COVID has been hard on women...

I don't know about you but I am getting pretty close to burnout...

I have said this, and I have heard countless other women express this same sentiment over the past year. COVID has been hard on women and has had a drastic impact on women in the workplace. 

According to Fortune Magazine, more than 2.3 million women have left the labor force since last February. Additionally, women accounted for almost 80% of U.S. adults who stopped working or are looking for work in Feb 2021, according to an analysis of Friday’s jobs report by the National Women's Law Center. Working women have now lost more than three decades of labor force gains in less than a year.  Most tragically, the ongoing employment crisis has especially hurt women of color who disproportionately work in restaurants, retail, education, health care, and other "essential" industries. 

When surveyed, women have said that there are many challenges that are making the work difficult, including: 

•       Lack of flexibility at work, and needing to be available during all working hours

•       Perceived pressure to be camera ready and without distractions interfering with calls 

•       Increased housework and caregiving burdens due to COVID

•       Worry that performance is being judged because of caregiving responsibilities in COVID

•       Discomfort sharing challenges with teammates or managers

Now is the time to act. Sheryl Sandberg said “Some companies may think that worrying about employee burnout is a luxury they can’t afford right now. In fact, it is mission critical. If companies rise to the moment, they can head off the disaster of losing millions of women and setting gender diversity back years.” Everyone is in survival mode, and we cannot allow burnout to become the norm. 

Here are some actions leaders can take to support women, and really everyone else, in their workplaces. 

Firstly, reset norms around flexibility. Many organizations that once thought remote work was impossible, now see what’s possible. Facilitate conversations with staff on what type of flexible working practices they would like to keep, and which are not working and need to change. 

Secondly, take a look at performance reviews. Is performance measured with how many hours employees are “on” or the output of their work? To do this, more organizations are shifting to a “results only work environment” (ROWE). 

Thirdly, make work more sustainable. Use time audits as a way to monitor how much time is being spent in various activities and work with your employees to identify and prioritize the highest value activities. Root out the activities that are the least valuable and either change them, or remove them. No one has time for meetings without agendas. 

Finally, take steps to minimize gender bias and adjust policies and programs to better support all employees. Creating employee friendly policies and programs are only effective if senior leadership also takes advantage of them. They will become less stigmatized, more actively utilized and will have a positive impact on morale and productivity. 

We must keep raising these issues, driving conversation and influencing change to support women and everyone in the workplace.