Dwindling motivation leads to “promotion burnout.” At least, that’s a takeaway from the over 1,000 female employees who were surveyed by British recruitment agency Robert Walters about their career ambitions. According to the results, over 50 percent of those surveyed complained of dwindling motivation at work and little to no ambition to climb the career ladder.
Between “quiet quitting,” “resenteeism,” and “toxic resilience,” you might be inclined to write off “promotion burnout” as just the latest career buzzword. But it is worth paying attention to: Promotion burnout refers to the fact that more and more employees across the board are not working toward a promotion. And for young women in particular, this goes much deeper than needing an extra vacation day. Many no longer feel like pursuing a career at all.
Robert Walters’ survey is not the first to come to this conclusion: A “Women in the Workplace” report by management consultants McKinsey identified a “promotion burnout” last year and pointed to an ambition gap rising between men and women. The bottom line: Women are aiming for promotions less often than men.
Why has job motivation among women, especially young women, been dropping so drastically as of late? Maybe it’s because if young women have noticed one thing about the world of work, it’s that they have a harder time than their male colleagues at moving up the career ladder. A 2021 study by Yale University found that in the case of one U.S. retail chain, women were 14 percent less likely to be promoted than their male counterparts.
The reason for this disadvantage is well known (and wrong): As the McKinsey study reports, there’s the false narrative that women have “consistently lower leadership potential than men.” But as the Women in the Workplace report found, women also receive less professional support than men to further their education or get ahead. That’s not all: According to a survey by Middlesex University, women often feel dissatisfied even after a promotion because, despite the career advancement, they’re still perceived as less competent and constantly have to justify their skills.
So, have all these old prejudices against women made young employees more jaded about the benefits of getting promoted? Or are we all just simply so tired of having to explain and justify our knowledge and expertise every day that we’re opting out? Either way, could you blame us? Women are still being paid less than men for the same job. The gender pay gap may have narrowed in recent years, but it still exists. And this of course does not include care work, which remains unpaid labor usually done by women alone.
Therefore, “promotion burnout” may also be closely linked to mental burnout. Women are under constant stress both at work and at home. So it’s not without reason that an overworked woman might ask herself: If I’m already on the verge of burnout, do I need any more pressure? If I get promoted, will I break under all the new tasks and increased responsibilities? The answer for some might be to reject all that comes with leaning in: unequal pay, more stress, more responsibility, and still constantly feeling like we have to “prove” ourselves.
Don’t forget, we’re also expected to do “office kin keeping” too. Women often take on the labor of organizing their family and friends throughout the year—from birthday presents to RSVPing to their partner’s third cousin’s wedding to planning family vacations and celebrations. These extra tasks are often assigned to us at work as a matter of course too: getting a farewell present for a colleague, organizing the office happy hour, planning a lunch event for the whole team.
