Women Are Stressed as They Juggle a 'Double Double' Shift amid Coronavirus, Says Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg is calling on employers — and men of the house — to help ease the burden of women working what she calls a “double double shift” amid the coronavirus.

The Facebook COO and her LeanIn.Org cofounder Rachel Thomas outlined in an op-ed for Fortune the difficulties women are facing as the line between home and work becomes increasingly blurred.

Sandberg, 50, wrote that even before coronavirus hit, women were working a so-called “double shift” — first at work, and then at home, where they had to tend to things like childcare and domestic needs.

“Now, homeschooling kids and caring for sick or elderly relatives during the pandemic is creating a ‘double double shift.’ It’s pushing women to the breaking point,” she wrote.

The op-ed cited surveys conducted by LeanIn and Survey Monkey in April that found that women were experiencing all sorts of anxiety as they navigated the new normal, and that many were feeling much more stressed than men.

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Sandberg and Bernthal have been dating since last spring after they were introduced by her former brother-in-law Rob Goldberg

Thirty-one percent of women with full-time jobs and families said they have more to do than they can handle, while only 13 percent of working men with families said the same. Plus, one in four said they’d developed severe anxiety with physical symptoms, while only one in 10 men said the same.

With that in mind, Sandberg encouraged employers to take steps to relieve that stress by ensuring their employees aren’t getting burned out, and are prioritizing their health.

“That is how they’ll get the best out of their employees amid all this disruption and retain those workers when the crisis is over,” she wrote.

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To do this, she urged leaders and managers to be flexible with deadlines, rethink the timing of performance reviews and cross things off the to-do list that aren’t of a high priority.

She also suggested regular meetings in which people would be able to address any issues or difficulties, as a majority of people in the survey said no one from their company had checked on them during the crisis.

Meanwhile, workplace aside, Sandberg called on men to “step up” when it comes to taking care of business at home.

“Evenly sharing the increased domestic burden — splitting the double double shift — will help ensure women emerge from this period with their jobs and health intact,” she wrote. “Women are maxing out and burning out. Getting through this crisis means helping women get through it too.”

Larissa Cleveland Sheryl Sandberg and fiancé Tom Bernthal

Sandberg has been doing her part amid the crisis; in mid-March, she and fiancé Tom Bernthal launched a COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Feeding Families.

The fund partnered with Second Harvest of Silicon Valley to deliver food to families in need, and Sandberg and Bernthal kicked things off with a joint donation of $5.5 million alongside other executives from companies like Nike and Facebook.

As of Friday morning, there have been at least 1.2 million cases and 75,746 deaths attributed to coronavirus in the United States, according to The New York Times.

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