Cultivating Workplace Culture

If we want more women in tech, we need to stop asking how to “fix women’s confidence”. The real question is: what are organisations doing to create environments where women can thrive? Through my work with #techmums, #TechUPWomen, BCSWomen , and the Women in Tech Power Network I’ve seen so many women move into tech careers and flourish when the environment around them supports them. Time and again I’ve watched incredibly capable women step into their potential once they’re in workplaces where they are welcomed, supported and given real opportunities. So what can companies do? A few things that make a genuine difference: 🌟 Leadership must lead. Culture comes from the top. CEOs and CTOs need to actively champion inclusive workplaces. 🌟 Create strong communities and networks where women can connect and support each other. 🌟 Invest in mentoring and sponsorship that opens doors to opportunities and leadership. 🌟 Make career progression transparent so promotion pathways are fair and visible. 🌟 Listen to women’s experiences and act on what you hear. Inclusive cultures don’t happen by accident. They happen because leaders choose to build them. And when they do, the impact on people, organisations and innovation is extraordinary. #LinkedInNewsEurope #WomenInTech TechUP Programme BCSWomen Women in Tech Power Network #Leadership #Inclusion #IWD #IWD26

⚡ Why Women Bully Other Women at Work: The "Ideal Worker" Trap Workplace bullying isn’t just about toxic individuals—it’s about systemic gender norms that shape how women are expected to behave at work. Research shows that when women experience workplace bullying, the perpetrator is often another woman. But why? 🔹 Women are 30% more likely to be bullied at work than men. 🔹 When women bully, they target other women up to 70% of the time (Workplace Bullying Institute). But this isn’t just “mean girl” behavior—it’s a symptom of workplace cultures built around the male “ideal worker” standard. What’s the Ideal Worker? The ideal worker is someone who is: ✅ Always available (no work-life balance) ✅ Aggressive, dominant, assertive and competitive ✅ Ambitious and free from dependent care responsibilities ✅ Unemotional and rational 📢 Here’s the issue: Women entering the workforce were expected to conform to these norms while also being warm, collaborative, and likable—a double bind that puts women in a lose-lose situation. Because leadership opportunities for women remain scarce, workplace cultures often push women into competition with one another rather than collaboration. 💥 Women who conform to the ideal worker model—by being assertive, ambitious, or prioritizing work over relationships—are often perceived as a threat by others, triggering subtle forms of bullying such as: 🚫 Exclusion from key conversations and opportunities 🙅♀️ Undermining or nitpicking ideas in meetings 👀 Gossiping or questioning someone’s likability 🗣️ Labeling assertive women as “bossy” or “too much” The Cost? Women Lose. This dynamic doesn’t just harm individuals—it holds all women back. Research shows that women who experience workplace bullying are twice as likely to quit their jobs, leading to: ❌ Fewer women in leadership ❌ Higher turnover rates ❌ Workplaces that continue to reinforce male-centric leadership norms Breaking the Cycle: What Can We Do? 💡 Challenge the ideal worker myth and redefine leadership to include empathy, flexibility, and inclusivity. 💡 Support and amplify other women’s voices in meetings. 💡 Stop gatekeeping—mentorship and sponsorship create more opportunities for women. 💡 Set clear boundaries and refuse to engage in exclusionary behaviors. 🎧 For a deep dive into why women experience more workplace bullying—and what we can do about it—listen to Episode 6 of My Workplace Is Killing Me! 🔗 Listen now at MyWorkplaceIsKillingMe.com #WomenAtWork #IdealWorker #ToxicWorkplace #WorkplaceBullying #Leadership #CareerGrowth #WomenSupportingWomen

"We're like a family here" is the biggest red flag in any job interview. It sounds warm. It sounds inviting. It sounds like you'll be cared for. But after 10+ years in corporate banking, I learned what that phrase actually means. It means they expect you to sacrifice your actual family for the company. I watched it happen over and over. Colleagues missing their kids' birthdays because someone scheduled a "critical" meeting at 5pm on a Friday. Parents skipping school events because leaving early would look bad. People answering emails at dinner tables, during vacations, at their own wedding receptions. All because the company was "like a family." Real families don't guilt you into working weekends. Real families don't make you feel replaceable if you take a sick day. Real families don't schedule performance reviews where they tell you that you're not committed enough because you left at 6pm instead of 8pm. I fell for this trap for years. I thought being loyal meant being available. I thought being dedicated meant being exhausted. I thought being a team player meant putting the company ahead of everything else in my life. Then I had daughters. Suddenly the math didn't work anymore. Every hour I gave to a company that called itself a family was an hour stolen from the actual family waiting for me at home. The people who actually needed me. The people who wouldn't replace me with a job posting if I got sick. The companies that truly respect their employees don't need to call themselves families. They just act like decent organizations run by adults who understand that people have lives outside of work. They don't schedule meetings at 7am or 6pm. They don't send passive aggressive messages when you take your vacation days. They don't make you feel guilty for having boundaries. They understand something simple: you work better when you're not running on empty. You think clearer when you're not stressed about missing your kid's first steps. You stay longer when you're not slowly burning out. I run my own business now. I work from home. I'm there when my daughters wake up and when they go to sleep. I don't miss the moments that matter because some manager decided their deadline was more important than my life. That's not luck. That's a choice I made after realizing that no company would ever care about my family as much as I do. If someone tells you their company is "like a family," ask them one question. Do they let you leave early for your kid's school play without making you feel like you're letting the team down? The answer will tell you everything. What's the worst "we're a family" moment you've experienced at work?

People don’t quit jobs. They quit feeling invisible. A 2023 Gallup study found that employees who feel meaningfully recognized are 4x more likely to be engaged and 45% less likely to leave their organization. Recognition doesn’t need to be grand - it just needs to be felt. Most people aren’t looking for applause. They’re looking to feel acknowledged. Appreciated. Visible. Here are 8 simple ways leaders, managers - and honestly, all of us - can help people feel seen in everyday moments: ✅ 1. Personalize Your Feedback Instead of “Great job,” say: “The way you structured that deck made the insights really clear - that’s a strength.” ✅ 2. Recognize in Public, Appreciate in Private Mention someone’s contribution in a meeting, then follow up afterward with a quiet “Thank you - that really helped us move forward.” ✅ 3. Use Eye Contact + Reflective Listening Put down the phone. Look up. Say, “What I’m hearing is… Does that feel accurate?” That moment of attunement builds trust fast. ✅ 4. Acknowledge Effort, Not Just Output Try: “I know how much work went into this. That focus really showed.” It honors the process, not just the result. ✅ 5. Follow Up on a Personal Detail Ask: “How did your son’s first day of school go?” “You mentioned that big pitch - how did it land?” This tells people you actually care, not just remember. ✅ 6. Celebrate Progress Over Perfection Say: “You’ve grown so much in how you handle pushback. That’s real evolution.” People want to know they’re moving forward - not just being judged on performance. ✅ 7. Quote Them Back to Themselves Use someone’s words to support an idea in a meeting. “Like you said last week, Priya - clarity builds trust. That’s exactly what this approach does.” It shows you heard them - and value their thinking. ✅ 8. Ask for Their Perspective Before Making a Decision Invite them in: “Before I move forward on this, I’d love your take - what do you see that I might be missing?” That’s not flattery. That’s inclusion. Want your team to go beyond the bare minimum? Start by making them feel like they matter. Consciously. People show up fully when they feel fully seen. 🔁 Repost to help create compassionate workplaces. 🔔 Follow Bhavna Toor for more on conscious leadership.

“Women are still treated as the cleaning crew of corporate: promoted only to clean up what was screwed up before them, both work-wise and morale-wise.” That’s one quote we gathered in our research around the Care Tax. Most women managers don’t need me to explain the Care Tax. They just get it. They understand what it means to be: • Asked to mentor everyone • Expected to manage team morale during change • Cast as the “office therapist” • Pulled in to help leaders communicate difficult messages • Expected to reassure teams during uncertainty, including the shifts AI is creating right now Many of you told us care work doesn’t show up in job descriptions. It doesn’t show up in performance reviews. But it is “real, relentless, and lands disproportionately on women.” We surveyed more than 350 women in professional managerial roles, and one pattern became clear: The more you do the Care Tax, the more you are expected to do it. And it is burning women out and adding to the reasons women are exiting traditional workplaces. As one leader put it: “It’s framed as a strength. Women are praised for it until they’re depleted by it. The empathy tax is collected quietly, and the bill only becomes visible when she finally stops paying it.” – I name the corporate patterns that are hard to see, so more leaders can claim their seats. Follow for more research and insights on women, work, and leadership. 

Leadership fails when people are treated like machines instead of human beings. Yesterday, one of my team members called me and said he was not feeling well. On top of that, he was fasting too. I did not ask about pending tasks first. I simply told him: “Take rest and stay at home.” And honestly, I think more companies need to understand something important. People join for salaries. They stay and give their best where they feel respected. Today, we have a team of 20+ people. Some work remotely, some on-site. But I have never wanted them to feel like “employees.” I’ve always tried to build an environment where people feel trusted, valued, and comfortable communicating honestly during difficult moments. Because exhausted people may stay online longer, but they usually don’t perform better. In fast-moving work environments, mental clarity, emotional stability, and physical health directly affect decision-making, communication quality, creativity, and consistency. And something interesting happened today. The same team member came early, completed the work responsibly, and all client deliverables went on time without any issue. That reinforced something I’ve believed for a long time: When people feel trusted during difficult moments, they often return that trust through ownership and accountability. I think many organizations still underestimate how deeply workplace culture affects long-term performance. Pressure may increase short-term output temporarily, but healthy environments usually create stronger loyalty, better thinking, and more sustainable execution. Sometimes one day of rest protects weeks of productivity. A healthy team is not built only through targets and systems. It is built through trust, empathy, flexibility, and mutual respect. Because behind every role, deadline, and project is still a human being carrying responsibilities, stress, emotions, and invisible battles. Trust and empathy are not soft skills. They are performance multipliers. If you had to choose one workplace value to protect above all others, what would it be? LinkedIn LinkedIn News LinkedIn News India #Leadership #WorkCulture #MentalHealth

Josie Cox, writing for Business Insider, reports that white-collar women spend the equivalent of a full workday each week providing emotional support to their colleagues, a burden researchers call the "empathy tax." The labor is invisible, uncompensated, and disproportionately falling on women, who are more likely to be sought out for emotional support regardless of their actual role or seniority. While this work builds team cohesion and psychological safety, it is also quietly draining the time, energy, and career capital of the people doing it most. HR leaders need to name this dynamic before they can address it. If women's unpaid labor is subsidizing your organization's emotional infrastructure, you have a retention risk, a pay equity issue, and a burnout problem compounding simultaneously. Audit where informal support work actually lands across your organization, build peer support and mental health resources that don't default to the nearest woman in the room, and make emotional labor visible in performance reviews rather than treating it as a personality trait that some people just happen to have. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/gaVEq6uS #EntryLevelJobs #AIAndWork #HRLeaders #WorkforceTransformation #GenZ #FutureOfWork

A few years ago, a CEO I coached said, “Every week feels the same. The same fires, just in different departments.” Like many leaders, he was solving brilliantly but within the same loop. ✅ What he needed was a systems-thinking shift. It often comes down to this: • Leaders who think in steps solve problems repeatedly. • Leaders who think in systems solve them once. Most leadership energy is wasted in firefighting mode, reacting to outcomes instead of addressing the structures that create them. Systems-thinking leadership changes that. It’s preventive leadership. Instead of asking, “What went wrong?” Ask, “What pattern keeps creating this?” When you fix the pattern, the symptom often disappears permanently. That’s why organisations led by systems thinkers see up to a 60% reduction in recurring issues. You can start by: 1. Mapping the flow:  Where does the problem originate? 2. Identifying repetition: What keeps resurfacing? 3. Intervening at structure: What policy, rhythm, or decision loop fuels it? One systemic intervention can prevent dozens of future fires. That’s strategic leverage. Because when leaders build systems that self-correct, teams become self-managing, and leadership finally shifts from firefighting to fire prevention. What’s one recurring issue in your organization that might be a system problem in disguise? #LeadershipDevelopment #SystemsThinking 

There is a form of work that most Organizations do not count. It does not appear in job descriptions. It is not measured in performance reviews. It does not feature in the analysis of why meetings run over or why certain leaders are perpetually more stretched than their peers. It is the work of steadying an anxious colleague at 7:30 in the evening. Of responding to a team member's message at 2 in the morning because they cannot sleep during a restructuring. Of absorbing the emotional fallout from a change that nobody has finished processing yet, and showing up the next morning ready to do it again. New research published in MIT Sloan Management Review has put a name to this, the empathy tax. Across a study of more than 350 professional women in managerial roles, 81.6% reported spending at least 30% of their working week on caring tasks, listening to colleagues' anxieties, offering encouragement, monitoring how the people around them are feeling. That is more than a full business day's worth of work in a five-day week, layered on top of their formal responsibilities. And 76% of those women reported that this caring work is done mostly by women. Only 1.7% said it falls primarily on men. What struck the researchers, and what strikes me in my own work studying leadership dynamics, is that many male colleagues did not describe feeling the same pressure. In some cases they did not even appear to notice that the labour was happening around them. That is not a description of an individual failing. It is a description of a structural condition that is invisible to half the room, which is, in many ways, the most consequential kind of inequality there is. #EmpathyTax #WomenInLeadership #GenderEquity #OrganisationalBehaviour #Leadership

High-pressure, fast-paced work environments are like hot sauce on the brain—they keep everything on fire. While leaders might thrive on this continual state of excitement and ambition, expecting all employees to sustain this intensity is unrealistic. Such an environment can lead to: → Burnout → Disillusionment → High turnover But what if you’re on a mission to change the world or accomplish big things? How can you cultivate a culture of innovation that also supports a sustainable workforce? ⦿ Flexible Schedules: Foster innovation with flexible hours and remote work options, as demonstrated by Google. ⦿ Clear Boundaries: Limit after-hours work and communication to avoid burnout, a strategy championed by 37signals. ⦿ Promote Well-being: Invest in wellness programs and mental health resources, like those offered by Asana. ⦿ Create Innovation Labs: Set up dedicated spaces or times for experimentation and creativity, like 3M's famous 15% rule. ⦿ Encourage Regular Breaks: Implement mandatory downtime, similar to Slack's "no meetings" Fridays, to boost creativity and reduce fatigue. ⦿ Mentorship Programs: Pair employees with mentors to nurture growth and support, following the model used by Pixar Animation Studios to encourage creative collaboration. wearemotto.com