My friend Sarah Robinson opened my eyes in a big way with two LinkedIn posts within 24 hours.
The reactions and comments were surprising, and heartbreaking.
What you may not remember is what happened at the end of 2020: “A year ago, women outnumbered men in the U.S. workforce, now they account for 100% of jobs lost in December.”
Let that soak in for a while.
Here are Sarah’s posts.
Post 1
Post 2
Since Sarah was looking for possible explanations, I commented, “Brené Brown says the primary shame trigger for women is they have to do it all and never let anyone see them sweat. (For men it’s being seen as weak.)”
Sarah responded, “I think a lot of that is sadly validated by others responses when we do admit we are struggling. Had a great corporate client conversation about that this morning. We can’t expect women to open up about struggles and overwhelm if we then turn around and think less of their professional abilities. It’s a bit of a Gordian knot.”
We need to talk about it, and we need to make it okay to ask for support.
Given the train wreck that was 2020 and the uncertainty of 2021, we need to make it okay for EVERYONE to say they are struggling.
And it’s pretty safe to assume that everyone is struggling at this point as we look at the next wave here in the U.S.
Clearly, we need to evolve the way we work.
This isn’t working.
