Your biz' new saboteur: ignoring burnout of mothers. Not just on #iwd.

As usual, #iwd triggered an avalanche of attempts to signal who cares about D&I, well-being and targeted support for women. At then faded away.

With rising numbers of #pinkwashing hijackers (e.g. this one as opposed to the UN's campaign), it is increasingly difficult to sift through the superficial corporate social responsibility stuff and nice-to-have wohoo aiming to recruit more gen Z.

[What helps you in navigating the messy waters of anecdotal experiences and chatGPT content vs. truly inspiring pieces?]

Listening to the curious feedback received after I published my article on burnout of women , here's an addition to dig deeper into the specifics faced by burning out mothers. Hopefully a candidate for your attention - beyond the #iwd .

So how to keep the working mothers happy, productive and motivated at the level they had when starting their job?

• TOLERATING her childcare obligations after maternity 'break' is not enough.?
• ADAPTING her role and workload once she’s back is not enough either.?
• Reducing ‘the solution’ to FLEXI arrangements (so that she can leave ‘early’ to catch up at night) is not a solution at all.

1. Think before and beyond the maternity leave

The stress related to reconciling her career with the new motherhood identity STARTS WAY BEFORE she is born. Future/newborn moms feel lonely, lost in the sea of contradictory information, worried about handling it all…

AND also determined to continue proving they are heroines who can juggle it all.?

I surely did.

The patriarchal business culture makes us feel we have to continue proving ourselves. Pretending that we are a compound of identities that do not interfere. Sure.?

Stress related to resuming work is a large contributor to post-partum depression and anxiety - especially in countries with such short maternity 'leaves' that the post-partum 'break' is de facto non-existent.

Many companies start proudly her support when she announces her readiness to resume work. But by the time you start talking, the mother will have already accumulated months of stress related to handling it all.

Hey you newborn mom, did you resume work with the same level of excitement like when you started your job? Since when is the economy doing so great that we can afford losing all this talent, creativity and engagement??

What to do?

Invest into creating a safe and trusted support system throughout the parenting journey - from planning through pregnancy to post-partum and comeback to work.?

It is not just about childcare or paid breastfeeding breaks.?

2. Listen and design a tailored kit instead of a universal menu

There isn’t a more applicable area of life where one-size-does-NOT-fit-all. No family is dealing with the same load. That is why there is such a heterogeneity in how these challenges manifest in the mother’s efforts to restart her job.

Not only does the employer NOT KNOW HOW to best support the newborn mom, she also finds it hard to verbalise her needs - as the early stages of parenting are so uncertain, fluid and overwhelming.?

The only way out is in accompanying her in designing and adjusting the approach as she and her child grow into their new life experience.?

What if parenting coaching became as normal as any career coaching offered in-house??

Can you see how carers burnout would be less of a productivity saboteur for your organisation?

Hint: The return-to-work coaching should be accessible as early as the wannabe-parent starts contemplating the scenarios of simultaneous career and parenting.??

3. Wake up to the fact that your org is dead unless it answers to new gen needs

The times are over when employees were blackmailed into staying even if unhappy.?

The same applies to newborn parents. They are determined to move beyond the outdated paradigm and redesign their lifestyle on their own terms. What was a leaky bucket is now a waterfall of talent leaving the workforce.

Integrating work & life, prioritising well-being and honouring their values above those of the corporation they no longer identify with.?

Even if the economy is doing really bad, the options are plentiful. It’s not just the gen Z but also millennials who jump the ship.

They want to work where people-first approach and flexibility by design are honoured and screamed to the world.

That is how the new paradigm leaders win the talent game (not war) and master the retention challenge.

The goals, profitability and impact are then taken care of.

• Companies that invest in employees and their families see 5.5 times more revenue growth thanks to innovation, talent retention and productivity.
• When companies reduce burnout, their employees are 20x more likely to stay – but those policies need to address the unique reasons for burnout.?

(says this study of the best workplaces for parents)

What does it mean for bureaucracies??

The governments know that handling all RUPT challenges (Rapid, Unpredictable, Paradoxical, and Tangled) is a lost case without a renewal of talent in the civil service.

Yet, most of them continue competing for talent with the 20th-century promise of an impactful job, stable income and a reasonable workload for busy parents...

... while the reality is one of a specific burnout pandemic and political complexity that makes the grass look greener elsewhere for passionate change makers.

Government's competitiveness as an employer is dying rapidly. Unless...

Stay tuned for future articles to see how governments struggle to recruit due to ignored burnout; how to address it and the importance of gender gap in this story. Subscribe to my newsletter ?? and press the little ?? on my profile not to miss any of my articles!

#iwd2023 #parenting #careercoaching #impact #civilservants #workingmothers #feminineleadership #burnout