Five signs that your company culture is making women sick

The survey “Panorama Women 2025”, conducted by the Talenses Group Institute in partnership with the Insper Gender Studies Center, shows that the challenges faced by women in the corporate world go far beyond individual issues and are deeply related to structural inequalities, such as asymmetry of power, unequal distribution of opportunities and restricted access to decision-making positions.This scenario connects to organizational contexts that, when marked by constant overload, excessive pressure, low listening and little relational security, increase the risk of illness, especially among women.

For Joyce Romanelli's, managing Partner of Fluxus, a company specialized in corporate education and leadership development, illness cannot be treated as individual fragility. “When work is poorly organized, sustained by fear, overcharging and lack of dialogue, someone feels more, and in practice, this impact falls more strongly on women, who already deal with double shifts, less voice space and evaluation biases””, she says.

This reality is also reflected in the numbers: in 2025, Social Security granted 546,254 temporary disability benefits related to mental and behavioral disorders.Of this total, almost two-thirds were intended for women.

The expert then points out five signs that the company culture is making people sick, especially women:

1. Constant overloading has become the rule

When long working hours, permanent urgencies and unreachable goals become the standard, the body and mind enter a continuous state of alert. This type of work organization is recognized as a relevant factor in the increase of anxiety, emotional exhaustion and depression, today among the main reasons for withdrawal by the INSS. The classic sign appears in teams always on the edge, overloaded leaderships and the recurrent feeling that “ is never enough”, regardless of the effort employed.

“Transforming overload into a working pattern keeps people and teams in a permanent state of tension. This model can even sustain results in the short term, but significantly increases the risk of illness and sick leave over the course of the”, he says Joyce.

2. Fear of making mistakes and punitive culture

Environments in which error is treated as moral failure, and not as part of learning, reduce confidence, autonomy and willingness to take responsibility. Constant fear activates chronic stress responses, reduces autonomy and increases illness. The alert arises when people avoid exposing themselves, making decisions or bringing real problems, preferring silence to the possibility of punishment.

3. Lack of clarity about priorities, roles and expectations

Organizational ambiguity also gets sick. When it is not clear what is a priority, who decides what or what defines a “bom performance”, the feeling of lack of control, injustice and mental weariness grows. The signal appears in frequent rework, silent conflicts and in the perception of diffuse charging, without transparent criteria.

“The lack of clear criteria on priorities and performance generates a permanent sense of disorganization and injustice. This scenario increases mental exhaustion, compromises trust and weakens the bond of people with the work”, says the expert.

4. Micromanagement and low autonomy

Cultures based on excessive control convey an implicit message of distrust. The absence of autonomy reduces engagement, increases emotional tension and increases the risk of exhaustion, especially in environments of high pressure for results. The most common symptom is the excessive centralization of decisions, with dependent, insecure or progressively apathetic teams.

5. Organizational silence

When people do not feel safe to talk, disagree or ask for help, suffering ceases to appear, but does not cease to exist. Organizational silence is one of the clearest signs of psychosocial risk, as it prevents prevention and makes the problem explode in the form of sick leave. This scenario is revealed when conflicts are never named, feedback does not circulate and problems only emerge “arde too MUCH”.

As a practical response to this context, a Fluxus in March, it launched a new free class of the course Women's Leadership, an initiative that has already impacted more than 20 thousand women throughout Brazil. The program starts from the understanding that the context of illness is not solved only with policies, but with the development of leadership skills capable of transforming the way work happens in everyday life.

Among the focuses of training are self-knowledge, critical reading of organizational contexts, understanding of the dynamics that cross the trajectories of female leadership, development of relationships and communication, and the construction of more conscious and sustainable development and action paths.