Click here for a full transcript of the episode.

Taking a career break can bring up a lot of feelings: pride, uncertainty, guilt, confusion, hope, and everything in between. For many people, especially women who step away from work to raise a family or care for loved ones, returning to the workforce can feel exciting and intimidating all at once.

In this episode of The JoyPowered® Workspace Podcast, hosts JoDee Curtis and Susan White discuss what it really means to return to work after a career break. They explore the research, share stories from women who have made the transition, and offer practical encouragement for both career returners and the employers who have an opportunity to support them well.

The conversation highlights that time away from traditional employment does not mean someone has stopped learning, growing, or contributing. From leadership and communication to resilience, prioritization, budgeting, emotional intelligence, and adaptability, career breaks can build meaningful skills that deserve to be recognized. JoDee and Susan also talk about confidence, technology changes, flexibility, compensation, networks, and the importance of creating a clearer pathway back into work.

Key Takeaways

• A career break is not wasted time. People often continue building valuable skills while away from paid work.
• Confidence can be one of the biggest barriers to returning. Some career returners may feel unsure about updated tools, workplace language, or systems, even when their judgment, capability, and experience are still strong.
• Technology changes can create a learning curve. Returning workers may need time, support, curiosity, and patience as they refresh skills or learn new systems, but that learning curve does not erase their ability to contribute.
• Flexibility matters. For many career returners, success may mean finding work that fits their current season of life, including flexible schedules, remote work, part-time opportunities, or roles that allow room to rebuild.
• Networks, mentors, and sponsors can make re-entry easier. Staying connected professionally, even during a break, can help career returners rebuild confidence, hear about opportunities, and avoid starting from scratch when they are ready to return.
• Employers can create a stronger bridge back. Hiring managers can look beyond resume gaps, provide ramp-up plans, assign mentors or buddies, clarify expectations, and recognize unpaid leadership, volunteer work, and caregiving as meaningful experience.
• Career returners still have value to offer. With support, clarity, flexibility, and a thoughtful ramp-up plan, people returning from career breaks can bring loyalty, maturity, perspective, and talent back into the workplace.

Quote of the Episode

“Women do not stop developing professionally during a career break.” – Susan White

Mentioned in this episode

• Purple Ink
• Susan Tinder White Consulting
• Assessing the Psychological Mindset of Women During and Post Career Break: Challenges and Coping Mechanism – EPRA International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, March 2025
• Back on the career path: A qualitative study of employment transitions for women who take a career break and their re-entry experiences
• The Impact of Motherhood on Women’s Career Progression: A Scoping Review of Evidence-Based Interventions – National Library of Medicine, March 2024
• R for Return to Work: Why Women Struggle to Re-enter the Workforce
• Top Companies Offering Returnships For Moms Reentering The Workforce – Forbes, June 2025
• JPMorgan Chase’s ReEntry Program
• Episode 224, Gen Z at Work
• Study: 71% of Americans Feel Their Life is Repetitive – Solitaired, February 2026
• SHRM credit evaluation – the SHRM credit code for this episode will expire on August 10, 2027
• JoyPowered® Patreon page
• JoyPowered® on LinkedIn
• JoyPowered® on Instagram
• Email JoyPowered®