A report has been released by the McKinsey and Company and Lean In org. today. It studied the women in workplaces in corporate America. It states that 1 in 4 women are considering quitting or downshifting their jobs due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. At this rate, it would be reversing years of hard work of gender-based equality in workplaces. This report is based on insights from 300+ companies that have more than 12 million employees. They have also studied responses from over 40 thousand workers.
The reports are urging companies to take suitable actions in order to avert this crisis that could potentially damage the corporate world severely. It gives suggestions to deal with the burnout feeling that the employees could be feeling by working during these draining times. The COO of Facebook and co-founder of Lean In says, “If we had a panic button, we’d be hitting it. Leaders must act fast or risk losing millions of women from the workforce and set the gender diversity back years.”
“This crisis for women is not going away but the solutions are within reach. Companies need to adapt their strategies to more fully support women’s lives amidst a new world of work,” says the Global managing partner at McKinsey and Company.
COVID-19 has a damaging impact on all workers. But, the most disruptive effect has been on employees who are mothers, senior-level leaders and black women. They and their careers are facing new challenges every day.
Mothers are 3 times more likely to be handling responsibilities as family caregivers than the father. They are having a tough time-fighting battle simultaneously at home and in the workplace. Due to this stress, they are also more likely to feel burnt out. They are more worried that they will be judged because of their responsibilities at home.
Companies are trying their best to hold back senior-level women leaders. A study says that women are more like to acknowledge the work of women of color more than men do. So, they initiate development even in the background of racial discrimination. Black women face far worse situations at workplaces than women of other races. They face a lot of challenges. Women at higher positions of power help to harvest potential equally from all the people of all races and genders.
The year 2020 has been hard on all businesses big and small. All companies have to make firm decisions to brace and protect their companies in this time of the pandemic. They have to take steps to hold back their women employees; especially, women of color. Losing human resources at such a huge scale to drastically drop economies and drown businesses. Companies have to implement rules in favor of their female employees who are handling both work and their families, such as better working environments, unbiased work reviews, open communication, etc. This can help bring down the level of quitting women in corporate America.