I am a subscriber to a plethora of news outlets. Regardless of your politics, I’m pretty sure that all of us are seeing the word “Burnout” show up everywhere.

Let’s be clear. Burnout is not just a women’s issue. It  is a workplace problem. It requires a new kind of leadership. It requires us to think differently. And it demands flexible leadership.

What is burnout?

Christina Maslach, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley and the foremost burnout researcher in the United States defines burnout as:

And yes, the data is clear. The pandemic has hit women especially hard. Let’s face it, the collateral damage of women fleeing the workplace is devastating. Regardless of gender.

Here are some statistics you need to know if you are leading an organization. 

• Over 3 million American women have dropped out of the labor force since the pandemic began

• One in three women say they have considered downshifting their career or leaving the workforce this year, compared with one in four who said this a few months ago.

• Four in ten women have considered leaving their company or switching jobs

I am confident that if I surveyed the men who subscribe to this newsletter, they might use words like exhausted, overwhelmed, and frustrated to describe what they are feeling these days. Which sounds an awful lot like burnout.

Anecdotally, I can say without equivocation, that a majority of my coaching clients are suffering from burnout. It's leaving them uninspired in their jobs and curious about other opportunities.

Why should everyone be worried about this data? I think the answer is obvious. We are at risk of losing some of our best talents. 

It's time to lead differently.