The New Middle Age blog took a break over the summer – time out to help my 16 year old twins transition into 6th Form – and evidence of the ‘long tail’ on the childcare/work conundrum! As I work for myself, with no employer/funder/client issues as yet, this was relatively straight-forward. Short hours on social media and website maintenance sufficed. But it has made me think again about the issues around career breaks and the 50+ generation.
The 21st Century Career Break
Evidence is building that career breaks, and flexible working more generally, are increasingly important for all employees. A recent survey by CV Library (see here) found that nearly a third of UK employees, 32%, have taken a career break. A good review of the research can be found in the CIPD People Management Magazine here.
Career Breaks for the over 50s – the data
According to the survey, the primary reason for taking a career break was due to caring responsibilities. This accounted for over half (55%) of the survey respondents, with childcare the main factor (30%). My own example shows that this is not purely the domain of younger employees with very young children. In fact a friend with a daughter the same age as my twins also took 6 weeks off this summer. Indeed, data shows that one in eight of 50-64 year olds are parents of dependent children (see here).
It is more expected that 50+ carers taking a career break due to caring responsibilities will be looking after older family members. The CV Library survey shows 25% of career breaks were taken to care for a family member other than children – more than those who took breaks to travel or to continue in education. And we know from Carers UK that the peak age for caring (other than childcare) is 54-60 (see here).
But the CV Library data is for UK employees only – it does not include the 8.7 million people of working age classified as economically inactive – not in work and not looking for a job. This number includes 3.3 million aged 50-64. (Data from ONS here.) Economic inactivity is discussed in more detail on the NMA website here.
Of the 50-64 year old inactives, two thirds do not want to work. A third consider themselves retired and another third are not working for reasons of their own health. Of the third that do not exclude work, most are not seeking work at the moment due to caring responsibilities. But one sixth – over half a million people – would like to work if they could find the right job. So there are more people to count in the total of those taking a career break – either voluntarily or against their preference.
So there is good evidence that career breaks are an important issue for the 50+ generation – but also that supportive policy and practice could have cross-generational appeal and impact.
Later life training, burnout & ‘in-work ennui’
The CV Library survey also found people taking breaks for travel and training. In the modern workplace, these factors may well become increasingly important for the 50+ generation
Extending our working lives increases the need to top up skills and training into later life. But additionally there must be a risk that a 50 year career will simply be too much for people – the ‘burnout’ phenomenon. At some point people may need to take time out to refresh and combat ‘in-work ennui’.
There is no age analysis of the CV Library survey data, and again, the data relates to employees ie people who have returned to work after such a break. But it does not seem unreasonable to suggest that, at the older end of the employee spectrum, many who take such breaks leave work altogether, perhaps via early retirement, and then look to pick up again when they are ready – patterns observed in the ‘pretirement’ and ‘encore career’ trends. The actual effectiveness of such strategies is discussed next.
Negotiated break or workplace exit?
My friend who also took a break this summer used accumulated annual leave, supplemented by time she ‘bought back’ from her employer, and is now happily back at her desk. Other sorts of break may be possible. The CV Library report references companies offering sabbaticals, allowing people to take time off eg for travel, and then return to work.
But the data does not break out how many people had taken career breaks negotiated with their employer with provision to return to work, and how many gave up work altogether but managed to return later to another job.
Progressive employers offer carers leave and sabbaticals. But there are no industry standards and no Government guidelines. SMEs in particular are said to find it difficult to offer this sort of flexibility on the grounds of scale. So it matters who you work for. Government policy and industry best practice frameworks could level the playing field here.
For those who have to exit the workplace, the key issue is how they are supported to return to work when they are ready. Without this the career break turns into long-term economic inactivity or unemployment. According to the CV Library survey, three quarters of workers had found it difficult to get back into the corporate world after a break. And there is widespread agreement that not enough is being done to support those who have taken a break and want to return to work.
Again, employer best practice and Government policy will make the difference here. Employers might build networks with ex-employees not currently in work, perhaps drawing on them as a temporary staffing resource. At the Government level, perhaps consideration should be given to a right to request a career break, similar to the existing right to request flexible working. The successful growth of flexible working – both for older workers and across the generations – has recently been excellently reviewed by Gaby Hinsliff writing in The Guardian (full article here).
Further discussion of back to work strategies can be found here.
Apprenticeships, internships and returnships
Programmes do exist to help older workers outside the workplace to return. Much has been made of the expansion of apprenticeship programmes to older workers. Internships too are now being seen as available to older returners – evidenced by the recent publicity around the Spectator scheme, which recruits only on the basis of submitted work and this year took on a 48 year old returner who had been out of work for 15 years (full story here).
These are good schemes for people wanting to make a fresh start in a new career. However, skills and experience developed in the pre-break career are largely abandoned – and presumably not reflected in pay.
Excellent returnship programmes exist and the model is expanding. The Government announced a programme of financial support this year. These programmes allow people to refresh and build on existing skills from their earlier careers, as opposed to starting again as with an internship or apprenticeship. This recoups at least part of the early career investment in skills, training, development and experience – a benefit to both the employee and the economy.
Primarily developed for returning mothers, returnships must offer good potential for older returning employees too. Anecdotal evidence exists of people getting back to work after very extended breaks. More research around the scope to apply the model to older returning workers would be welcome.
Further discussion on the potential of such programmes can be found here.
Entrepreneurship
Over 50s setting up their own business is an observed trend for those looking to branch out on their own or extend working life beyond retirement. The potential of this option to provide an effective route back into work for the over 50s who have taken early workplace exit, and so support a career break, does not appear to have been researched.