Is the Corporate World Failing Women? How Burnout and Unequal Demands Are Holding Us Back

Uncover the hidden dynamics of corporate culture and its profound impact on women with Coach Sabina. We're asking the provocative question: Is corporate culture failing women, especially in the wake of shifting work flexibility post-pandemic?

As companies increasingly enforce office mandates, women are uniquely challenged by the demands of balancing professional obligations with domestic responsibilities. With women comprising a significant portion of the workforce and over half of university graduates, why is the mental load still so unevenly distributed? We tackle the resurgence of hustle culture and question if the push towards more masculine corporate environments truly serves women's well-being. This episode is a call to reassess priorities, advocate for a balanced life, and recognise the power of self-awareness and open communication in reshaping workplace dynamics.

This isn't just a podcast episode; it's an invitation to reflect, reassess, and redefine your personal and professional life.

https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast/2025/95

Thank you for joining us today on the Balance and Beyond Podcast. We're so glad you carved out this time for yourself!

If you’re keen to dive deeper into our world, here are our socials where you can discover more about the toolkit that has helped thousands of women create a life of balance.

Website: www.balanceinstitute.com
Podcast Website: https://www.balanceinstitute.com/podcast
Email: jo@balanceinstitute.com
LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/in/stonejoanne
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/betterbalanceinstitute/
Instagram: @betterbalanceinstitute

Thanks again for tuning in, and we'll see you next time on the Balance & Beyond Podcast!

Chapters

• 0:03 Corporate Culture's Impact on Women
• 8:30 Empowering Women in the Workplace
• 17:41 Finding Balance Beyond Burnout

Transcript

Jo: 0:03

Welcome to Balance and Beyond, the podcast for ambitious women who refuse to accept burnout as the price of success. Here we're committed to empowering you with the tools and strategies you need to achieve true balance, where your career, relationships and health all thrive and where you have the power to define success on your terms. I honor the space you've created for yourself today, so let's take a breath and dive right in.

Jo: 0:59

Is corporate culture failing women? This was something I was asked recently and it's the topic of today's podcast, where we want to talk about particularly the return to work or shift up in flexibility that is happening in the world at the moment. What does this mean for women? How do we thrive, how do we stay true to ourselves and how do we find balance that we're so I guess so many of us are looking for, and today I'm joined by the wonderful coach, sabina. Hi Sabina, hello, hello Jo, lovely to be here again. A juicy topic. Isn't it A corporate culture's failing women? And where do you go with this? Where do you want to kick us off? There's so much we could talk about here.

Sabina: 1:46

What am I saying? So, having worked in corporate, in HR, for many, many years, and particularly through the pandemic, the topic of hybrid work or work from home was so relevant, and then in more recent years, this is an ongoing conversation for women, particularly mums. Women are the most disadvantaged potentially by this new trend, and work flexibility really shouldn't be a fad. My concern is that we're going backwards by mandating, or attempting to mandate, more return to work. Women generally carry the lion's share of domestic duties, unfortunately, childcare duties. They're juggling a lot. We love the men in our world, but let's face facts. Women are most likely to be disadvantaged by this and it's a conversation that we need to have so that women are not just feeling like they need to dig deep hustle through, grin and bear it and basically be staring down the barrel of burnout which is something that we see so much of, especially when we reflect that, you know, and and not everyone has returned to work mandates.

Jo: 3:11

A lot of people these days tend to be 50 percent, but we are seeing a global trend of many, many companies now starting to, you know, mandate more in office. But when we think about a lot of the corporate world as it currently stands, it was built by men in an era, in the early part of the 1900s, where society was there was only one income owner ever women didn't work and they had children and that was all they did. That's not to say that that's not a small role and it's the hardest job in the world. But we've now entered an era where women are, you know, more than 50% of university graduates and we're at the workforce in numbers. And yet, to your point, what we are seeing shift at a slower pace is the redistribution of the mental load and for most women, certainly the ones I've spoken to, that's what really worries them about the current corporate culture.

Jo: 4:05

How am I going to stay on top of everything? How am I going to juggle everything? Is this just going to be, you know? Yes, it's great to put some real clothes on and see my colleagues, but what is the cost, particularly if this ends up being full-time back in the office? How am I going to do this?

Sabina: 4:20

That's it and unfortunately, what we see and hear a lot is that women are not speaking up. They're not speaking up within themselves, they're not checking in number one with their own truth. What does this mean for me? How am I going to cope? What do I need for this to be doable? So they're not checking in with themselves, they're not having open communication necessarily at work. They might just take it as a given.

Sabina: 4:53

I can't stand up. I don't want to be career limiting. I can't ask for flexibility and if they have a partner at home or perhaps they have children or they may not have a partner, but there are people around them they're not having conversations to then move the goalposts and realize that it's not all them to expand their capacity to deal with this. So it could potentially be a significant problem, these expanded demands in the corporate culture with sometimes less flexibility. But the key is to check in, look at what's possible, what's not possible, speak up, communicate and make up a plan. So women are often not necessarily looking at the data. Wow, that's another six, seven, eight hours travel time, for example. That's eating into my schedule. So they're not necessarily looking at the, the data, and they're also not necessarily looking at their emotions of what does this mean for me? And all of this needs to be reviewed and take a step back and use strategies to be able to step up and be able to manage what's on their plate.

Jo: 6:21

And to your point. You know everyone the first thing says right, I just that's not it, because when you've just added a lot of extra stress, and whether these mandates apply to you or not, we are seeing an increase in hustle culture, and we've got Mark Zuckerberg to thank for some recent comments in the media around. You know, corporate cultures need to become more masculine, and he actually was completely misquoted, but that's a story for another day. But there is now this okay, well, do we need to just push harder? Do we need to grind? Do we need to be a little harsher? And that's an environment that women have been operating in for quite a few decades and it's not serving us well, is it? It's not allowing us the time and space to tap into emotions Because, let's face it, when your list is this big, who has time to feel? Sabina, I don't have time for those messy things. I've just got to have you on my list.

Sabina: 7:14

That's right. And again, this is another really important contributing factor to burnout when we are purely living in our heads and our bodies are moving at 200 miles an hour on autopilot, there's a disconnect between what am I thinking, what am I actually feeling, what you know, what are my emotions around this and how can I actually shift and be more present and more in control and I don't mean that in a grin and bear, and you know, grit down in control but how can I create more balance and really connect with myself and what my gut and my intuition is telling me and what my emotions are telling me and what my physical energy is telling me, as well as what my brilliant intellect and mind is telling me? And again, these are the conversations that we have with women. They often come to us at the point where something's going to break, because work has just expected this or you know I've taken on another thing at home and who's going to pick up the pieces? Good old me. That is an opportunity. You know, when that exhaustion, stress or resentment rears its head, that is an opportunity to check in with yourself.

Sabina: 8:39

Speak up. When women speak up, change can happen. But when you don't speak up at home, nothing gets to change, but you might be more irritable. The family might feel the ripple effects. When you don't speak up at work, you may be seen as not being as strategic as you could be. We need to learn to check in with ourselves and speak up so that there can be a ripple effect of change. And when a woman speaks up in the workplace it gives other women the opportunity to speak up and then policies can maybe change. So the trick is to notice where you're at capacity and ask yourself what needs to change here.

Jo: 9:25

And this ability to connect in with ourselves is something that we see can be hampered by some of our lovely self-sabotage programs, where it's that perfectionist that says nope, house has to look this way. I have to look this way, you know. Life has to operate this way. I have to do this at work. I have to, you know, recheck everything. I have to go over emails that I've sent to make sure that there wasn't any mistakes in them. That's so. Many of these old behaviors now in this environment are going to become even more destructive and much they're going to fuel burnout at a much faster rate unless they're addressed, aren't they? That's right?

Sabina: 10:00

Yeah, it's. The negative consequences of going above and beyond will really start to backfire. And again, you know, another key area is your boundaries. Your boundaries have to become really, really clear, and again, that involves checking in with yourself and also checking in with other people and communicating, because you know we talk about this pattern a lot. It's a form of self-sabotage or a coping mechanism. Form of self-sabotage or a coping mechanism when your boundaries are not strong or you're a people pleaser. People often don't like to admit that phrase, but people pleasing means that you're saying yes to others over and above yourself. You're abandoning your truth, your needs, in service of pleasing others, and that can be very true in the workplace. We don't want to speak up, we don't want to be seen as not capable or not being seen as being the most trusted go-to person. But it's critical, absolutely critical, that we start checking in with ourselves about these patterns, because something's got to give and it's going to be you if you don't upgrade your coping strategies.

Jo: 11:21

And that's what we see, isn't it that often people feel we hear this all the time. Well, I just need to change jobs. It's work. The workplace is toxic, my environment, my boss is toxic. Everyone loves to throw around that T word I'll change. I'll change jobs. But what they don't realize is that just because they've outsourced their boundaries to their employer who, no surprise, doesn't respect them, that their lack of boundaries follows them everywhere. Their resentment follows them everywhere. The leaning into that hustle culture and the do-it-all costs and the perfectionism follows them anywhere. So if you're someone who has, if you were to actually reflect and go oh, I felt this way in most of my jobs well, that's a sign that it's not the job. Job can contribute, yes, but a lot more is in your control than you realize, isn't it?

Sabina: 12:16

Yeah, that's right. It's being able to recognize where you do have control and where there's an opportunity for you to upgrade your operating system and also again communicating, and you may need to change jobs. But one thing I would say again you know, with my HR hat on is, if you are thinking about moving jobs, that role, what do you need? Do you need flexibility? It's important for companies to be able to retain talent or attract good talent that we're speaking up and sharing what we need, and it is really hard to find good talent and retain good talent. So don't forget that. Don't stuff your needs down. Think where is my value and where do I need to communicate this? What's in my control, what do I need to change and what do I need to ask for and where do other people need to meet me so that there can be this upward spiral instead of this grinding hustle, contraction, burnout.

Jo: 13:37

And that's what you love seeing, isn't? It Is that when women come into our world and some of them do choose to change jobs. But what I love is that they've made the decision to leave from a place of. I know what I'm worth. I know my values. We are no longer a match as opposed to. I can't cope. It's the culture. I've got to leave. It's going to be better somewhere else. Unless you do that internal work, it never gets any better and, interestingly, we typically don't see the same level of pay rises or elevation. If you do decide that you want to leave and move up a level, that doesn't happen. If you're still carrying all this baggage with you, because then you're blaming't happen. If you're still carrying all this baggage with you because then you're blaming the workplace or you're blaming the boss, so you're going into looking for somewhere new with a very, very different lens instead of. Here's who I am. Are you worthy of my intelligence, capability, skills, whatever it is that you bring into an organization?

Sabina: 14:43

Yeah, that's it. How can you be more honest with yourself, how can you be more resourced in yourself, how can you be more connected to your, as you say, skills, value, expertise, your needs and your desires? And from that place, that's where you want to be making potential changes. And that can sometimes feel really overwhelming if you're in the muck and you're just feeling totally burnt out. But what we see time and time again. It doesn't have to take too long, it can be in a matter of weeks. If you have a specific framework or way of approaching this and unpacking it and letting go of the baggage, it is possible to turn this around.

Jo: 15:22

And that's. I guess that's part of the challenge, isn't it? There's a few things going on. Women don't like asking for help, part one because, well, we have to do it all ourselves and there's something wrong with us. We're failing if we need to ask for help. And on top of that, you know, as we don't like asking for help, we then struggle to do things imperfectly. So it's like, well, I had someone say to me I, I'm not perfect. In my burnout, I'm like, oh my God, really. And then my perfectionist isn't perfect enough. Wow, it's doing a pretty good job there.

Jo: 15:56

So when we're able to let go of some of this and really step into the life that we want, this is where we tend to see women thriving at work, isn't it? So, regardless of the culture, when you've spoken up but you have to speak up to yourself first when you are able to claim your value in terms of your paycheck and your benefits, well, that's not going to happen until you claim your internal value and recognize what you have. So it's a really interesting dichotomy, isn't it? Everyone thinks that it's just about the stuff outside of themselves. Well, I don't want to go into the office, yeah, but if you don't know what you want and who you are. That's going to fall flat anyway want and who you are.

Sabina: 16:37

That's going to fall flat anyway. Yeah, and what do I need? What do I need so that I'm working at my best, my family's working at my best? What needs to happen and what needs to shift so that we're moving out of exhaustion, moving out of resentment and just, yeah, feeling more like we've got this. Things are good, I'm in my flow, I'm in my zone. Bring it like we've got this.

Jo: 16:57

Things are good, I'm in my flow, I'm in my zone. Bring it. If only we could all be doing more. Bring it Right. That's what we need. That's what we need. So I hope this has been a interesting conversation that has provoked something in you, perhaps some reflection on what is it that you need. What is it so that you need in your life whether they're boundaries, whether it's access to your intuition, whether it's thawing some of your frozen emotions to allow you to be your best at work, so that the corporate culture doesn't fail you and then you can be the best everywhere else in your life. Sabina, any parting words for our listeners today?

Sabina: 17:35

I think that's a good good canter through all the options. I think we've covered a lot of ground there.

Jo: 17:41

Amazing. Well, thank you for joining me, sabina. Happy reflecting, and we'll see you again next time on Balance and Beyond. Thanks for joining us today on the Balance and Beyond podcast. We're so glad you carved out this time for yourself. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend who might need to hear this today. And, if you're feeling extra generous, leaving us a review on your podcast platform of choice would mean the world to us. If you're keen to dive deeper into our world, visit balanceinstitutecom to discover more about the toolkit that has helped thousands of women avoid burnout and create a life of balance and beyond. Thanks again for tuning in and we'll see you next time on the Balance and Beyond podcast.