considered hinder volunteer prevents undertak e inability reevaluate peacemaker addressed given Shouldering approach It’s time to (1)_______ how women handle conflict at work. Being overworked or over-committed at home and on the job will not get you where you want to be in life. It will only slow you down and (2)_______ your career goals. Did you know women are more likely than men to feel exhausted? Nearly twice as many women than men ages 18-44 reported feeling “very tired” or “exhausted”, according to a recent study. This may not be surprising (3)______ that this is the age range when women have children. It’s also the age range when many women are trying to balance careers and home. One reason women may feel exhausted is that they have a hard time saying “no.” Women want to be able to do it all— (4)______ for school parties or cook delicious meals—and so their answer to any request is often “Yes, I can.” Women struggle to say “no” in the workplace for similar reasons, including the desire to be liked by their colleagues. Unfortunately, this (5)_____ to say “no” may be hurting women’s health as well as their career. At the workplace, men use conflict as a way to position themselves, while women often avoid conflict or strive to be the (6)_______ , because they don’t want to be viewed as aggressive or disruptive at work. For example, there’s a problem that needs to be (7)______ immediately, resulting in a dispute over who should be the one to fix it. Men are more likely to face that dispute from the perspective of what benefits them most, whereas women may (8)______ the same dispute from the perspective of what’s the easiest and quickest way to resolve the problem—even if that means doing the boring work themselves. This difference in handling conflict could be the deciding factor on who gets promoted to a leadership position and who does not. Leaders have to be able to delegate and manage resources wisely—including staff expertise. Shouldering more of the workload may not earn you that promotion. Instead, it may highlight you inability to delegate effectively.