Episode 7: Are Today’s Women Managers Burning Out?

McKinsey and LeanIn.org’s ‘Women in the Workplace’ report sounded the alarm: What can and should business leaders -- women and men -- do about it? 

Transcript 

Chris Riback: I'm Chris Riback. This is Call In with Dr. Alexandria White. We discuss business leadership in our time of social change when to call in, when to call out, and how to build sustainable business value today.

Today's topic: Are women managers burning out? Before our conversation though, an ask from us to you. We hope you like these call in conversations. And if so, we'd appreciate if you take a moment, go to Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, and if you're so moved, leave a five-star review. The ratings really matter. They go a long way to helping other people find the podcast.

Dr. Alexandria White: Our show is brought to you by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, which is committed to a more diverse and inclusive future. Let's call in.

Chris Riback: Hi, Dr. White. Great to talk with you.

Dr. Alexandria White: Hello, Chris, how are you?

Chris Riback: I am doing well. Can we talk burnout today?

Dr. Alexandria White: Definitely.

Chris Riback: Let's get into it. The annual Women in the Workplace report by McKinsey and LeanIn.org recently came out. They surveyed 423 organizations and 65,000 employees, and it captured the headlines. One of them, from Fortune, "Flexibility isn't the easy burnout fix employers think it is." An online publication called Protocol was more blunt: “Men are dropping the ball at work. New study shows women do more emotional labor.”

Alex, we'll go through some of the main points, but here's the first one, and I'm quoting here from the report, "Women are even more burned out than they were a year ago, and burnout is escalating much faster among women than men. Four in 10 women have considered leaving their company or switching jobs, and high employee turnover in recent months suggests that many of them are following through."

Chris Riback: Fortune notes, 42% of women say they often or almost always feel burned out. Alex, let's start with the big picture. Were you surprised by the report?

Dr. Alexandria White: Because I'm able to interact with a lot of women at companies, organizations, and university, I was not surprised by the report. Being a consultant, working with women in organizations and companies, I'm hearing their stories about being burned out. Women are often tasked with the second shift. There's lots of reports from Pew Research and women are often tasked with being responsible for domestic duties. In addition to the domestic duties, they're a professional, sometimes they're parents, and sometimes they're responsible for dealing with aging parents.

Chris Riback: So the roles just get layered one on top of each other.

Dr. Alexandria White: Every time. Those intersectionalities contribute to the statistics that you just mentioned, Chris.

Chris Riback: I'm sensing that your reaction is the news is but not surprising. You're not surprised by it.

Dr. Alexandria White: Correct. Not at all.

Chris Riback: So Alex, one key part of the report, and one of the prime drivers of the burnout was around emotional support. Again, here I'm going to quote from the report itself, "Compared to men in similar positions, women managers are consistently doing more to promote employee wellbeing, including checking on team members, helping them manage workloads and providing support for those who are dealing with burnout or navigating work/life challenges." Protocol reported senior leaders who identify as women were 60% more likely to provide emotional support to their teams, 24% more likely to ensure their team's workload is manageable, and 26% more likely to help team members navigate work/life challenges. 

Alex, women from this study, are doing much more of the lifting, if not the heavy lifting, around emotional wellbeing in the workplace. Alex, why is that emotional work necessary? To exaggerate the point, why is managing employees' emotional wellbeing part of the responsibility of managing employees? 

Dr. Alexandria White: The emotional work is important for the overall aspect of the business. The practice of being aware of what's going on with your women, even your men, is part of retaining people. Emotional work entails navigating work/life challenges, navigating this pandemic, navigating extra duties that have been caused by this pandemic.

Well, guess where the Great Resignation is coming from? It's got a lot to do with that extra emotional work, and companies turning a blind ear to it. 

According to a November 2021 article, 4.4 million Americans left their job in September 2021. Let's talk about the women aspect of that. One in four women have thought about leaving their jobs.

This is the reaction to doing things the old way in the workplace.

People are leaving companies that are not employee centered. They are not understanding the extra emotional work that is going on in their homes, their communities and their offices. Companies have to be open to flexible work arrangement, inclusive workspaces, and competitive pay. In this day and age, Chris, mental health and emotional wellbeing is a part of keeping people at their jobs. Senior leaders, CEOs, HR directors, they have to understand that. Empathy is connected to understanding that emotional wellbeing in work.

Chris Riback: Another way potentially to think about it, and I'm asking you if you agree that this is accurate, is implementing an active approach towards maintaining emotional wellbeing is a comparative advantage. Is it fair to say that for managers, leaders, CEOs who might want to bring back the good old days, would an argument to them be you might not agree with it, but do you agree with the idea that you need to maintain a competitive advantage? And in a highly mobile, highly opportunistic work environment, you'll lose the employees to the companies that do offer those capabilities.

Dr. Alexandria White: Exactly. There is a shortage of workers. I just told you, there's a shortage of workers. So, you can either get on board or you will be left behind. There are companies that are increasing signing bonuses. I am an avid Starbucks drinker, and in the-

Chris Riback: I thought that that energy was just natural. That's not natural, Alex? You buy that energy in a cup? I did not know that. 

Dr. Alexandria White: I do every day. Every day.

Chris Riback: Okay, secret's out. 

Dr. Alexandria White: And so I am in the drive through, and Starbucks has this huge sign that says, "Competitive Pay." It makes good business sense. It makes good business sense. Starbucks offers educational reimbursement. It allows its partners, its employees to earn a bachelor's degree with 100% tuition coverage, coaching, counseling and advising. Tuition coverage, coaching, counseling, and advising.

Dominoes in my town, I live in a college town, $600.00 signing bonus to drive for a pizza company. If you don't become aware of these extra things, these underlying things for your employees, you're going to lose them. People are no longer looking at jobs as a means to an end. People are looking at them as parts of their identity and how they show up at work, and how this job can impact them overall. I completely agree, you will be left behind and you will have an employee shortage.

Chris Riback: You know, Alex, you're reminding me of a parallel or a related point. My exact facts on this history might be slightly off, but health insurance benefits are part of the workplace because of a similar set of situations after World War II. As an additional benefit to attract labor, companies started to offer health insurance. Beating the competition is old school. If you want to keep your best employees, this is kind of part of the table stakes. 

Dr. Alexandria White: There you go. For clarification, I wanted to make sure I give Starbucks their kudos, they have parental leave, education, and one that really stood out to me was commuter benefit and partner assistance. Let's repeat that, partner assistance. If you have someone, they didn't spouse or husband, they said partner assistance. So, there you go. It's right there in that you have got to attract employees based on what you know is going on during this time. 

Chris Riback: Let's move to a topic that may be even closer to your heart and mind than Starbucks's, Alex. Diversity, equity and inclusion. The report finds, "Compared to men at their level, women leaders are up to twice as likely to spend substantial time on DEI work that falls outside their formal job responsibilities, such as supporting employee resource groups, organizing events and recruiting employees from underrepresented groups. They are also more likely than men to take allyship actions, such as mentoring women of color, advocating for new opportunities for them and actively confronting discrimination, specifically action."

Alex, how does this gap get addressed?

Dr. Alexandria White: The gap gets addressed by bringing this to the forefront of the conversation. We know it's happening. Senior level men need to know what to do. I don't think they're oblivious, but they need those action steps. So I do believe giving resources. “The Upside,” written by my business partners, Diane Flynn and Patty White, talks about intentional practices that these senior level men can do. I mean, it's not rocket science, but it's these intentional things that they can do to lessen the gap. 

You talked about ERGs. We're working right now with a client who has just started a Parent/Caregiver ERG. Simple. Tons of collegiality, tons of examples. This is what's happening in my neighborhood. This is what's happening to me as a woman who is a mother at the company. Hearing-

Chris Riback: Hearing the stories, creating the support, identifying tactics, skills, that sort of thing.

Dr. Alexandria White: There you go. “The Upside” also mentioned having mentorship and sponsorship programs, having these programs for women to talk to other women, or men, about all of the things that are going on, intersectionality, emotional work, being put on DEI committees, all of those. Then finally, we know that many people leave companies because they are overworked and overlooked. And so “The Upside” talks about an aspect of executive coaching. 

I thought when I was coached, or my supervisor said, "Alex, we want someone to speak with you and help you hone in on your professional development," I felt so honored. That gave me a sense of loyalty to the company. We just mentioned, people are leaving companies, that Great Resignation. If I'm provided an executive coach because I'm a high achieving woman, wow, they really do see me. I might be a little bit overworked, but at least they see me, and that can build a little bit of loyalty to help with the Great Resignation or reduce the Great Resignation at your company.

Chris Riback: Alex, we all know how companies like metrics. However, Protocol wrote "While the report found that companies say they value employee wellbeing and mental health, most have not found ways to measure and reward the people who are doing the work in that area. 87% of companies reported that it is very or extremely critical that managers support employee wellbeing, and yet only 25% formally recognize this work a with a substantial amount or a great deal that they formally recognize this work a substantial amount or a great deal in places like performance reviews and compensation, an almost identical pattern held true," Protocol writes, "For people doing extra work for diversity, equity and inclusion."

Alex, if you don't measure it, does that mean you don't really care about it. And as well, if you don't measure it, are you truly committed to financially compensating for the work?

Dr. Alexandria White: Chris, what gets measured gets done. Putting budgets, financially compensating for this work is how you move the needle. I have to bring up ERGs. There are companies that are paying ERG leads. Why? Because it's work. It's not other duties as assigned. It's actually emotional work that ERG leads have to do, because some BRG or ERG at companies could be 2000-3000 people. So companies have decided, "We're going to financially compensate because we know that it's extremely critical to support those leads that are trying to build a more inclusive company." According to a newly released book, How to Close the Gender Gap by Coleen Ammerman and Boris Groysberg.

And so according to this recent book called “How to Close the Gender Gap,” there are seven indicators on how companies can measure what they're doing, seeing how things are going, what needs to be done, and the proof that it's working, attracting, making sure that women are on hiring boards or they're making sure that women are on hiring committees. Number two, the hiring process, making sure that it's inclusive and welcoming, integrating them into the company. 

One of those is, "Hey, there is a women-specific ERG that we'd like to let you know about", or "We have a daycare reimbursement," that's integration. And developing them, we just spoke about it, executive coaching, mentor and sponsorship programs, assessing performance. Let's take an internal look at how we're advancing these women. Is there a lot of women leading, advancing? Or are we retaining them? Then number six, I am an advocate of fair and equal pay for fair and equal work. To close that gender gap, companies have to turn the mirror on themselves to see if, once again, they're financially compensating women at the same rate that they are for men, and making sure that they keep good performers. 

So, these seven indicators are ways that companies can measure their impact and their metrics regarding women in the gender gap.

Chris Riback: They need to turn the mirrors. It sounds like they also need to do the work. There's no shortcut. You got to roll up your sleeves. You just listed seven. We're going to get some more tips in a second, because we are about to hit Dr. White's wisdom, but there're no shortcuts. You can't cut through the back woods over the fence, through the neighbor's yard to get there. You got to take the streets and do the work, and there are no shortcuts.

There is also no substitute for Dr. White's wisdom, so let's go right to that. This is the part, I know you know, where we learn from you what specific tactics can or should business leaders take to address our issue of the day. So, sum it for us please, Alex. Are women managers burning out? And what can and should business leaders, women and men, do about it? 

Dr. Alexandria White: Women are burning out. Yes, they are. But there is hope on the horizon. 

Chris Riback: All love hope.

Dr. Alexandria White: Yes. And so I want to break down this part in two sections. On the macro level, what le aders and company-wide initiatives can do, but I want to put some ownership on women especially. Leaders, company execs, you can conduct meetings with women leaders, staff members from all aspects of the company about their specific needs. I mean, everyone from an administrative assistant to your C-suite, talking to them about meeting times and childcare needs. According to Harvard Business Review, empathy is the most important trait for successful business leaders.

We always have time for small talk, right? Sometimes speaking about non-work related topics allows women to show up and talk about issues that are related to them specifically. You will be able to get that aspect of important issues related to women.

Chris Riback: Take the opportunity to listen.

Dr. Alexandria White: An opportunity to listen. Assign collaborative tasks that build morale and collegiality, making sure that women are on these group projects, are on these company projects, stretch assignments. Nourish peers with recognition and gratitude, use micro affirmation. I tell leaders all the time, make sure you tailor recognition to your staff. Some people like cards. Some people like an email. Some people like a Starbucks gift card.

Chris Riback: Yes. Who could those people be?

Dr. Alexandria White: Yes. Mentor sponsor women. We've mentioned it before. This last statement is very important because it's important for leaders to not make assumptions. I'm talking about maybe woman who has just had a child and maybe her immediate supervisor says, "Oh, she wouldn't want that assignment when she comes back from maternity leave. She probably wants to put an emphasis on being a mother."

Chris Riback: Yes. Take it easy, wants to ease back in. 

Dr. Alexandria White: Wants to ease back in. 

Chris Riback: Yes. 

Dr. Alexandria White: Or, "I can't have her go on the assignments or travel to this partner's office because we need to restrict her travel because she's a new mother." Please don't make assumptions. One, it could be illegal. And two, it does nothing to decrease the gender gap and provide opportunities for women. 

Chris Riback: I also would think it takes away the agency from the woman herself, from that employee herself.

Dr. Alexandria White: Yes. I completely agree. So that goes to my second part. As a woman, I'm constantly making sure that I'm able to take power. I am able to advocate for myself and women. So the last part of Dr White's wisdom is, I'm speaking to women at this point: Be mindful of when you are stressed, your attitude and how you're communicating with others, because as we know, we're dealing with a lot of emotional work. Dealing with that, we've got to prioritize. We've got to prioritize our health, making sure we're getting enough sleep, eating and exercise well.

Find something to fill your tank that can help you be a more productive person, and help with all of these intersectionalities of your identity. That's what I have for women in that regard. In closing, why does all this matter? I know some people think, "It's not my responsibility to make sure that my colleagues are not burned out, or that they're an inclusive company or workspace," but it's the business case. It's the business case. It's the retention of employees. And it's just the overall good thing to do as we navigate our current times.

Chris Riback: Yes. There is a lot there. What I like as well is, you outlined not only what leaders can do, but I would imagine that those points that you outlined that women can do for themselves, a good leader can also remind any employee, "Hey, there are things that you can do for yourself, do them." Don't be concerned. Do the things that Dr. White outlined. 

As always, a great list of advice. I'm going to take one of them that you mentioned right now. I think we've hit our hard stop. Alex, Dr. White, thank you for this conversation. I look forward to our next one.

Dr. Alexandria White:   All right. Thank you, Chris.