Why do working women burn out between job and home? Read how the double burden affects productivity, health and engagement, and what employers can do.
Picture a working woman who gets up at six in the morning to make the children's breakfast, runs to catch the shuttle, finishes an eight-hour shift and then stops at the market, checks homework in the evening, sorts her elderly mother's medication, and toward midnight sets out the next day's list in her head. In many organisations this picture is not the exception but an ordinary day. At work, this woman is expected to attend meetings with the same energy as everyone else, stay for overtime and focus on her career goals. This situation, called the "double burden" or the "second shift," is not just women's personal problem; it is a business matter that directly affects productivity, workplace safety, staff turnover and the organisation's talent pool. In this article, for employers, HR managers and factory managers, I look at the psychological effects of the double burden and the concrete steps organisations can take.
What Is the Double Burden? Visible and Invisible Labour
The double burden means that, alongside paid work, unpaid labour such as housework, childcare and the care of elderly or sick family members also remains largely on the same person's shoulders. In Turkey, close family ties, strong social expectations that care will be provided within the family, and the fact that access to nursery or care services is not easy everywhere can cause this load to concentrate on women.
The double burden has two dimensions:
- Visible labour: Time-consuming concrete tasks such as cooking, cleaning, taking children to and from school and hospital appointments.
- Invisible labour (mental load): Keeping track of what is missing, remembering the vaccination schedule, keeping up communication with the teacher, planning the family's needs in advance. This load is not physically visible but it keeps the mind constantly occupied and makes rest harder.
The mental load continues at work too. A message from the school shuttle in the middle of a meeting, a call to the pharmacy over lunch or a phone call from a sick relative during a shift all cause attention to be constantly interrupted. For this reason, the double burden cannot be thought of as an issue that lies outside working hours. Moreover, this load changes form at different stages of life: having a young child, children entering their exam years, an older family member falling ill, or dealing with one's own health problems mean that the same employee needs different kinds of support at different times. It is far more functional for organisations to establish policies that can anticipate these periods and be rearranged together with the employee than to take a one-size-fits-all approach. I discuss organisational recommendations for all employees with parenting responsibilities separately in the article on supporting working parents.
Effects on Working Women's Health and Job Performance
Rushing between two areas of responsibility for a long time without rest leads over time to both physical and psychological wear. The effects most often observed in the field are:
- Chronic fatigue and sleep problems: Housework that continues late into the night and the need to get up early in the morning reduce the duration and quality of sleep.
- Burnout: Energy depletion, cynicism and a sense of inadequacy. The WHO defines burnout as an occupational phenomenon resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed (WHO, 2019). The double burden can speed up this process by reducing the chance of recovering from workplace stress.
- Guilt and a sense of inadequacy: The thought "I'm not good enough at work or at home" can pave the way for anxiety and depressive symptoms.
- Withdrawal from career: Turning down promotion, responsibility or a training opportunity because "I can't cope with it right now."
- Distraction and risk of error: Especially on production lines, fatigue and divided attention pose a risk for workplace safety.
The general employee profile in Turkey adds to this load. According to Gallup's 2026 report, 66% of employees in Turkey say they experienced stress for much of the previous day and 23% say they felt loneliness, while only 19% are classed as "thriving" (Gallup, 2026; 2025 data). These data are not broken down by gender, but they are a reminder that employees carrying a double burden bear an extra load on top of this general level of stress.
For the business, the most visible result is the loss of experienced women employees. Employees who find no flexibility at times such as childbirth, children starting school or an older family member falling ill may be forced to leave. According to Deloitte's 2022 report based on UK data, about 40% of the costs of staff leaving are attributed to mental health problems (Deloitte, 2022). When a master craftsperson, quality specialist or team leader trained over the years leaves, it is not merely a vacant post but a loss of organisational memory.
Workplace Factors That Make the Double Burden Heavier
An employer cannot change the division of labour at an employee's home. But the workplace's own practices can lighten or worsen the double burden. The aggravating factors most often encountered in the field are:
- Last-minute shift and overtime changes: One of the most difficult practices for an employee who has to plan childcare in advance.
- Meetings scheduled at the end of the day or early in the morning: Meetings that clash with school and nursery hours reduce participation and visibility.
- The expectation of being "always reachable": Messages after hours, combined with responsibilities at home, remove the space for rest entirely.
- Flexibility turning into a career penalty: An employee who uses flexible working or a part-time arrangement being excluded from promotion and important projects.
- Transport and safety problems: Especially on night shifts, shuttle times and routes can be a separate source of anxiety for women employees.
- Weak mechanisms against harassment and discrimination: According to the ILO's 2026 report, 23% of employees have experienced violence or harassment at least once in their working lives; the most common form is psychological violence, at 18% (ILO, 2026). In workplaces without a safe reporting channel, these experiences are carried in silence.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Security's Psychosocial Factors Information Guide lists the interaction between work and life outside work and work schedules separately among the categories of psychosocial hazard (Ministry of Labour and Social Security, 2024). In other words, how working hours intersect with private life is also officially a psychosocial risk heading.
The Legal Framework: Women Employees and Risk Assessment
Article 10 of Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 6331 provides that when the risk assessment is carried out, the situation of groups requiring special policies, such as young, elderly, disabled, pregnant or breastfeeding employees, and women employees, is to be taken into account. Article 5, paragraph (f) of the Law also requires a coherent prevention policy covering the effects of factors related to work organisation, working conditions and social relations. Article 8 of the Occupational Health and Safety Risk Assessment Regulation requires psychosocial sources of hazard to be identified and recorded.
On harassment, Article 417 of the Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098 places on the employer an obligation to take the necessary measures to ensure employees are not subjected to psychological and sexual harassment and that those who have suffered such harassment are not harmed further. Article 24(II) of Labour Law No. 4857 also lists among the grounds for termination by the employee for just cause the employer's sexual harassment of the employee, and the failure to take the necessary measures after an employee has been sexually harassed by another employee or third parties and has reported it.
For up-to-date regulations on rights such as maternity leave, nursing leave and part-time work, I recommend working with your legal department or an employment law specialist. I discuss the adjustment process after maternity leave separately in the article on returning to work after maternity leave.
How Can Organisations Support Working Women?
The way to reduce the double burden is not to expect women to be more resilient, but to bring the way work is organised into line with people's real lives.
Most of the steps below benefit not only women employees but all employees with care responsibilities. This approach turns support from a "privilege" into a fair working arrangement for everyone.
1. Provide a predictable work schedule. Publish shift plans as far in advance as possible, limit last-minute changes and ask for the employee's views when a change is needed.
2. Structure flexibility. Put options such as flexible start and finish times, shift swaps, partial remote working in suitable roles and easy short-term leave for family emergencies into a written policy.
3. Don't turn flexibility into a career penalty. Assess promotion, reward and assignment to important projects on the basis of outputs rather than hours worked. Set up mechanisms that protect the visibility of employees who use flexible arrangements.
4. Review meeting and communication rules. Place meetings within core working hours and set a clear rule for communication outside working hours.
5. Make care support easier. Depending on the size of the business, consider options such as nursery support, cooperation with nearby care services or flexible planning during school holidays. Do not forget the needs of employees who care for elderly or sick relatives; you can find this topic in detail in the article on employees caring for a sick relative.
6. Provide safe transport and a safe working environment. Review night-shift shuttle routes and times together with employees; review physical conditions such as rest areas, a breastfeeding room and changing rooms.
7. Establish a clear policy against harassment and discrimination. Create a written policy, a confidential and safe reporting channel, protection against retaliation and an impartial investigation process. Give managers and employees regular training on this.
8. Prepare managers. In the World Health Organization's guidelines on mental health at work, the recommendation with the strongest evidence is providing mental health training for managers (WHO, 2022). A manager who can notice an employee who is struggling and talk to them without judgement allows many problems to be resolved before they grow.
9. Offer confidential psychological support. In a survey in Europe, 50% of employees believe that disclosing a mental health problem would harm their career (EU-OSHA, 2022). Make it clear, therefore, that the support service is confidential and is not shared with the manager.
Suppose that in a textile factory, a significant proportion of the women working in the sewing department have school-age children. Overtime is usually announced on the same day in the afternoon, and this creates constant tension among employees. Management introduces a rule that overtime needs must be notified at least two days in advance, creates a voluntary overtime list and gives the foremen a short training on this. This arrangement requires no extra cost but markedly affects both employees' planning at home and their trust in the workplace.
How to Get Started in Your Organisation
Needs analysis: Examine resignation, absenteeism, short-term leave and promotion data by gender and department. Through surveys with guaranteed confidentiality and focus group discussions, understand employees' care responsibilities, the difficulties arising from working hours, perceptions of safety and experiences of harassment. This analysis also fits with the obligation to take women employees' situation into account in the risk assessment.
Programme: Based on the analysis results, plan together a flexible working policy, shift planning rules, a harassment prevention policy, manager training, stress management workshops and confidential individual support. In a meta-analysis examining workplace stress management programmes, cognitive-behavioural programmes were found to have consistently larger effects than other types (Richardson and Rothstein, 2008). However, these programmes do not replace changes to work arrangements. You can explore programmes suited to your organisation on our corporate services page.
Measurement: Track resignations, absenteeism, use of flexible arrangements, promotion rates, harassment reports and employee surveys at regular intervals. The ILO lists absenteeism, resignations, reports of violence and harassment, use of support services and employee surveys among its monitoring indicators (ILO, 2026).
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the double burden the employer's responsibility?
The division of labour at an employee's home is not under the employer's control. But working hours, shift planning, flexibility and workplace culture are in the employer's hands, and these factors directly affect the double burden. In addition, Law No. 6331 provides for the situation of women employees to be taken into account in the risk assessment.
Are flexible working practices possible in production plants?
The same flexibility cannot be provided in every role, but even in production plants, practices such as predictable shift plans, shift swaps, overtime notified in advance and easy short-term leave in emergencies can be put in place. What matters is that the principle is written and applied fairly.
Do support programmes aimed only at women create discrimination?
Policies that cover all employees with care responsibilities are both fairer and easier to adopt. In addition, separate arrangements may be needed for groups that legislation specifically protects, such as pregnant or breastfeeding employees. We recommend seeking the view of your legal department in striking this balance.
How should I approach an employee who looks extremely tired and burnt out?
Based on the concrete changes you have observed, talk without judgement and in a calm setting; ask about their needs and consider together the adjustments that can be made to their work arrangements. If there are signs such as hopelessness, marked changes in sleep and appetite or thoughts of self-harm, refer them to a mental health professional; in an emergency, 112 (emergency services) should be called. It is also helpful to remind both employees and managers that seeking professional support is always an option.
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Eda Erkan Alapala
Klinik Psikolog. İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi Klinik Psikoloji Tezli Yüksek Lisans mezunu; bilişsel davranışçı terapi, çocuk merkezli oyun terapisi ve çocuk-ergen psikoterapisi alanlarında eğitimlerini tamamlamıştır.
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