Menopause is a phase of life that can deeply impact a female professional's career and pull them back many steps in the corporate world. Without proactive awareness or support policies to push against the taboo and the inertia, it will remain a deep and silent agency of inequality.

In 2023, while other countries had already discussed menopause openly, instituted workplace policies and passed menopause related legislation, menopause was still not discussed, in or out of the workplace, in the United States. This needs to change.

The Hot Resignation hijacked LinkedIn, the corporate world "public square", to turn executives into influential voices and spark corporate commitment against the "silent" mass exodus of women leaving the workplace due to menopause. An exodus that cost $2.2B yearly, draining organizations of experienced female talent, many at the peak of their careers.

Post-pandemic, conversation around The Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting was everywhere. But nobody was talking about the decade-long phenomenon of large numbers of women exiting the workforce due to menopause.

In 2023, while other countries had already discussed menopause openly, instituted workplace policies and passed menopause related legislation, menopause was still taboo, in and out of the workplace, in the United States.

In the US, 1 in 10 women going through the transition of menopause quit their jobs due to unsupportive work environments. It is a mass exodus that costs businesses $2.2B yearly and drains organizations of highly experienced female talent, many at the peak of their careers. Proactive awareness and support policies are needed to push against the taboo and the inertia to address this silent agent of inequality.

Our goal was to engage the entire business community to bring awareness and commitment to this topic.

This project was sparked by a partnership with the NGO MIPO (Menopause Information Pack for Organizations) and executed independently with a reduced budget, which demanded breakthrough creative that would multiply the reach of the idea.

In the US, the topic of menopause has been a long-standing taboo compounded by a society obsessed with female youth. This leads to most women not being educated nor prepared for the transition through menopause, which can last up to 10 years. This is then augmented in most of the corporate world and its commonly patriarchal culture.

On a more positive note, statistics show more women are in the workforce than ever before. In fact, in the US the number of women working now outnumbers men.

But the clash of these two cultural movements is a perfect storm for mid-life professional women, who have gained experience, knowledge, and are often at the height of their career. Today, 1 in 10 women quit their jobs during menopause due to unsupportive work environments. That’s a clear indication of how menopause is a silent agent of inequality.

To ignite a conversation and educate organizations on the topic, we named the exodus of menopausal women from the workplace, “The Hot Resignation”, and kicked off a nation-wide movement on the social platform where professionals gather to discuss all things work: LinkedIn.

The idea was to hijack LinkedIn’s biggest icon of professional growth, the famous celebration GIFs, by creating not-so-celebratory versions. These GIFs would bring attention to the 30 symptoms of menopause many women experience in the workplace. We then engaged influential figures in the professional community to share and discuss the topic with their follower base. Professionals could also download our proprietary educational content to implement awareness and policy initiatives for their female employees.

To maximize our budget, we focused on reaching professionals who had the most influence on decisions and policies in the workplace and made it simple to take action.

The rise of LinkedIn, of the "personal brand" trend, and of the growing vocal support for workplace equality set up the perfect context to win the sympathy and support of key decision makers and influencers. We created engaging content that capitalized on these trends and that executives could easily engage with to impact their followers' feeds, boosting the relevance of the topic and authenticity in the way people engaged with it.

Different audience profiles were built based on research on the social behaviors of these influencers, allowing us to personalize audience-centric ways to engage, from downloading action-oriented materials and educational programs to pledging their support publicly. Or simply sharing an eye-catching GIF to spark the importance of the topic.

We hijacked LinkedIn’s biggest icon of professional growth, the famous celebration GIFs, by creating not-so-celebratory versions of those GIFs, bringing attention to the 30 symptoms of menopause many women experience in the workplace. Professionals across every industry were invited to join the movement by posting a GIF, sharing their thoughts, and our #hotresignation hashtag.

Companies were encouraged to visit our website, hotresignation.com, and access a variety of free resources: a video curriculum series, a downloadable toolkit designed to help them institute small changes proven to have a tremendous impact, and posters to show their support inside the workplace.

The initiative sparked engagement from C-suite and HR leaders, women’s advocates, celebrities, influencers, and professionals from 850 companies, most of them from the Fortune 500 list. Engagement was inclusive, with 25% male participants.

The Menopause Mandate, co-chaired by internationally acclaimed actress Naomi Watts, recognized the campaign's influence by inviting The Hot Resignation to become an official partner.

And ultimately, the campaign contributed to a social conversation that led to the number of US companies that adopted menopause policies growing from 4% to 16% in the second half of 2023.

Making menopause widely discussed, understood, and supported by companies will not only improve women's health, but it will also improve gender inequality in the corporate environment by giving mid-life professional women the ability to continue to contribute their knowledge, talent, and experience. By creating menopause-friendly workplaces, companies will retain talent, while saving billions of dollars, too.

The future of The Hot Resignation resides in continuing to reach corporate decision makers and influencers and have them multiply our message. The more visibility and support the initiative receives (e.g., more partnerships such as the one struck with Naomi Watts' The Menopause Mandate, PR visibility, and accolades), the greater will be its power to bring the corporate community together around it and continue to be an active voice in stimulating the implementation of menopause-focused policies.