Latest / Women at Work: Career, Leadership & Modern Work / How Overwork Culture Pushes Women Out of Leadership
Transcript
- Lucas: There's this number from a McKinsey survey published late last year that I keep coming back to. Women in senior manager roles spend about 40 percent more time than men on DEI committees, mentoring junior staff, and organizing team events — work that's essential for the company but completely invisible in performance reviews. Luna: Forty percent — that's huge. And I'm guessing it doesn't come with a bonus or a promotion either. Lucas: Exactly. It's what researchers call office housework. And it's one of the main reasons women burn out and step back from leadership tracks. They're doing more work, getting less credit, and then being told they're not strategic enough. Luna: So today we're talking about the overwork culture that quietly pushes women out? Lucas: Yeah. And specifically, how the gap between what's expected and what's rewarded hits women harder. Let me give you a concrete case. A mid-2026 report from a large professional services firm — one of the Big Four — tracked billable versus non-billable hours by gender over two years. They found that women logged 15 percent more non-billable internal work: training, recruiting, culture committees. The same women had on average 8 percent lower billable targets, which sounds like a perk, but it actually capped their revenue generation and therefore their bonus potential. Luna: So they're being assigned more of the work that doesn't count toward the numbers that matter. And then they're penalized for not hitting the numbers. Lucas: Right. And the irony is, the firm needed that internal work — it's what keeps the place running. But the system only rewards client-facing revenue. So women who said yes to it were seen as less committed to the business. Luna: I've seen this firsthand. I remember a former colleague who organized the entire summer internship program — set up speakers, mentored the interns, gave feedback. She got a thank you email from HR. Her male peers who brought in one extra client got a promotion. Lucas: That's the pattern. And the McKinsey data shows it's not just professional services. Across industries, 56 percent of women say they regularly take on work that falls outside their job description, versus 42 percent of men. The gap is biggest at the senior manager and director levels — exactly when people are vying for the C-suite. Luna: So what's driving it? Are women just conditioned to say yes more? Or are they being asked more often? Lucas: Both. Researchers at Harvard Business School ran a field experiment a few years ago — this is from a 2022 paper but it's still cited — where they sent identical requests to senior leaders asking them to serve on a DEI task force. When the request came from a female-sounding name, the response was yes 76 percent of the time. From a male-sounding name, 52 percent. Women are asked more often, and they're expected to say yes. Luna: And then if they say no, they're seen as not a team player. So it's a double bind. Lucas: Exactly. And that's where the overwork culture becomes a career trap. You either accept the extra work and get no credit for it, or you decline and get labeled as difficult. Either way, your trajectory stalls. Luna: Let me jump in here — because something you said earlier about listener support made me think. This show, we get to dig into these dynamics because listeners help keep it ad-free. A small group of people chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's what makes episodes like this possible. So thank you to those who do. Lucas: Yeah, it's a big deal. And it means we can spend time on a topic like this without worrying about ad breaks. Which brings us back to the question: if you're a woman in that position, what do you actually do? Luna: Right. Because the individual advice is often 'learn to say no' or 'negotiate for credit.' But we've talked in past episodes about how women are penalized for negotiating. Lucas: We have. And the research suggests that structural fixes are more effective than individual grit. Let me give you an example. One Fortune 500 tech company I read about in a 2025 case study started tracking all non-billable work by gender and department. They found that women in engineering spent 30 percent more time than men on onboarding new hires. So they changed the performance review criteria to include a line item for 'organizational health contributions.' Suddenly, that work was visible and counted toward bonuses. Luna: Did it stick? Did women's promotion rates change? Lucas: The study followed them for 18 months. Promotion rates for women in that division went up 12 percentage points compared to the control group. And the men didn't suffer — they just started doing more of the internal work too, because it now had a payoff. Luna: So the fix wasn't telling women to say no. It was changing the scorecard. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the key insight. The problem isn't that women can't advocate for themselves — it's that the system doesn't value the work they're expected to do. Once you measure it and reward it, the gap starts to close. Luna: But not every company is going to do that. So what about the individual woman listening who's in that situation right now? What's one actionable takeaway? Lucas: I'd say two things. First, track your own time for a month. Note every task that's not in your job description. Then bring that data to your manager and say, 'I'm spending X hours on this — is this something you value for my next review?' You're not saying no; you're asking for the work to be acknowledged. Luna: That's smart. It reframes the conversation from 'I'm not a team player' to 'I want to align my contributions with what matters.' Lucas: Second, look for allies — especially senior men — who can sponsor you. Because if a senior male leader says, 'She should be on that key client account instead of running the diversity committee,' it carries more weight than you saying it yourself. Luna: And we've talked about the sponsorship gap before, but this is a concrete way it shows up: sponsors can redirect you away from invisible work and toward visible work. Lucas: Right. And I think the bigger takeaway for companies is: if you're serious about keeping women in leadership, audit the invisible work. Look at who's doing the mentoring, the DEI committees, the office party planning. If it's disproportionately women, that's not a culture problem — it's a structural inequity that you're literally not measuring. Luna: So let's talk about the cost of not fixing it. What happens to women who stay in that overwork cycle? Lucas: They burn out, or they leave. The 2025 McKinsey data found that women at the senior manager level were 1.5 times more likely than men to say they were considering leaving their employer in the next year. And the top reason wasn't pay — it was unsustainable workload. Luna: So the companies that don't address this are essentially training women for leadership and then pushing them out the door. Lucas: Exactly. And often those women go to smaller companies, startups, or consulting — where they have more control over their time — and then the big company loses that talent. It's a quiet drain. Luna: I want to put a finer point on this. We've talked about the ambition penalty, the confidence gap, the likeability penalty — but this overwork thing feels more insidious because it's framed as 'being helpful.' You can't argue against being helpful. Lucas: No, you can't. And that's why it's so hard to push back. But I think the research is clear: if companies want to close the gender gap in leadership, they have to make the invisible visible. That means changing what gets measured, what gets rewarded, and who gets asked to do the housework. Luna: So let's end with a question for listeners. If you're a manager — of any gender — take a look at your team. Who's doing the work that doesn't show up on the scorecard? And what would happen if you started counting it? Lucas: That's the question. And if you've got a story about this — whether you've seen it work or seen it fail — we'd love to hear it. You can reach us through the show page. Luna: Thanks for listening.