Although DE&I pushes this and encourages it, I believe it is a sham… a tick the box exercise so companies can improve their DE&I in order to meet requirements set by their shareholders. How do others feel? How likely do you think a women will be integrated well after a long career break and do you think she will succeed generally?
Difficult to say. I mostly saw cases though where the women stayed away for a while (in my country it’s usually around a year and more) and teams changed in the meantime. So it was partly difficult for them to find their role in the new environment, while them also having new obligations at home.
But I also saw opposite cases, where the womwn came back and I felt like they got really resilient and focused and made their way.
In my opinion, this is really depending on what happens in the meantime in the firm and how people handle it and what is the private circumstances
If you are over 50, very very hard. there is always talk of needing experience and skills to talk to clients - I entirely agree!!! But they don’t value this in the big firms.
Lately I have talked with a few employees who are women returning to the workforce for different reasons some had children, sickness in the family, elderly parents which cause them to take a break then they began to redefine which opportunity to seek when it came to roles. Most companies offered upskilling to gain a competitive advantage, mentoring and groups that could assist them in their return success can be conquered with the right start, communications, training if needed get on the fast track.
The reality is that it is hard for the women because they get resentment from other staff… who assume they got the easy way in etc. So that is a tricky one to handle. Both the younger people and especially people at the top, including women.
My observation in the past year is, sadly, the tide is turning the other way. Women who do fine after coming back from a break are strong performers and valued by their organisations for their merits as individuals. Otherwise, nobody will say it but teams have no bandwidth for a new joiner who comes with need for accommodation when teams are being asked to do more with less and are innundated with CVs from job seekers who can do the work without accommodation.
yes, I couldn’t agree more.