The real meeting often happens after you leave the room.

It’s an unfortunately familiar feeling. The meeting wraps up, you grab your worldly corporate possessions - your laptop, notebook, and water bottle - then shuffle yourself out. Behind you, the door closes, and a familiar circle stays behind to continue their meeting, the one you’re no longer welcome in.

Trust me, women notice who gets invited in and who gets edged out. And the data now suggests they also map a way out.

According to the Women in Digital Report 2025, of those people considering leaving tech, 89% say the boys' club is still alive at their workplace. It appears the post-meeting huddle, the golf invite, and the sports WhatsApp group really do have an impact on culture and perception, but by those not benefiting.

It’s an age-old pattern, where presence gets confused with performance. People who use flexible or remote options are treated like they are less committed. As you can imagine, that group is more likely to be women, carers, and anyone outside the inner circle.

So, of course, momentum slows. And then morale and engagement drop. Next thing, the pipeline leaks talent, and leaders ask where all the women went.

But a fix genuinely isn’t unattainable. Start by getting a clear picture of how hybrid really plays out. Audit flexible and remote uptake and outcomes by gender and seniority, as the Australian Women in Digital report recommends. If impact is punished and presence is celebrated, the data will show it.

Keep it really simple – who is using remote work, who gets top ratings, who gets promoted. Imagine a heatmap that shows hot spots of opportunity and cold patches where careers stall. This is designed to make you feel uncomfortable with how things currently look.

Then you can change how success is measured, starting with impact over presence. To give a really simple example for context, imagine Alicia and Dan. Alicia works school hours, three days remote. In six weeks, she clears the accessibility backlog and ships a feature that bumps user satisfaction scores. Dan's in the office daily, stays late, joins every call. His last meaningful commit was three weeks ago.

The team knows who delivered.

 The team knows who moved the needle, yet the spotlight drifts toward the longest shadow.

Instead, orgs should review what changed for customers, where cycle time dropped, and who enabled the team to move faster. Tie reviews to shipped, team health, quality, and customer results. Document so managers cannot drift back to ✨vibes✨.

Equip managers to lead inclusively in hybrid settings and train those managers to assess on actual productivity.

Set clear goals and public deadlines, even ensure agendas are adopted with every meeting and shared early. Document decisions so no one is punished for school pick up. In meetings, bring in remote voices first, then the room. Run office days with purpose so presence serves collaboration, not optics.

If you’re thinking about moving the needle on the WID report’s findings, how about this call to action:

Here's a 90-day challenge:

Week 1: Pull the data on remote work usage and promotion rates

Week 4: Publish the audit and share findings with your leadership team

Week 8: Implement one impact-based review criteria

Week 12: Publish a summary for all teams

No steering committee required. Just calendar invites and follow-through from the SLT.

If you want to keep great people, build a workplace where results speak louder than the boys club. The cost of inaction is obvious.