Most people are lonely at work. Women get lonelier as they climb the ladder
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! CVS CEO Karen Lynch faces challenges in the company’s Medicare business expansion, a new report settles the score on side effects for menopause drugs, and Fortune senior reporter Alexa Mikhail shares her reporting on how workplace loneliness hurts women as they advance. Have a wonderful Thursday!
– Loneliest at the top. Ann Shoket, former editor-in-chief of Seventeen magazine and CEO of TheLi.st, a membership community supporting women and nonbinary leaders in their careers, has become an outspoken advocate of prioritizing connections at work. She knows all too well the feeling of loneliness; she felt lonely while climbing the ranks and mistook the sentiment as normal stress and worry. Loneliness puts people at risk for heart disease, anxiety, and depression, but it can also exacerbate gender inequities in the office.
Most dire, Shoket points out, loneliness discourages women from getting promoted or accepting new jobs. According to TheLi.st’s 2023 research, over half of early and mid-career women say they’ve forfeited a new opportunity or quit altogether because of loneliness. Feeling lonely breeds dissatisfaction, the report finds, leading to high turnover and disengagement.
“It’s a crisis in the workplace,” Shoket says. “It makes employees more likely to be unhappy and discouraged about their opportunities.”
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Eighty percent of women report feeling lonely because of their job, with 41% saying work is the loneliest time of their day, according to the most recent survey of over 2,000 white-collar workers, conducted by TheLi.st, in partnership with Berlin Cameron and Benenson Strategy Group. A similar share of men report feeling the same way; the difference is that women are more likely to feel lonely as they progress in their careers compared to men. Half of executive women and the majority of early and mid-career women say their loneliness grew as they got more senior because they felt unsupported and isolated at work; 40% of women overall say they don’t feel their company helps them succeed. Male executives, meanwhile, report feeling less lonely as they climbed the ladder.
The onus is on executives to establish supporting, collaborative cultures, but Shoket says there’s a lot we as individuals can do to combat our own loneliness and its negative effects. The time we spend engaging with others has been in sharp decline. The amount of time people spend socializing with friends in person decreased from 60 minutes a day in 2003 to 20 minutes a day in 2020, according to Dr. Vivek Murthy’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community. And the pandemic made things worse.
Shoket says that upping our socialization at work by just 10 minutes each day can help reduce the downward turn. Spend a few minutes messaging someone in your professional network, congratulating a coworker on a recent promotion or project, or asking a colleague about a shared hobby. Managers can be intentional about having check-ins with teams, fostering connection during the onboarding process, recognizing employees’ accomplishments, and finding innovative ways to collaborate across teams, such as offering mentorship opportunities.
“It’s not showing up at the networking parties and swirling warm Chardonnay. It’s not big, fancy, expensive conferences,” Shoket says. “These tiny daily habits of staying in touch by text, spending time one-on-one, and literally walking around the office are a really valuable way to nurture your connections.”
You can read my full story on combating workplace loneliness here.
Alexa Mikhail
alexa.mikhail@fortune.com
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
– Proceed care-fully. CVS’s disappointing earnings on Wednesday were largely due to the Medicare business that CEO Karen Lynch has aggressively expanded. Lynch told analysts that the pharmacy chain will make adjustments to the program and expects it to reach target profitability in three to four years. Wall Street Journal
– Back to the archives. The Arizona state Senate on Wednesday repealed the 1864 near-total abortion ban that was reinstated in April. The bill, which passed after two Republicans broke with their party, now goes to Gov. Katie Hobbs, who says she will sign it. New York Times
– Meds makeover. A new JAMA report argues that a decades-old study greatly over-exaggerated claims that caused millions of women to refuse menopause drugs. The original study suggested that taking hormone drugs could increase risk of breast cancer, pulmonary embolism, and cardiovascular disease. The new study found no difference in heart risk, a very low risk of stroke, and an increase in breast cancer risk only in those who took estrogen and progestin at the same time. Washington Post
– Treasury on the trail. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will deliver a speech on Friday at the McCain Institute in Arizona that warns the business community about the economic risks associated with attacks on American democracy. Her appearance in the swing state aims to shine a positive light on President Joe Biden for voters who favor former President Donald Trump’s economic strategy. Axios
– Branding together. Beauty veteran Nyakio Grieco told Bloomberg that she has “finally aligned my passion for beauty and the beauty industry with my purpose” thanks to Thirteen Lune, the beauty retailer she founded in 2020 with the goal of lining 90% of its shelves with products from minority founders. To date, Thirteen Lune carries 175 such brands and has partnered with JCPenney and American Airlines. Bloomberg
ON MY RADAR
How Mariska Hargitay made Olivia Benson an icon Variety
Cassie was on her way to massive pop stardom. Then she met Diddy Washington Post
Meet the woman who showed President Biden ChatGPT—and helped set the course for AI WIRED
PARTING WORDS
“It’s like I’m here because the ancestors felt it was necessary. I can’t explain it any other way.”
— Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, whose family was once victim to the Department of the Interior’s oppressive and forced boarding school policies
