{"id":995,"date":"2024-12-29T10:22:32","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T15:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/?p=995"},"modified":"2024-12-29T11:48:45","modified_gmt":"2024-12-29T16:48:45","slug":"the-career-impact-of-mental-overload","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/?p=995","title":{"rendered":"The Career Impact of Mental Overload"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

\"\"No, you don\u2019t have a migraine, not having a stroke, no aneurysm, thank goodness!\u00a0 Yet, you do have a serious problem.\u00a0 It\u2019s the women\u2019s dilemma of mental overload.<\/strong>\u00a0 It is the mental burden for working women that includes juggling children and households.\u00a0 We are not talking about the actual physical labor of taking care of children, shopping, cleaning, etc., that physical work is visible and exhausting.\u00a0 However, the invisible mental overload can be even more destructive.\u00a0 Time management gurus usually talk about planning, prioritizing, time blocking etc., to be able to focus more effectively on work.\u00a0 We talk less often about the mental overload that limits women\u2019s careers.\u00a0 What if you cannot focus at work because you are worrying about scheduling vet appointments, children\u2019s parent\/teacher conferences, and buying new clothes for your child?\u00a0 It\u2019s bound to take a hit on your career.\u00a0 This mental overload for women is significant.\u00a0 It drains focus, creativity, problem solving and work satisfaction.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Below is an article recently published by the Most Powerful Women Daily Newsletter<\/a> from Fortune, with Emma Hinchliffe on December 20, 2024.\u00a0 It is captured verbatim to not miss any insightful information.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Ana Catalano Weeks, a senior lecturer in comparative politics at the University of Bath who often studies gender and society, has two new research papers that study the impact of the mental load on women.\u00a0 The first, published with University of Melbourne sociology professor Leah Ruppanner in the Journal of Marriage and Family<\/a>, follows parents in the U.S. and found that mothers carry, on average, 71% of the mental load.\u00a0 This includes the unseen work that precedes physical work: noticing that the faucet is leaking and must be repaired, remembering when to schedule a doctor\u2019s appointment or cut the kids\u2019 nails, or keeping track of who to give gifts to each holiday season.

Catalano Weeks\u2019 research is among the first to quantitatively, rather than qualitatively, study this labor.\u00a0 \u201cThis is work that goes on in people\u2019s heads, so it\u2019s not really possible to observe it,\u201d she explains \u2014 compared to typical measures of physical labor like time-use surveys<\/a>.

So why do women get stuck doing the overwhelming majority of this work?\u00a0 Like with the physical labor of housework, it\u2019s a way of \u201cperforming gender<\/a>,\u201d the researchers found.\u00a0 \u201cThe work itself isn\u2019t visible, but the implications of it are,\u201d Catalano Weeks says.\u00a0 If parents don\u2019t remember that it\u2019s Christmas sweater day at school or that the kids are outgrowing their shoes, the mom is typically the one who internalizes that lapse.

Which brings us to Catalano Weeks\u2019 second study:\u00a0 the impact of all this labor on women\u2019s roles in public life through a study of working parents in the U.K.\u00a0 The research, accepted by the British Journal of Political Science<\/em> but not yet published, finds some of the first causal evidence between the mental load and women\u2019s participation in the workforce and political life.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that women don\u2019t have enough time, but that the cognitive load takes up more space in their minds and \u201ccrowds out\u201d the ability or desire to take on additional responsibility at work.\u00a0 Men, who more often are able to forget about the never-ending work of managing a home and family, don\u2019t see that phenomenon to the same degree.

What\u2019s unique about the mental load is the way it cuts across class and privilege.\u00a0 Unlike physical household labor like chores, it\u2019s near impossible to outsource the entire mental load; even for the wealthiest couples who hire a household manager or equivalent staffer to handle much of this work, someone would still carry the mental load of managing that person.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Does this sound like you?\u00a0 This is a topic that I have addressed in keynotes, training, and with individual clients for many years. \u00a0Here is an activity I conduct at corporate training events that always causes laughter, sometimes tears, and nods of recognition:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Two female volunteers pretend to be watching a football game, and I become a journalist interviewing them.\u00a0 One volunteer reacts as a female and the other reacts as a male.\u00a0 I ask the female \u201cWhat are you thinking about right now?\u201d\u00a0 She often responds, \u201cI am worried that the sitter is actually paying attention to my twins, if I remembered to get out their pajamas, and if my presentation at work tomorrow needs to be tweaked.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0When I ask the \u201cmale\u201d, he responds, \u201cIs Burrow going to be sacked on this play?\u201d\u00a0 This could easily be reversed asking women what they are thinking about when they are at their work desk.\u00a0 You can see the potential challenge of focus, productivity, and career advancement.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If your career is floundering because of this mental overload, you are not alone.\u00a0 This is an issue often discussed, processed, and managed with my individual clients.\u00a0 It CAN be changed.\u00a0 If you are ready to tackle this issue and need guidance, let\u2019s talk.\u00a0 We can do a complimentary 45-minute telephone consultation.\u00a0 Email<\/strong>\u00a0Kay@highheeledsuccess.com<\/strong><\/a> or call 513-561-4288 to schedule.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No, you don\u2019t have a migraine, not having a stroke, no aneurysm, thank goodness!\u00a0 Yet, you do have a serious problem.\u00a0 It\u2019s the women\u2019s dilemma of mental overload.\u00a0 It is the mental burden for working women that includes juggling children and households.\u00a0 We are not talking about the actual physical labor of taking care of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3,106,26,4],"tags":[37,78,99,39,42],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Qkhe-g3","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=995"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1007,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995\/revisions\/1007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.highheeledsuccess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}