An Announcement Plus Women and Burnout

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First, the announcement: In December this blog will be a decade old. As I've said more than a few times, it was started to support and augment the original publication of Leadership Matters. Later, when I worked for an epically bad leader, it helped me unpack workplace problems, and later still when I became an interim leader, it served as another type of sounding board. When I started this blog, I was literally alone. Yes, there were leadership blogs written for the business community, but there were few, if any, about the museum workplace. In fact, a decade or more ago, I would argue the field was actively engaged in NOT talking about working conditions.

Thankfully, that has changed. Today it's a relief to share space with writers like Mike Murawski (Agents of Change,) Robert Weisberg (Museum Human,)and Paul Thistle from the country that's friendly, foreign, familiar and near, and many more, including all those who confine their opinions to the Twitterverse, as well as organizations like Museum Hue, National Emerging Museum Professionals, and @changethemuseum. Together, I believe we all help change the culture of silence in the museum workplace. So with this good company, I've decided to take a tiny step back. Beginning February 14, Leadership Matters, will appear monthly on the second Monday of each month.

In keeping with my own pursuit of change--accepting, learning, growing--I realize there are other things I'd like to do on a weekend besides worrying my thoughts about museum leadership into a six-hundred word piece. So I'll be here this week, next week, and then, going forward, monthly.

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And now to some thoughts on work. Long ago, in another lifetime, I was a ballet dancer. Like many girls I took daily classes while trying to decide whether I had the courage and talent to move from avid student to something more. Clearly I didn't, but that's not the point. Ballet dancers--at least female ones--are used to pushing themselves beyond what's normal. They are the people choreographers make pieces "on" as opposed to "for." Their teachers and choreographers push and push, and feet bleeding, muscles aching, they take it.

I thought about that this week when I realized I'd reached the proverbial wall. Shouldn't I know better? Yes, but since the beginning of January I had said yes repeatedly, often to things outside my workplace lane, and the result? It was too much and my work was suffering. And let's not even talk about work/life balance.

There is some kind of masochistic pride in overwork, and like many workplace behaviors, I believe it's gendered. Women are used to "doing it all." They are the finders, the doers, the schedulers, the nurse, and while I'm sure there are households where work is equitably shared, they are often cook, maid, and primary child, pet, and elder minder as well. Those same skills show up in the workplace, where no matter their job description, women fulfill roles as schedulers, planners, cleaner-uppers, and counselors, all while trying to preserve enough brain space for a few big thoughts.

Let me pause here to acknowledge my own position of privilege. I'm White, reasonably well-paid, my children are launched, and I have a solid benefit package. So my hitting the wall is a hang nail compared to what some women cope with. McKinsey's January report on Burnout for Women in the Workplace reports that the rate of burnout between women and men has almost doubled since last year. The Report also says that despite their own increasing weariness, women take action more consistently than men to fight it, all while--at the corporate level, at least--delivering results, but at a great personal toll. It would be nice to know how these trends and behaviors play out in the museum world, but even with a workforce that's 50.1-percent women, the field seems disinterested in spending money on knowing what its workforce thinks.

If you're a woman and a woman leader, what can you do?

Keep talking. Speak with your colleagues--particularly women-- your direct reports and those up the workplace food chain-- about what you're experiencing.
If you're a leader, acknowledge women who do extra work, whether it's workplace housekeeping, mentoring and counseling or logistics and planning.
Look at your HR policy. Policies aren't one and done, they need to grow along with your team and your organization. If it's been awhile, work on your HR policy.
Acknowledge how the current health crisis may propel your organization into a talent crisis, and what the costs might be.
Many museums want to diversify their workforces, but be alert to how being the only BIPOC woman can put a new hire in a space of otherness that as White on-boarders you never even thought about. Learn--which is a process, not something you get from reading an article--how to be an ally. Be a mentor, open doors, and explain the Byzantine rituals and culture of your organization.
When you lobby this month for your institution and museums in general, remember to mention how important societal supports are for working women, like maternity/paternity leave, childcare, and oh, how about the gender wage gap?

1.8 million women have left the workforce since the beginning of the pandemic. As far as I know, until the Bureau of Labor Statistics comes out with its 2021 numbers this spring, we won't know how the museum world has been affected. But you might. You might be a woman or know a woman, who's feeling like this world she struggled to enter has let her down, and she doesn't have the best-job-ever any more. What can we do to change that?

Be well, be kind, and do good work.

Joan Baldwin