Frequent changes in management disrupted workplace relationships that women relied on for flexible arrangements. Flexible arrangement at work, which is how women adapt their work structure to balance with caregiving, is also relationship-based (see insight 6).  With new leadership, these informal supports could vanish overnight, leaving women uncertain whether they could continue in their roles.

• Luna is hesitant to move from her current employment as a sandwich artist at Subway where her manager allows for her to have flexible hours every week, even though she has upskilled with a social work diploma.

Management changes often brought structural shifts as well—longer hours, heavier workloads, or sudden reassignments—that pushed women to leave in search of more suitable jobs.

• Heti was moved from her regular shop duties to warehouses with poor conditions, where she felt singled out for mistakes. She also suspected that disclosing her depression in her employment letter had made her supervisors scrutinize her more harshly.
• Alicia initially felt valued, but after leadership changes she observed that “everyone is in survival mode” and worried about job security.
• Eliza and Katrina highlighted unclear job descriptions, inadequate training, and mismatched expectations at entry as reasons for leaving within a short span.

The indicator “respect in the workplace” saw a drastic increase in percentage change of those who are “struggling” between Surveys 2 and 3, at which point women open up more about their lived experiences.

• This indicator measures if women feel respected in the way that other communicated to them at work, and if women feel like they can communicate and negotiate their needs at the workplace.
• This percentage change is more drastic in the coaching group than in the income group.