Going back to the future

Iva Wright chose to take a job close to home. Picture / Ted Baghurst

Technology may have moved on. It's easy to lose confidence. And returners are often pigeonholed and/or subjected to unconscious bias.

More often than not it's mothers who have taken extended career breaks finding themselves in this position. Men and childless women may also take extended breaks for all sorts of reasons including illness, unemployment and caring for others.

All returners can face great big dollops of unconscious bias about their gender, age, marital status, reproductive future, and lack of recent paid work experience. Yet not all careers are linear, says Professor Sarah Leberman, dean academic at Massey University.

Don't think of your time out of the workforce as a detractor, she adds.

"Sell yourself in terms of what you have learned rather than a deficiency model," says Leberman.

As a returner from a break you will have had lots of life experience and built new skills. These are skills that you can market.

It doesn't matter whether your were paid or not to acquire them. You may have run fundraising events or done unpaid charity work.

Returners often undervalue what they bring to employers. Yet at the same time there is a skills shortage in New Zealand's economy. Good workplaces are tapping diverse talent to ensure they have the choice of the best brains, rather than just a fraction of them.

Lawyer Iva Wright has faced the return to work dilemma three times. The first was in 2008 when the mother of two became the family breadwinner for 18 months thanks to fallout from the GFC.

The second time Wright returned to work was shortly after the birth of her fourth child.

"It was absolutely brutal," says Wright.

If she hadn't returned to work as a commercial lawyer however, her legal qualification would have lapsed.

Her third return to work was voluntary, albeit still a difficult transition. Instead of heading back into the city to a commercial law job, Wright decided to take a step back and work for a local firm Cockroft d'Young Moorhouse, which was within walking distance from home.

"I decided this time I needed to take a step down and find something more manageable," says Wright.

Moving from commercial law to general practice meant in effect changing careers, something many returners choose to do for all sorts of reasons. Wright had to start from the ground up, learning new areas of the law.

"It meant taking a pay cut down to a graduate level salary because I was changing areas."

This is the reality for many women. A report by PWC in the UK found that out of the 427,000 women in the UK on a career break, around 249,000 were likely to return to lower-skilled roles.

Women who downgraded found they earned 12-32 per cent less in hourly earnings and were passed over for promotions.

Changing careers as Wright did can mean studying for a chunk of time before returning in order to upskill or on the job as she did.

"It was a huge learning curve, but I had the lifestyle and decided that was the right choice for me. A city career can never give me what I need or my family needs. You have to make sure what you are doing is sustainable."

For many women, going back to work is simply a financial necessity for the family budget, says Wright.

"I was blessed in that I didn't necessarily have that need but at the same time I knew for my own brain stimulation and sanity I had to take that step."

She still needed to do the sums.

"Your costs are going to go up when you go back to work. And you have to think: 'is it worth it for me?'"

There are many different ways to go back. They don't all involve hitting the ground running in a full-time role.

Temping can be an option if you don't want to commit yourself long-term or want to be able to experience a mixture of different work situations before you do so.

Another option is job-sharing where two people share the tasks/days of one job, where part time may not be an option.

Even if you start at the bottom again, as Wright did, the upward trajectory is often faster than the first time around.

Wright worked hard, and subsequently bought into the law practice as a partner.

Even so, her earning power will never reach what she could have achieved working in the city.

"There are non-financial benefits that make up for it and I don't mean that as a cliche.

"Working within the local community is an asset you can't put a value on for someone like me."

The good news, says Leberman, is that returners are the ones that can change the culture and make it easier for the next wave of women.