October 19
STRONG WOMEN
in the
WORKPLACE
COMPLIMENTARY IDEA EXCHANGE
+ NETWORKING
WENDY KENDALL
Chartered Psychologist
UK and France
Creating valuable global assignments with the Global Talent Builder development program
Executive Coaching
Talent Mobility
Career Development
LENA REKDAL
Stockholm
Immigration & Relocation Expert
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenarekdal/
Nimmersion AB (1995)
SANDRA CORONA, CCE
Al Khobar, Eastern,
Saudi Arabia
Global Mobility Advisor
Intercultural Trainer
ICQ Global Mindset Coach
Talk show host – GoMoX
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandracorona/
DIANNE
BUDION
DEVITT
New York
Storyteller, Producer, Creative Consultant, Author, Speaker, Educator
TERESA HOWE
SCRP, SGMS
Southern California
Relocation, Mobility and Real Estate Business Consultant, Author and Speaker. I help companies generate more revenue, get more customers and create loyal fans. TRH Consulting
LYNN GREENBERG
New York
Founder and CEO PIVT Enterprise
STUTI DHANDHANIA
Los Angeles
Innovative Thinker
Change Maker
I have organized HR Hackathon LA- a Design Thinking workshop for people teams. I have organized India’s first DisruptHR in Bangalore and I am a co-organizer at DisruptHR LA.
A crisis is looming in corporate America: More than one in four women are considering downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce.
This is a central finding of the 2020 Women in the Workplace report by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Co., the largest study of its kind. For the past six years, our study has revealed slow but measurable progress for women at all levels of management. Now all those gains could be wiped out in a single year. Up to two million women could leave their jobs. If we had a panic button, we’d be hitting it.
During Covid-19, no one is experiencing business as usual. But women have been affected the most—three groups in particular.
First, working mothers were already working a “double shift”—a full day of work, followed by hours of work at home—before the pandemic. With many schools and child-care options closed, that double shift has doubled again: Mothers are more likely than fathers to be spending an extra 20 hours a week on housework and child care during Covid-19. That’s half a full-time job. And on top of this, mothers are twice as likely to worry that their work performance is being judged negatively because of their caregiving responsibilities. This concern is so pervasive that many mothers don’t feel comfortable sharing work-life challenges with co-workers—or even letting them know they have children at all. It reminds us of an earlier, worse era when women couldn’t talk about their kids and still be taken seriously as professionals.
Second, senior-level women are under intense pressure at work and home. Women are typically held to higher performance standards and blamed more for failure, so when stakes are high—as they are now—senior-level women are more likely to be judged harshly. And among senior-level leaders with partners, 63% of women have one who also works full time, compared with just 35% of men. The result: Senior-level women are 1.5 times as likely as men at the same level to think about downshifting or leaving, and the top reason they cite is burnout.
Third, Black women are dealing with all these challenges, as well as burdens only they bear: They’re shouldering both the emotional tolls of the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on the Black community and incidents of racist violence across the country. For many, work isn’t a supportive place: Black women are more likely than other employees to feel excluded and like they can’t bring their whole selves to work. These feelings can accelerate burnout. Companies need to address this head-on with with training in antiracism and how to show up as allies for Black colleagues.
Corporate leaders may read this and think, “We know our employees are struggling right now. We’re doing what we can.” And many companies are indeed taking action: They’re being more upfront with employees about their financial situations, expanding mental-health services, and providing emergency loans and grants. It’s all commendable, but these steps don’t address the crux of the issue, which is that women are burning out. That’s the problem companies need to solve.
To do that, they should consider resetting goals and extending deadlines wherever possible. They should also reflect on performance reviews: Is it fair to hold employees to criteria set before Covid-19? Should performance ratings be adjusted to reflect the reality this year? These are hard questions to answer, and every team is different. But nothing about work right now is typical, so expectations of employees shouldn’t be either.
Working from home has blurred the line between work and home, and many employees now feel “always on”—available to their employer 24/7. Companies could set new norms to help reduce that feeling—for example, establishing set hours for meetings and making sure managers are evaluating employees based on what they’ve accomplished, not how many hours they’ve worked. They should also make it OK for employees to set their own boundaries, and leaders should model this.
Some companies may think that worrying about employee burnout is a luxury they can’t afford right now. In fact, it’s 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. They can also lay the groundwork for a better future beyond Covid-19. Cracking the code of making “work from home” work for employees will yield major rewards in the future. And if we can make work truly fit into people’s lives, it will be a more supportive workplace for everyone.
Ms. Sandberg is Facebook Inc.’s chief operating officer and the founder of LeanIn.Org. Ms. Thomas is the chief executive officer of Lean In.\
WOMEN IN THE WORKPLACE
This article is part of a Wall Street Journal special report on women, men and work based on a study by McKinsey & Co. and LeanIn.Org
- Complete coverage
- How the Coronavirus Crisis Is Jeopardizing Women’s Careers
- When Every Day Is Take Your Daughter to Work Day
- The New Art of Office Politics in a Virtual World
- McKinsey Leaders on the Possibilities Ahead
- For Black Working Women, Covid-19 Has Been a Heavy Burden
- Women Founders of AI Startups Take Aim at Gender Bias
- For Time’s Up CEO Tina Tchen, the Fight for Workplace Equality Has Gotten Harder
- Executives’ Thoughts on Equal Opportunity in the Workplace
- Read the full study and methodology from McKinsey & Co. and LeanIn.Org
Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the September 30, 2020, print edition as ‘Sheryl Sandberg: We’re at a Crossroads.’
ALI SHAMI
Seattle
Founder & CEO | FTD Global, Retired Boeing Sr. Manager | Public Speaker
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ali-shami-8a637a5/
JOHN SCHULDT
New York
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-schuldt/
Director of Global Business Development at Overseas Military Sales Group
An accomplished global executive with extensive experience in the automobile industry; deep Asia expertise; growing profitable business units both domestically and internationally.
MELINDA STALLINGS
SHRM-SCP, CPPC
CEO at Melinda Stallings International
New Orleans
YVONNE QUAHE
Washington
World Bank Family Network,
World Bank Group
I am a coach, trainer and facilitator with a background in Human Resources and global mobility. I help individuals, couples and organizations (particularly those who are globally mobile or have a large globally mobile population) to increase their engagement with life (including work), manage their careers and attract and retain talent by providing results focused coaching, harnessing their brains to improve the quality of work and life, increase employee engagement. Recognized expertise in challenging and supporting clients navigate change and dilemmas and consistently appreciated for empathy and insightful listening.
JULYANA RUIZ
São Paulo, Brazil
https://www.linkedin.com/company/relocation-house-brasil/
Immigration & Tax Partner
Lawyer
Global Mobility Specialist
BEVERLY LW SUNN
Qingpu District,
Shanghai, China
https://www.linkedin.com/in/beverly-lw-sunn-a03933b/
Founder & President
ASIA PACIFIC PROPERTIES LIMITED
SHRADHA BATRA MITHAL
Delhi, India
Managing Partner
Resettle Destination Services
SIOBHAN CUMMINS
Netherlands
Strategic Global Mobility Advisor
NAZIA ABDUL RASHEED
Dubai- United Arab Emirates
Skilled and Experienced Professional who can drive HR and Mobility to align with Business Success. An Expert in Client Relationship and a blogger on Talent Mobility in ME.
Senior HR/Global Mobility and Relocation Consultant for Honeywell and Metlife-Alico
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nazia-abdul-rasheed-1abb0a47/
ANITA ALEKSIEVA
Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Supply Chain Mgr & Immigration Team Lead https://www.linkedin.com/in/anita-aleksieva-0aa55934/