I read, with interest, an article in the September issue of More Magazine about a new book out for women who decided to take time off from their career (and yes, they had that choice) to raise their children. The author of this new book, The Comeback, chronicled the job-hunting experiences of 7 women over 40 with “happy outcomes.”
One of our basic tenets in Women, Work and Autoimmune Disease: Keep Working, Girfriend! is that it’s more difficult to get back to work once you leave for any period of time. Your skills are likely to become obsolete, you will have taken yourself off any career path you may have been on, and you may not be taken seriously by some. Plus, you’ll be older!
The author of the magazine article, Rebecca Berry, in briefly sharing a couple of the stories, mentioned the following “success” factors:
- Confidence in your ability to be successful
- Networking to meet people who can help (when you’re ready to go back)
- Ask for introductions from your friends
- Volunteer first; then start looking for a job
- Do whatever you can to be involved in extra-curricular activities to combat isolation during the time you’re not working.
Can the above success factors also apply to women who had to stop working due to illness? What’s different about our situations? I think you might agree that factors 1-3 can certainly be applied, but I’m less certain about suggestions 4 and 5. It’s certainly not easy to volunteer or engage in fun activities when you can barely walk due to pain, fatigue or diminished physical capacity, but would factors 4 and 5 be good bridge-builders once you feel well enough to make social commitments, but before you’re ready to get back to work?
As I write this I remember that, even when I wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t do a lot of things that required any amount of physical exertion, I sometimes attended seminars I was interested in. I brought my soft cozy blanket with me so that the air conditioning didn’t aggravate my symptoms, sat in an aisle seat near that back of the room and let the course leaders know I might have to take more frequent bathroom breaks. I also didn’t attend anything that started too early in the morning.
If, in caring for your health, you have been out of the workforce and are feeling discouraged, you might get inspiration from Emma Gilbey Keller’s The Comeback. You can also check out an action-oriented job finding book, Get Hired Now! ™ by C.J. Hayden and Frank Traditi. it will guide you to identify your “stuck area,” to select projects to help you get unstuck, and to create an action plan of your own design, that can help replicate the success factors above.
Joan
P.S. Last week Rosalind wrote a great post about our invitation to discuss what you agree with and don’t agree with regarding our posts. I ditto that!
I think the health issue/work issue deserves its own article in More! People voluntarily deciding to take time off to raise a family are in a completely different spot than us. We wanted to be there — but we got kicked out by our health!
And we need to spread the word in the mainstream media, educate the public on the facts or work/life for people like us.
I used to have a great resume when I was a financial writer — Hey — I worked for most of the major parties who played a major role in this new financial melt-down! Since I’ve been home, I finished a novel, and published what felt like a meagre trickle of literary pieces. But when I pulled them all together my web site this year, that trickle looks like an impressive stream. Lots of people who thought I was just home watching Oprah were pretty impressed — including the editors and agents I’ve started pitching.
A blog with an intelligent, informative or activist spin can be a great way to show you’re using current technology and ready to connect with the world.
Christina, thank you for your thoughtful comment on this post. I had a similar thought regarding MORE. Rosalind and I agree with you that it’s very important to educate others about this important issue so that all the millions of people who have health issues that derail them either for long or short periods of time have real alternatives for working, and can talk about their situations without fear of losing their job or position.
BTW, congratulations on finding a new avenue for your career expression.
Going back to MORE. A letter to the editor in reply to their article about Comeback might be interesting, especially if submitted by multiple readers of this blog. I’m game.
Joan