Women leaders are leaving jobs due to the 'great breakup', states new McKinsey & Co report

Women who have been always under-represented in at every stage of their life, when given a chance at work reflect and grow with glory and power. Unfortunately women are are experiencing 'The Great Breakup’. And McKinsey & Co.'s latest report stating that women in leadership roles face higher stress which results in job burnout, is a testimony to it. These are not rudimentary women, but women at high designated positions and managerial roles are taking a step back and relinquishing their exceptional careers.

Prerna Verma from Pune used to work as an Information Systems Manager in IBM and quit her job two months ago. Prerna says her aspirations and ambitions were as high as fellow male members, however when the ambitions and relentless efforts were suppressed by judgmental comments, low expectations, and unfair advantage she felt overwhelmed with the feeling of not being appreciated. “My role as a manager wasn’t to prove myself to my team but to get proof of creditworthy work from my team. I felt the leadership ethos failed when I felt conscious to take big decisions and felt that my team didn’t cherish and support my decisions. The unreal expectations from my team disappointed me,” says Prerna.

McKinsey report found out that, “Women leaders are 2x as likely as men leaders to be mistaken for someone more junior, and 37% of women leaders have had a co-worker get credit for their idea, compared to 27% of men leaders.” Such kind of dissuading acts in the workplace is seen to be a consequential reason why women are self-begrudgingly leaving managerial positions.

Anahita Shah from Jaipur worked in a multinational BPO as a financial manager. She believed her work must not be limited to the four walls of the office, and mundane timings of work. Lack of flexibility made her weak on the grounds of viability. “I informed my priorities towards my children, home, and family life which wasn’t being balanced. I felt my ethos of leadership failed and felt immense burnout,” says Anahita.

Women as resilient, purposeful, and exceptional multi-taskers have a lot on their plate at once, their efforts and ambition may not take a back seat, however, it becomes a tedious task for them to fit their calibre into the inflexible work environments, a self-suited and comfortable environment for all employees will drastically dwindle the burnouts for employees.

McKinsey and company also came up with a noteworthy conclusion, “49% of women leaders say flexibility is one of the top three things they consider when deciding whether to join or stay with a company, compared to 34% of men leaders. Women leaders are more than 1.5x as likely as men at their level to have left a previous job because they wanted to work for a company that was more committed to DEI.” If women are given choices and the liberty to execute them freely, they will certainly not feel pressured to choose between homemaking and work.

Counselling Psychologist Jayantika says women when reaching superlative positions at their working environment, feel content more than the burden of responsibility. But mid-life or early-mid life crisis can affects their decision-making psychology. “Women feel hot flashes, trouble sleeping, moodiness, irritability, depression, and indecisiveness when they hit 40 that substantially affect their work-life balance. Moving into such a rigorous change, their mind sometimes do choose to unburden and resent themselves from the uncertain hormonal changes and inevitable mood swings,” says the Psychologist.

Women are both the future and futuristic. The world is not ready to not reap benefits from their pre-eminence. “I’ve asked many times what I can do to get promoted, and I don’t get a good answer. I’m thinking of leaving. And it will be my company’s loss since they didn’t offer me the opportunity to advance. I hit a ceiling that didn’t need to be there.” said a South Asian woman manager, an immigrant during McKinsey's survey. If this feeling in women will keep on leading, the future will be depreciated of irrepressible women managers and we cannot afford to lose gems. Inclusivity, freedom of choice, flexibility, appreciation, and sensitivity will certainly fill the loophole.