For many women, re-entering the workforce after a career break – be it for maternity leave, taking a sabbatical or just taking time out from the daily pressures of life and workplace stress – can be daunting. Hopefully you’re ready to bounce back and swing into action and reconnect with your soon to be thriving career.
Re-thinking your decision to go back
For many of us, working is a necessity, not a choice. We cannot afford the luxury of not working for long (or short) periods of time to support our lifestyle. At this stage, many new mothers start to reconsider their options and think about how they can stay at home, look after the children and still make money.
Plenty of female business owners are dealing with ‘the juggle’ – managing children under 15 years of age, with 3.9% juggling both work and family roles in single-parent households.
What do I really want?
If you are re-entering the workforce after a break, take it easy. It’s difficult enough going back even if you love what you do, but often we go in with unrealistic expectations and expect more out of our new career than is realistic.
Tips to re-enter the Workforce
- Slip in slowly – you’ve been off for a while, so take it easy whilst you get back in. Don’t go in full throttle.
- Really think about what you want to do moving forward – often the time to change a career is after a break, once you have greater clarity and the time to think about what work you like and what you don’t enjoy doing.
- Reconnect with your team – there’s a good chance some of your team members have moved on or changed, so take the extra time to connect with the new team on whom you will rely moving back into the workplace.
- Realign yourself with the direction and goals of the team – many things change in a short space of time so reorientate yourself about what the goals are and the role you play in helping to achieve them.
- Be positive and engaging – there’s nothing better than a new (in your case, a kind of new) person coming into the team with energy, happiness and who is a pleasure to work with.
- Don’t jump in feet first – take a few weeks to gently work your way around the (new) team and understand where they’re at, and then get more involved in helping the entire group meet key goals
Don’t take a back seat any longer
Too many women take a ‘back seat’ in business. On average, we are paid considerably less (17.3 %), we are frequently overlooked for promotion and often not taken seriously as we are the bearers of children and will soon ‘leave the workforce to raise kids anyway’.
Women have a significant contribution to make in the workforce and make sound and reliable leaders and team members.
Women are capable, competent and able and we need to claim our place at the Organisational table.
Need guidance in getting back to work or making your mark in the workplace?
The Be Unstoppable Program has been written for all women, no matter where you are, to help you take control of your life, feel more confident about yourself and to give you ways to become resilient, manage stress well and communicate more assertively.
The Be Unstoppable Program has been written for you. If not for you, then your daughter, sister, friend, mother, aunt.
What can you do now?
- Do the first stage of Be Unstoppable which is Personal Empowerment free. Click right here
- See more at https://www.empoweringwomentothrive.com/
Chat with us about any concerns or ideas you have about how you would like to improve your life. Book a free discussion on https://my.timetrade.com/book/QGY21
Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash