How do businesses stop the Great Break-up? 

The Great Break-up, a trend that has seen a huge uptick in the number of women professionals leaving their roles and workplaces, has affected Aussie businesses. Here’s how workplace leaders can combat it.

A recent guest on the HR Leader Podcast, freelance general counsel Anna Lozynski, explained how Australian businesses can avoid having the ”Great Break-up” affect their workplace. Lozynski boiled it down to one major component.

“Flexibility, it’s not going away. I think it’s really important to constantly be looking at that, but more importantly, asking staff about how they feel if there are any kind of big swing changes that are being made to flexibility when it comes to the workplace,” Lozynski said.

“Many women who do have a flexible arrangement, there is an element of fear that they hold, that if they talk about it too much, if people see it too much, it might get taken away from them. Now, that is a reality of the employer-employee relationship. But it makes me feel really sad that that’s where we’re at, that it’s almost like this, ‘let’s not draw too much attention to it in case it gets taken away from me’.”

Lozynski used the example of parenting and flexibility as a key reason women tend to walk away from the workplace. This means that businesses must be aware of the circumstances of their employees in relation to flexibility.

“I think it’s also really important to have a frame around flexibility that works for the workplace, but it’s important to allow for exceptions because in the case of parenting. In the case of parenting, everyone has a different circumstance and everyone has a different parenting philosophy,” Lozynski said.

“I don’t think it’s right for a workplace to dictate to someone, to a parent, how that should play out. The other thing I think is important is that most women may not feel safe to speak up about what flexibility means to them or what they need.”

This point of view, however, is not shared by C-suite executives, especially men, who fail to experience these issues. Lozynski believes this can pose problems in retaining women employees.

“I’ve been having some conversations with senior C-suite men recently around this, and do you know what they’ve all said? And again, this is anecdotal. ‘I didn’t even think of that because it’s not my reality. I’m not the primary caregiver. And so, that’s just not part of my mental load and my line of sight.’ And as we know statistically, it’s men making these decisions as a majority.

“So, if it’s really important to you to have flexibility and it’s causing you so much stress, then don’t be afraid to leave. But before you leave, have some honest, heartfelt conversations with the right people in your organisation,” Lozynski said.

Kace O'Neill

Kace O'Neill is a Graduate Journalist for HR Leader. Kace studied Media Communications and Maori studies at the University of Otago, he has a passion for sports and storytelling.