Deloitte report: women doing it tough in pandemic

A new survey finds COVID has dramatically cut levels of jobs satisfaction and mental health of women in the workplace.

‘I’d be working until midnight most nights just trying to get things done while my son was sleeping,’ says Abbie White, with son Jayden Brown. Picture: Nikki Short

The Covid-19 pandemic has produced a dramatic collapse in the job satisfaction and mental health of Australian women, who overwhelmingly report a significant increase in their professional and domestic workload.

A survey by Deloitte finds the crisis has undermined decades of gender gains in the workplace; leaving one in four women considering leaving the workforce.

The report, Women @Work: A global outlook, released on Monday, covers 5000 women across 10 countries, with 500 of them in Australia.

It says “the stark reality for women in the workplace” is that “gender equality has regressed, stifling year of slow but steady progress. Increased responsibilities at work and at home during the pandemic, coupled with non-inclusive workplace cultures, are resulting in diminishing job satisfaction and employer loyalty for women.”

Among the findings, 76 per cent of women say their workload has increased since the pandemic and 61 per cent say household commitments have also increased; job satisfaction has dropped from 69 per cent to 47 per cent; 36 per cent of women say they are spending more time caring for children; and 25 per cent say they are spending more time caring for people other than ­children.

Before the pandemic, 70 per cent of women thought their mental health was good or extremely good but now only one-third of respondents report these levels of mental wellbeing. About one-third says organisations have increased access to flexible work in an effort to reduce the impact of the crisis on mental health.

The increased levels of working from home during Covid have been applauded by many women, but the report found it is taking a toll: almost half the respondents said they were finding it hard to switch off from work and about one-third were worried that if they did switch off, they would be marked down, with their organisation caring less about them.

Only 43 per cent of Australian women say their organisations have done enough to support them during the pandemic, and about 50 per cent feel less optimistic about career prospects compared to before the pandemic.

The chief strategy officer at Deloitte, Clare Harding, said despite the adverse findings, “some employers are getting it right” with their staff reporting higher levels of mental wellbeing, job satisfaction, motivation and productivity. “We need to consider the impact of the pandemic on working families … employers need to be proactive in supporting families,” she said.

Only about 4 per cent of the women surveyed work for organisations that are leaders in gender equity but the results are clear, ­according to the report.

About 70 per cent of these employees rate their productivity as good or very good, compared with 29 per cent in organisations that lag on gender inclusion; 70 per cent also rate job satisfaction as good or extremely good; and the same percentage plan to stay with their employers for two years or more, compared with only 8 per cent of those working for lagging organisations.

Lack of work-life balance is the main reason women say they want to leave an employer.

The level of churn across Australian companies is high: the report found 4 per cent of those surveyed planned to stay with their employer for more than five years, 22 per cent for two to five years and 58 per cent for two years or less.

Abbie White, a small business owner from Sydney, struggled to juggle professional and domestic priorities when the pandemic hit. Balancing work for her marketing business while keeping her 18-month-old son, Jayden, occupied was a big challenge. “Mentally it was really tough,” she said. “I’d be working until midnight most nights just trying to get things done while my son was sleeping.”