Book review: She’s Back
Daryl Fielding finds a new book about returning to work a searingly honest guide that doesn’t pull its punches
If you are expecting chicken soup for the soul or want a “Lean in 15” quick fix self-help guide, I wouldn’t bother reading this book. If, on the other hand, you really do want to get back in the game after a period of absence, this is a frank appraisal of what it will take and a serious how-to guide. It is a veritable boot-camp of a book.
Lisa Unwin and Deb Khan have high-powered credentials, coming from top tier consulting and delivering change management programmes in the media and technology sectors. They go way further than drawing from personal experience, have commissioned their own research, have asked relevant professionals for advice and given readers tools to enable them to succeed.
As a result, they deliver more than the opinion-led, personal experience that so often characterises writing in the self-help sector. I did need a lie down after reading it, but if you’ve just raised a small human, you are, in my view, absolutely up to the programme proposed by the book.
It is a refreshing aspect of the book that the authors recognise that many women don’t want a third way career as a blogger or a mumpreneur but want to go back into corporate life and succeed when they do.
In the first section, Lisa and Deb call out five key things that are really happening in the workplace, for instance, the tendency of organisations to talk the talk but not walk the walk; diversity as a value written on the website. And they identify a particular concern of mine, that many company’s diversity programmes try to fix the women to enable them to succeed in a man’s world instead of evolving the world of work for everyone.
Deb Khan and Lisa Unwin
And they include something rarely articulated; why some employers in their research thought that a woman returning would be an ideal hire, including being organised, hungry, resourceful, strong and a safer pair of hands. Oh, and cost effective. Shame about that last one!
Their own research puts some much-needed data around why women leave their companies, what the biggest barrier to returning is, what they need to return and how they felt. Their frustration is palpable and their cri de coeur is faith and flexibility.
Most of the book is a step-by step-guide to getting back to a successful corporate career with exercises and checklist and a helpful list of resources at the end of each chapter. This offers invaluable advice, from the strategic to the nitty gritty. For example, really figuring out your motivation, creating a strong story, using social media profiles, interview techniques or whether tables in a cv are searchable by head-hunter software. (They aren’t).
The chapter on becoming your own recruiter I found the most “slap-in-the-face” helpful. A salutary lesson in how competitive the labour market is and what you will need to do to compete… and win. It encourages people to pivot their skills and approach the job search systematically, almost like a media plan, with lists of contacts and organisations, actions and next steps. It’s an old-fashioned contact strategy. [advert position=”left”]
How to address the F word, flexibility, is cunningly yet intelligently dealt with. Far too easy these days to consider it a right or the apparent lack of it a barrier, rather than something that can be cleverly negotiated and how to do this is skilfully navigated. And Lisa and Deb also call out the need to play the long game, get the home team well prepared and to allow yourself to adjust to an alien environment.
One aspect that resonated with me strongly was the chapter about finances and an exhortation to take control of them. I meet a lot of women who I perceive as flaking out over maths and money, which I think serves them badly in life and at work. I sincerely hope readers won’t skip this chapter.
The book includes a calculation of the consequences of taking a career gap that amounts to $400k for a woman who takes just two years off aged 30 and earning $85k. That killer fact and women’s tendency to self-harm regarding the pay gap should incentivise women to know their worth and negotiate. The other trap it calls out is short term thinking about the cost of child-care vs working and the fallacy that it is not worth it financially to return.
I cannot believe that Deb and Lisa were told that this book was “too niche” when they approached publishers about it. An enormous number of individuals are impacted by taking career breaks, for whatever reason.
I am thankful that they persevered regardless, did things their own way, and have delivered genuinely practical help and support to people who choose to step away from their career. Their own story is inspiring in itself and the book delivers the work-out returners need to be fit to get back in the game.
Daryl Fielding is a portfolio board director and advisor at various companies, CEO of the Marketing Academy Foundation and a member of WACL