The “Great Breakup” Among Women Leaders, Rebounding From Layoffs And Metaverse Skepticism

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The only descriptive word to mark a trend that may be more overused than “quiet” right now—think quiet quitting, quiet firing, even “quiet fleecing”—is “great.” Amid all the names for the “Great Resignation”—the Great Reshuffle, the Great Re-Invention, the Great Relocation—we now have the Great Layoff (seriously?) and what McKinsey and LeanIn.org call the “Great Breakup.”

As senior contributor Kim Elsesser writes, this isn’t about senior women quitting or exiting the workforce. It’s about moving to companies that share their values—prioritizing career advancement, supporting flexibility and work-life balance and emphasizing diversity and inclusion.

While this many seem like just another name for the Great Resignation, McKinsey and LeanIn’s research is interesting because it reminds us that people aren’t just changing jobs for better pay elsewhere; they’re actively leaving organizations they don’t align with anymore—even in a worsening economy. It’s little surprise this is happening as more workplaces compel employees to come back to the office—the survey, for instance, finds that while nearly 20% of men want to work primarily on-site, just 10% of women, who often play the default role of primary caregivers, feel the same.

Such trends have lasting impact. If fewer women are stepping into a company’s leadership ranks, they’ll have fewer shots to reach the highest rungs. My colleague Maggie McGrath—see the featured story below—recently found that there are just three all-female CEO-CFO duos running the 500 largest U.S. public companies, following the news that GSK had named Burberry executive Julie Brown as its new chief financial officer, joining CEO Emma Walmsley in GSK’s C-suite.

Some women, of course, pick a different path entirely. As part of her 50 Over 50 coverage, Maggie profiled Diane Hendricks, who beat cancer twice and survived the tragic death of her husband on her way to becoming the nation’s richest self-made woman. In the last five years, she has tripled her net worth to more than $12 billion.

Thanks, as always, to assistant editor Emmy Lucas for helping to compile this week’s newsletter. Hope it’s a great week.

FEATURED STORY

Why Aren’t There More Pairs Of Female Leaders At The Top?

There are just three all-female CEO-CFO duos running the 500 largest U.S. public companies. Maggie McGrath explores why there aren’t more.

WORK SMARTER

Here are five ways you can talk positively about a negative job experience at your next interview.

Want to catch someone’s attention via email? Here’s how to write a networking note that gets opened.

Laid off? Here’s how to rebound quickly.

Here’s how to achieve good results from your company’s employee engagement survey.

Can a side hustle get you fired? What you should know about overemployment.

ON OUR AGENDA

Meta and the metaverse: Will our work lives move to the metaverse anytime soon? Forbes senior contributor Paul Tassi is skeptical. Last week, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled his latest plans, revealing a $1,500 headset Oculus Pro and updates to its avatar designs and integration of Microsoft products. With so many goals and expansions, “the main issue with Mark’s metaverse is that it’s a solution in search of dozens of problems,” Tassi writes.

Employee dissatisfaction: We’ve all heard of “quiet quitting” and how it’s impacting companies. But, as Forbes senior contributor Teresa Ghilarducci writes, a great deal of worker dissatisfaction is occurring and revealing itself in other, louder ways such as surveys, individual quitting and worker protests.

Workers are valuing job security now more than flexible work: Job security at a stable company is of great importance to more than half of workers surveyed at 15 companies, according to data from the global communications firm BCW. Remote work, hybrid work and the flexibility they provide have been at the top of worker’s concerns, but expectations, demands and requirements are not what they were even six months ago, Forbes contributor Tracy Brower writes.

Severance pay consequences: You may get severance pay when you quit your job, get laid off or fired. You may also get severance if you sue and settle. Forbes senior contributor Robert Wood lays out how you should think about the tax issues involved.

Your job search, filtered: A new Glassdoor feature allows job searches not just by location or title, but filtered by demographic ratings or interest areas like work-life balance—increasingly important issues for people looking for jobs, writes Dana Brownlee.

BOOK CLUB

Billionaire Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus—and member of the Forbes 400—is out with a new business memoir about his life and career, promoting his belief that a “do-it-yourself” attitude is needed in today’s world, and how it can help not only in building businesses but in philanthropy or other social impact efforts.