Women Redefine Career Ambitions: Why More Women Are Calling it Quits | INVESTEDMOM
Have you ever had that lingering feeling of not doing enough? You're constantly on edge and worrying if you're doing enough to keep up. That one vacation, weekend, or day off could set your progress back a millennium making it difficult or even impossible to catch up with your peers and colleagues in this fast-paced world.
You’re not alone. Rather, I’d argue you have quite the company.
Many working women face the same issue, to the point that it guides their life down a path they don’t wish to take.
Multiple reports have suggested that women in the workplace are stressed out by the “new normal” of work (read: burnout).
Deloitte’s Women at Work 2022: A Global Outlook survey shows that around 53% of women reported higher stress levels than the past year, with half of them being burned out and one-third of the respondents taking time off work for the sake of their mental health.
Despite these stressors, many women still take on the ever-increasing demands of their careers in the hopes of being that ideal, successful girl boss that they have been constantly told is the ultimate achievement.
But not anymore.
Women have started to realize the potentially harmful physical and mental challenges they go through for a corporation that wouldn’t reciprocate. This has led them to rethink their values and find work that aligns with those values. Because of this, they've started to redefine their career ambitions to get away from burnout and lead a more joyous, purposeful life.
That’s easier said than done. Sure, if given a chance, many women might not choose to work and take up an interesting hobby - but hobbies don’t pay the bills or put food on the table. This leads us to an even more complex issue: are women just not ambitious enough to sacrifice their time, health, and wealth to build a successful career?
Breaking the Myth: Are Women Not Ambitious?
“To be ambitious means that you care enough to commit to something in your future. Our collective ambitions for justice and equity are why we marched through the streets of Ferguson...[and] why we’re still pulling for a Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and the cancellation of student debt.” - Congresswomen Cori Bush, representative of the United States and Black Lives Matter Activist
Highly ambitious women are all too familiar with burnout. They’re all about the hustle and working to the bone to achieve their career goals and gain the sense of higher self they hope to find at the top of the corporate ladder. Many of these women often develop depressive patterns from pushing too hard in the workplace and ending up burned out.
Insomnia, restlessness, loss of appetite, and depersonalization become inconveniences on the path to success. Like an Olympic runner, we believe we can jump over these hurdles and reach the imaginary finish line telling us we’ve made it.
A successful corporate life may not be worth destroying your mental and physical well-being. The inability to meet the demands of a constantly demanding career can lead many ambitious women to feel guilt and shame for being unable to reach their goals.
Nobody said making it to the top was easy, but that doesn’t mean women aren’t ambitious. To be ambitious is to be committed, but it’s important that women are physically and mentally healthy on their way to achieving their goals.
Also, it’s not right to consider women aren’t ambitious. From the same Deloitte report we quoted, 43% of women still label themselves highly ambitious despite millions of women - including women leaders - resigning from their jobs.
If women aren’t losing ambition, then why are we seeing increasing rates of women leaving the workplace? It's because ambition is being redefined by prioritizing physical and mental health.
“Women are the most ambitious they’ve ever been. They’re just fed up with the fact that they can’t [always] fully realize that ambition within the confines of a typical corporate job because it’s limited by the bias and barriers that still exist in most workplaces” - Randi Braun, Author of WSJ Best-Seller, “Something Major: The New Playbook for Women at Work”
Stress & Burnout in the Workplace - A Blessing in Disguise?
A joint case study from LeanIn and McKinsey & Company, titled Women in the Workplace 2022, stated that 43% of women are burned out in the workplace compared to 31% of men on the same level.
The constant stress and burnout ambitious women have been punished with for pursuing their careers have started to dawn on them - and they’ve decided: enough is enough. Due to the constant pressure and sleepless nights, women have started to realign what they value and rethink what they wish to achieve from their work.
Typically, this means reassessing your work-life balance and slowing down to take a breather from the work bubble many women find themselves trapped in.
In a Gallup 2021 study, where 13,000 US employees were surveyed, they found that “there are meaningful differences in what men and women value.” The study found that women's most sought-after quality in a workplace was a greater work-life balance and better well-being than their male peers that desired an increased income with better benefits.
With this reassessment, more women find themselves joining the great resignation as they have realized that success is less about a respected job title and high income and more about doing what you enjoy while leaving a significant footprint.
Reimagining Work: Why Your Typical 9-5 Doesn’t Cut It
There’s something refreshing about the serene bliss of the autumn wind flowing in the air as you watch the brown-orange leaves collect on the ground while jotting down your thoughts in a bullet journal.
Given the typical demands of our modern ways of working, it's difficult to find a free moment to yourself.
How often have you canceled an outing with your friends because you worked overtime? How many times have you felt the need to work overtime to gather some savings? How much have you given up just to reach another deadline?
The typical 9-5 job often includes unrealistic demands and the pressure to work through burnout to achieve goals.
Most jobs come with a hectic work schedule, a plethora of internal and external meetings (including the ones that could’ve just been emails, you know what I'm talking about) and inflexible work hours that drain your energy, leaving you unable to do anything but go to sleep at home.
Interestingly, back in 1930, a renowned economist by the name of John Maynard Keynes made people believe that workers would only have to work a 15-hour work week in the 2000s due to productivity improvements. Fast forward to the 2020s, and we’re still stuck with the same monotonous routine, clocking in at 40 hours a week on average, with some working 60-80 hours a week in more demanding professions like healthcare.
Unfortunately, some women aren't working just for professional achievement; they need to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. The solution to the demands of a 9-5 isn't as simple as quitting your job.
Fortunately, countless women worldwide have started to redefine their careers and adjust within their current roles to work towards a fulfilling work life.
How Women are Redefining Their Career Ambitions
The growing stress of everyday work and the rising inflation costs have caught women in a dilemma. They could either quit their job and live a more stress-free life or stay in their soul-sucking job to get the paycheck that at least provides for their necessities.
“A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved” - Charles Kettering, American Inventor, and Engineer
Many reports suggest that taking short breaks in between work can help people stay productive and prevent burnout, but this is no long-term solution. In order to work towards a sustainable solution, women need to reevaluate their needs and reimagine how they work. As we’ve looked into what problems women are facing in corporate America, it’s only fair to also discuss how women are tackling these issues.
Shifting Priorities
There are many things you may valuable in life, and if you’re reading this article, there’s a good chance that earning a high income and a dignified job position isn’t your only priority.
We often prioritize the things we believe will lead us to success. Within a traditional frame of mind, that means power, money, and fame. These 3 attributes have typically been the definition of our success; if you have them, you’re successful.
As many women realize the true nature of becoming a “girl boss” and the unfair sacrifices they are bound to make to achieve that success, they’ve started to shift their priorities.
“I realized I could reimagine another way of working that does not require me to continue in cycles of burnout and exhaustion. I could pursue a career where I normalize working from a place of rest instead of working to rest. This included redefining success as more than my job title to include how well I feel at the end of each day and whether I am achieving in other areas of my life” - Courtney L. McCluney, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior in the ILR School, Cornell University
Taking a Break
Career breaks are a common way for women to recollect themselves and return to the workforce with higher motivation and a fresher perspective. LinkedIn shared interesting insights on career breaks, finding that 64% of women had taken a career break at some point in their lives for reasons such as paternal leave, medical leave, and for their mental health.
Other than women taking career breaks for specific reasons, the LinkedIn report also found that taking career breaks had mostly positive effects on people. Three key statistics showed this:
53% of people stated that they did better at their job after returning from a career break
69% of people say taking a career break helped them to gain perspective and figure out what they really want from life
68% of people said that taking a career break positively impacted their wellbeing
By taking a career break, you can give yourself the time and space to reevaluate your goals and values and redefine what success means to you.
Finding Flexible Work Options
Quitting your job or taking long career breaks sounds like the ideal option for women to redefine their ambitions, but it’s not always possible. Redefining your ambition doesn’t always involve quitting your job, rather, it’s possible to look at a different angle of work by making adjustments within your current role.
For most women, this means finding flexible working opportunities that allow them to excel in their careers without compromising on their ambitions. There are different options available to women that they could experiment with to figure out which one best suits their schedule, including:
Part-time work instead of full-time
Freelance work instead of traditional office jobs
Pandemic conditions threw a curve ball to corporate America by increasing remote work. Many professional women could opt for remote jobs, which allowed them to work from home or pursue contract or gig work through online freelance platforms like Fiverr or Upwork.
Be Your Own Boss, Invest In the Future You Want
Women have been reimagining how they work to channel their ambitions in an impactful way toward a successful career that doesn’t eat away at their well-being. For most women, this could mean quitting their job and taking a break from their corporate life to gain a better perspective on things.
However, quitting your job without a viable plan can lead to disaster. At the end of the day, you still need the money from your paycheck to pay your bills and buy certain necessities.
A reliable way to exit your job with reduced risk is to build a strong investment portfolio on the side, which would generate a sustainable income for you as you rethink your career.
Having a reliable income can help you plan better for the future as you won’t be constantly stressed out to keep up with the demands of your career and can afford to take some time off work to recollect your thoughts.
If you’re new to investing, you can book a call today with Invested Mom and learn how to make a plan to gain financial freedom and get the future you want.
Meet the Author:
Inge was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, and moved to Canada in 2010 looking for a better life. She always had an entrepreneurial spirit and started her first side hustle when she was 9 years old – selling fudge at school during lunch breaks.
It wasn’t until much later that she realized that saving isn’t enough to get ahead. She was always very interested in real estate, but saving up for a down payment was grueling and slow, and the demands of life kept getting in the way.
She started investing in herself and upgrading her skills while learning how to invest. She quickly became debt free and compounded her money at a staggering rate.
It wasn’t until she became a coach that she realized how significant an impact she can make in people’s lives by sharing her journey, learnings, and processes.
So here she is, advocating for everyone who is invested and wants to build their wealth, especially the mommas!