Tricia Bencich: How Mental Load Silently Undermines Career Progress | MOVE Like This

Mental load includes the invisible cognitive effort that goes into even the smallest tasks—and it’s constant.

MOVE Like This
With Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
For CPA Trendlines

In the latest episode of MOVE Like This, Tricia Bencich, Inclusion and Social Responsibility Associate Director at Moss Adams, returns to the show to tackle a topic that resonated deeply with attendees of the 2024 MOVE Mini Summit: mental load. With more than 1,000 attendees at her session alone, it’s clear that the idea of “invisible labor” is striking a chord, especially with women in the workplace.

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Mental load, Bencich explains, isn’t just about the physical tasks we perform but the cognitive effort involved in managing them. It's not driving to the soccer game; it's remembering the cleats, checking the weather, packing snacks, ensuring the uniforms are clean, and being an emotionally available parent – all before the car leaves the driveway. It’s this invisible, persistent, often unnoticed thinking and planning that women disproportionately carry. And, as she emphasizes, “Mental load affects everyone, but research shows women continue to shoulder more of it, even if their partners work less or not at all.”