Last week, my daughter, Shanna Hocking (her company is Hocking Leadership), was interviewed on Bloomsberg Media.

Here’s the link to the podcast.

The interview focused on women and business. Shanna bolstered her own observations with data from the McKinsey Report.

The first issue mentioned was that women are overworked and under-recognized.  The problem is that’s been true  before, during, and now post-pandemic.

Shanna stressed how the pandemic- and now the changed economic environment- has altered the demands and expectations of women in the workplace. While only 31% of men report being burned out, when one asks women how they feel, 43% report they are constantly feeling burned out and overworked.

Shanna talked about conditions that are moving the needle, things like hybrid and remote work- plus the need for folks to be able to deal with families at home. While it’s true that women of color report more impediments, all women want to rewrite the rules of work. After all, as most businesses have discerned over the past 2 years, office culture now relies on connection (when we are in the office), not presence.

Women are promoting a different work culture; they tend to abandon their position (1.5X as frequently as men) because of inflexibility or because their employers are not committed to the well-being and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues. Things become more pronounced among the younger generations, who expect clearer paths of advancement. (Some 2/3 of millennials anticipate become senior leaders and managers.)

Interestingly, only 1 in 10 women want to work on-site, instead preferring remote or remote-hybrid positions. And, this is not simply “flexibility”-it involves being subject to fewer microaggresions and feelings of higher levels of psychological safety.

 

By the way, Shanna’s new book is coming out next week.