Why women leaving the workforce is the best post-COVID outcome
I disagree that women leaving the workforce during Covid is a bad thing.
Before you get up in arms about this, hear me out.
One of the major storylines of Covid has been the departure of women from the workforce. In September 2020, McKinsey & Company released an article that took off like wildfire. There were two stats in particular that had people, women in particular, up in arms. The first was the heartbreaking number that “one out of four women were downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce completely.” The second was a dooms day message that “The COVID-19 crisis could set women back half a decade”. A bitter pill to swallow when women already feel that they are digging out of a hole to begin with.
The pandemic has magnified problems that already existed in the workplace. In the case of women and working mothers it took things to a breaking point that has led to burnout and as the research cited above a downsizing or opting out of the workforce. For the first time we are faced with a situation we cannot rationalize or place a bandaid over. We cannot look away from the reality that the work environment does not work.
In The Obstacle Is The Way author Ryan Holiday states, “There is no good or bad without us, there is only perception. There is the event itself and the story we tell ourselves about what it means.”
So, let’s tell a different story and what it means. Historically, times of great hardship have birthed innovation. Companies like Fedex, Walt Disney, Costco, Microsoft, and LinkedIn to name a few were launched during depressions or economic crises. COVID has allowed many of us to slow down enough that we’ve had time to contemplate what we really want and take inventory of our lives. For many women, myself included, it has resulted in a decision to pivot their careers. For me, I realized that although I was good at running sales organizations I wasn’t fulfilled by the work. For the first time things slowed down enough that I could contemplate where my skills and passion could best be used. In my case, it meant a career pivot to finally build Rising Tide.
Now I’m not comparing Rising Tide to Walt Disney (...yet) but it is just one example of a woman leaving the workplace, tapping into her strengths, and creating something that can have a profound impact in the future. We all have the chance to capitalize on this reset and figure out where we can put our superpowers to work.
This can be hard work and you may not know what your next steps are and how you could pivot. To get you started, here are 5 things you can do:
Take inventory of the highs and lows throughout your life. In doing so, you begin to see how these experiences have shaped who you are and what you bring to the table.
Take inventory of your skill set. Describe them independent of your job title.
Explore other careers that interest you. When you meet new people who have careers that you’d like to explore, ask questions to understand what a day in the life for them looks like. Expose yourself as much as possible to cast a wide net of possibility.
Tell the inner critic to be quiet. As you explore, it’s important to treat everything as a viable option. Exploration isn’t about how you would do it. It’s simply about asking yourself, “What do you want?”
Once you narrow in on what you want now it’s time to get into the how. Create accountability by telling others what you want. You may even explicitly ask a couple friends to check in with you from time to time.
Covid has given us a rare opportunity. Whether forced to leave or if we left by choice, women have a chance to use this time to create something special. For some it could mean a change of company, a change of career, or leaving the corporate world altogether to build your own company. No matter what, we decide if the impact of Covid on women is a setback or an accelerant.
If you’re still doubtful, picture a female co-worker or friend you know that recently left the workforce. Now picture her doing work where she is operating as her fullest self. Powerful right? Now imagine 5 years from now the collective impact if each woman who leaves strives after what she really wants. That alignment of strengths, purpose, and passion creates an unstoppable force capable of creating a fundamental shift in how we work.