Day by taking stock of what matters to you now, and how closely your own life feels aligned to that.

We are starting a Spring coaching cohort in May for sustainable success in 2022. Cost is $3,999 
per person and includes a yearlong program with 6 sessions of executive coaching, peer coaching
 and career development training. Limited spots, contact nicki@theglasshammer.com and write
 spring coaching cohort in the title of the email.

By Nicki Gilmour, Founder and CEO of theglasshammer.com

Nicki founded theglasshammer in 2007 to inspire, inform and empower professional women in their careers. We have been the leading and longest running career advice online and in person media company in the USA for professional women in financial services.

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