Working women report high level of burnout, with 53% of female workers surveyed by Deloitte saying their stress levels are higher than they were a year ago, and almost half feel burned out.
According to Deloitte, it surveyed 5000 women across 10 countries done between November 2021 and February 2022.
Survey highlights
- This burnout is a top factor driving women away from their employers — nearly 40% of women actively looking for a new employer cited it as the main reason.
- More than half of those surveyed want to leave their employer in the next two years, and only 10% plan to stay with their current employer for more than five years.
- Almost 60% of women working in hybrid models report they have already felt excluded.
- Almost half of the women surveyed rated their mental health as poor/very poor.
- One-third have taken time off work because of mental health challenges, yet only 43% feel comfortable talking about mental-health concerns in the workplace.
- The number of women looking for a new role at the time of polling increased since last year’s survey, with 10% saying they were actively looking.
- 40% of that group cited burnout as the top reason driving them away.
- For those who had already left an employer since the start of the pandemic, a lack of opportunities to advance was the most cited reason (22%).
- When it comes to future plans, the outlook is bleak for employers: more than half of women plan to leave their employer within two years.
- This is more pronounced for those in middle-management and non-managerial roles, with fewer than one-quarter of women in those roles planning to stay with their employer for more than two years.
- Only 10% of women surveyed plan to stay with their current employer for more than five years.
- Only 33% of women say their employers offer flexible-working policies, and when asked about policies their organisation had introduced during the pandemic, only 22% cited flexibility around where and when they work.
- 94% of respondents believe that requesting flexible working will affect their likelihood of promotion.
Women feel excluded in hybrid work environments
Almost 60% of women who work in hybrid environments feel they have been excluded from important meetings, and 45% say they do not have enough exposure to leaders, a critical component of sponsorship and career progression, the survey report says.
Worryingly, hybrid work appears to not be delivering the predictability that women with caregiving responsibilities may need, with only 26% saying their employer has set clear expectations when it comes to how and where they are expected to work, Deloitte pointed out.
Microagression against women in hybrid work
This year’s survey also found that women who work in a hybrid environment are significantly more likely to report experiencing microaggressions than those who work exclusively on-site or exclusively remote, Deloitte observed.
More broadly, the percentage of women that have experienced non-inclusive behaviours over the past year at work has increased, up from 52% in 2021 to 59% in 2022, the firm said.
Exactly half of women say they have experienced microaggressions, while 14% have experienced harassment, Deloitte pointed out.
When it comes to reporting these non-inclusive behaviours, there continues to be fear of career reprisals as 93% believe reporting non-inclusive behaviours will negatively impact their careers, the firm noted.
Only 23% of microaggressions were reported to employers, compared to 66% of harassment behaviours that were reported, Deloitte added.
