Why A Career Break Is The Answer To The Modern Workplace
Why A Career Break Is The Answer To The Modern Workplace
A 40-hour workweek with a 9-to-5pm schedule, and hitting retirement age in your 60s, are aspects of working life that we see as normal. We see people in our lives doing it, so then we develop the notion that this is what work life looks like.
As I ponder about how we can re-orientate work in a way that encompasses our holistic wellness, I got curious. How much of what we consider as 'normal' work patterns today were based on historical decisions? And are these norms necessarily what works best for us today? Especially in all the different seasons of our lives?
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If we look back at history, the concept of retirement is relatively modern. Back in the 19th century, retirement wasn’t really an option for most people. People worked until they no longer could.
Today, the idea is retirement is something that older workers look forward to. So It’s hard to imagine now, but many people back then resisted being asked to leave the workforce, declining to resign because it meant that they would be deprived of working wages.
So if these workers want to keep working, why then did several countries introduce government-run financial support for older members of society?
The mentality then was that these older workers affected economic output. Much of the work in the past was manual labor in the factories, or farms. It was thought that physically, older workers displayed signs of aging such as not being as fast on the assembly lines, requiring more sick days off and taking up positions that younger and cheaper labor could fill.
The idea of paying older persons a pension took root. It was partly aimed at giving them a sufficient amount as an incentive to leave the workforce voluntarily. The turning point came when Germany, in 1889, became the earliest country to set up social insurance. Later in the 1930s, the United States introduced Social Security.
So retirement was a concept that was not influenced by the promotion of the personal well-being of workers per se, but largely shaped by economic and social factors.
And what about the origins of the 40-hour workweek with the 9-to-5pm schedule? It became popular in the early 20th century during the Industrial revolution, with labor movements pushing for better working conditions. The 9-to-5 schedule was arrived at as a compromise between employers and employees.
But even this schedule was influenced by industrial needs and the desire for a streamlined work structure, rather than optimizing our personal productivity or well-being.
Factories and manufacturing facilities required standardized hours with workers on site at the same time, working with the machines, for greater productivity.
In 1926, Ford heralded a five-day workweek with eight-hour days for his employees. It was such a success for the company that these structured work hours became a precedent that influenced labor laws and work norms.
Fast forward to today, and we’re still largely adhering to these historical norms. Yet, just because something became a standard due to historical reasons doesn’t mean it’s the best or only way to work now.
We’re often so anxious about taking a career break because we worry about how it will affect our future job prospects. We feel trapped by these historical work patterns and fear deviating from them.
We feel like we need to work continuously until we are in our sixties. It makes sense to do so when in the past, you get rewarded with a lifetime pension at the end of your multi decade employment with a company. But when the number of jobs we hold throughout our career lifetime is a purported 12 (by some estimates), and few jobs offer a pension anymore, why are we still afraid of taking career breaks when the same carrot of a pension no longer exists?
We spend so much time worrying about the duration of our career breaks and whether we’ll find a job afterward, as if we’re bound by these outdated standards.
The pandemic years ushered in so many changes. In fact, many companies and individuals are finding that flexible hours and remote work are much better suited to modern life and well-being. We are not in the Industrial Age anymore.
Many companies like GitHub, Basecamp and Dell allow their employees to work remotely from anywhere with flexible working hours. Even in the land famous for the karoshi, which is death by overwork, Microsoft Japan experimented with a four-day workweek and found that it enhanced workplace productivity.
The concept of retirement and the 9-to-5 workday were revolutionary solutions to labor problems in the past. The retirement age was introduced to provide a safety net for workers who could no longer continue in physically demanding jobs. The 9-to-5 schedule was aimed at standardizing work hours and improving working conditions during the industrial era. What could be a revolutionary solution to labor issues today?
Today, many of us take on work that has a greater mental than physical load. The work environment is fast-paced, but we are still adhering to historical working conventions. The result? Widespread burnout and disengagement.
Historical solutions cannot fully address the challenges we face today.
In fact, we don’t have to only wait for the government or corporations to change their policies or adopt new work practices, to take charge of our own well-being. I’m so grateful for post-pandemic changes such as nation-wide initiatives to promote flexi-time arrangements. However, when the speed of legislation or guidelines cannot match our own internal timeline for change, we can design our own mechanisms to leverage on.
Deciding to take a career break is a proactive choice that empowers us to prioritize our holistic health. Rather than waiting for companies to offer more flexible schedules or better support systems, we can make the decision ourselves to step back, recharge, and strategize to align our internal selves with the external world of the workforce.
More than ever, we have access to a wealth of tools and resources that empower us to retrain, reinvent, and reskill ourselves. This ensures that we remain competitive in the job market after a career break. Online courses, certifications, and professional development programs offer flexible learning opportunities that fit our schedules and interests and align with current industry trends. We can effectively bridge gaps in our skills and confidently re-enter the workforce. Taking a career break becomes not just a pause, but a strategic move to enhance our career trajectory and adapt to the evolving job market.
Today, we have an array of financial tools at our fingertips that can significantly enhance our wealth creation efforts. With access to investment platforms, budgeting apps, and financial planning resources, we can actively manage and grow our finances more effectively than ever before. But do we have time to take advantage of that? A career break provides an invaluable opportunity to focus on building new financial habits and strategies. It can be a transformative period for not only personal growth but also for laying the groundwork for future financial success where work can become optional for you.
Just as retirement and the 9-to-5 were designed to solve past labor issues, career breaks are today's vital solution rooted in personal empowerment. It allows us to maintain our holistic wellness and foster a more balanced, fulfilling career path, on our own terms.