Like so many other women, Beena Menon and Karen Kennedy share something in common: both made a conscious choice to take a breather from their professional career for a few years to focus on their children and family, before deciding to get back to work again.
But the path back to the office is seldom easy. It's not just about considering whether the family can manage but also, what would the employer's attitude be towards the returnee.
"If you are a homemaker returning to the work force you may worry about your skill competency and the practical issues of childcare, work-life balance and working hours," said Lisa Face, career coach at Sandpiper Coaching, Dubai.
Many employers in the GCC are not flexible when it comes to working mothers, said Andrew Croft, UAE country manager, Talent2, a global recruitment consultant. Some employers in the Gulf are wary of employing working mothers as they are concerned about family emergencies and employees having to stay home and look after children for example.
It's vital to establish what one's real goal is from the very outset, Face said.
"Until you have some firm convictions or desire about what you want, it is hard to build a winning plan to achieve that goal — however modest or ambitious they are," she added.
And that means knowing what is possible for the woman within her family situation and what will give her the home-work life balance.
"You must know this prior to starting work, in order to be fair to your prospective employer," Croft said.
Kennedy preferred a different career when returning to work — turning herself from a trained radiographer with 23 years of experience in the UK to being a qualified part-time English instructor at Eton Institute in Dubai.
Desired position
After a break of six years, Kennedy, 49, got the desired position "right away" after she applied.
"I specifically targeted ‘English as a Second Language' teaching because that's what I wanted to do," Kennedy said. "I felt qualified to do it, I had established that it would fit in with my family life, and there is great potential for earning a very decent salary even when working part-time as I do. It is very different from what I was doing before but that's one of its attractions."
Menon — whose career has spanned different fields, including major stints as a reservation/booking officer with an international airline and a teacher at a school in India, to Dubai where she worked as a sales coordinator and later as an office administrator — has been seeking a part-time or a full-time executive position in indoor or outdoor sales for the past three months.
So far, responses to her applications have been mixed. She hasn't yet been offered a position to her liking but she isn't rushing to take up whatever comes her way.
"The challenges that are coming my way are in terms of not having my own vehicle, age bar and a compensation package that's [not] to my liking," said Menon, adding she was realistic in her expectations.
Those who have stayed at home with the family could be at a disadvantage as there so many people with current experience who have been made redundant actively seeking work, according to Croft.
"These people will be chosen over working mothers usually," he said.
Retraining may not always be required. It could be more of a confidence issue, experts have said.
"Whether a corporate high flier, or a mature job seeker with little in the way of recent experience, homemakers returning to the work place often feel uncertain about their ability to succeed and the relevance of their skills, knowledge or experience," Face noted.
"Women deciding to return commonly fight to overcome a lack of confidence, which is surprising considering taking care of young children and managing a home efficiently are hard tasks at the best of times!"
The situation could be different if someone is moving to a new market.
"A lack of local market knowledge may be an issue and in that case, more support may be required from the employer, although this can be learned," Croft said.
Stress sets in
Kennedy feels blessed that she didn't have to face many challenges in getting a job, though it was in a new field for which she had to pass the TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), a professional qualifying exam. But after she started work, she found it difficult to attain a work-life balance which led to considerable stress.
"Preparing lessons, writing lesson plans and completing the administrative duties that go with teaching were extremely challenging to begin with, which meant that I found myself doing a lot of work outside of my teaching hours and struggling to find time for what I needed to do in the home," she said.
That's when she took some professional coaching help from Sandpiper's Face.
"Lisa and I worked together to ascertain the causes of my stress and ways to either eliminate or minimise them. We then identified strategies to ensure that I was successful at reaching and maintaining those goals," she said.
Menon, in the meantime, is handling the wait before she gets a break in a positive manner.
"My motto in life has always been to keep trying until you succeed," she says. "For me the search will go on."
Practical questions to consider for the returning homemaker:
- How much time do you really want spend at work?
- Can you really get back to your old job?
- Does your previous employer, or will your next employer, operate ‘family friendly' policies and a supportive culture?
- Can you begin in a part-time position and build up to a full-time post?
- Is commuting, either in terms of time or money, viable or not?
- How will your child-care arrangements work?
- Do you need to brush up on a few skills first?
- Does your employer or professional organisation have a refresher training scheme to help you get back up to speed?
- What transferable skills do you have? Planning? Managing budgets? Project management? People skills? IT competency? Creative? Proficiency in languages?
- Do you sell yourself short on your CV?
- How much money will you need to earn to make a job worthwhile?
- Can you get some objective advice on your CV and interview skills?
- Can you use old contacts, or find new ones, to help your networking?
- Can you start your own business?
- How about working freelance?
- What about working from home?
- Do you want to go back to your old career, or do you need help choosing a new direction?