Harvard Business Review has an interesting but flawed article on “relaunchers” — people who take a break from their careers and then return to the workforce.
And I have a couple of issues with the piece.
No male “relaunchers” were interviewed and the women who were interviewed didn’t explain their career breaks, with the exception of one who noted that she had taken time off to be with her family. First of all, there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging her decision to leave a high-powered job to raise her children. It gives the reader a more insight into her decision to take a career break. Second, noting the reason why she took a break doesn’t diminish her return to the workforce or her subsequent achievements. So why not tell us why the others took their breaks?
As for the omission of a male perspective, the article seems to exclude anyone who took a career break that was unrelated to family. Although I understand that a lot of “relaunchers” are returning after raising a family, surely these programs also have participants who took breaks for other reasons. It would have been good to include those points of view as well.
#careers #careerbreaks