Break time

The 21st century has seen numerous new concepts introduced to the workplace. Gone are the days of clocking into a job and clocking out 40 years later, picking up your pension and your slippers. Employees and employers are coming to terms with individuals pursuing many different career paths in their lifetimes, demanding previously unknown benefits such as flexible working and paternity rights, and generally striving for that often elusive trophy – the “work/life balance”.

The career break is another previously unheard-of option, which has become very much part of today’s wish list. Previously the only career break on offer was the rather less glamorous one called maternity leave.

The popularity of a career break (which tends to range from 3-12 months), where the “break-ee” can take the opportunity to travel, do charity work or indeed combine the two, is evidenced by the numerous websites dedicated to creating the perfect break for those wishing to take one. The options are endless – you can help rescue turtles in Fiji, coach football in South Africa, take part in a yoga retreat in Brazil – whatever you want to do, there will be a programme to enable you to do it.

Are we buying in?

Ten years ago, a visit to Thomas Cook was required to start planning any trip abroad – now you can be visually transported to a Thai fishing village with one click on “google earth”. It could be argued that it would indicate a slight imagination failure if people didn’t have an appetite to hang up the suit for a few months and see a bit more of the world than Bothwell Street.

But is the traditional world of law, perhaps not known for being the quickest to embrace change, ready for the career break?

Leading recruitment consultants to whom I spoke in both Edinburgh and Glasgow felt that the Scottish legal profession as a whole is beginning to come round to the idea. As one commented: “I would not say that people taking career breaks as such is hugely prevalent, but there does seem to be a shift in attitude towards this.” He personally was aware of several individuals who had recently opted for a career break, with one solicitor planning to travel the world for a year before returning to his current position. Indeed, following the trend set in London’s top tier firms, a number of the larger firms in Scotland now offer the option of taking unpaid leave as part of their human resources policy.

Sense of yearning

It is easy to be flippant as to what benefits there are for the employee who wishes to take a career break. However, is it as simple as “desk v beach”? It is likely that those who travel or undertake a new project on their break will undergo substantial personal development, whether a general increased self-confidence or new teamworking skills. These new skills will be genuinely transferable and can be put into use back in the workplace. There is also the “scratching of itchy feet” factor – many people yearn to see more of the world and will not fully settle in their jobs until they have lived out their personal dream. Achieving out-of-work goals can be extremely important for success in the workplace.

For an employer, the first reaction to a request for a career break may well be “Who will do this person’s work when they are away?”, followed rapidly by a more personal “Well, I never got to take one so why should they?”

Benefits? Yes, honestly

From a purely practical point of view, one Edinburgh based recruitment consultant considers that, particularly if the career break proposed is of a few months’ duration, it is in employers’ interests to allow it. As he points out, “If you think about it, by the time the firm have actually recruited someone they are happy with to fill the position, it may be that the original employee is shortly due to return. Bear in mind, that the person who left will hopefully have been someone who was good at their job and got on with their colleagues. The time and hassle involved in training someone to work the way the firm works may just not be worth it.”

The longer term benefits of an unpaid leave policy to the employer are threefold. First, unless the employee has had a miserable time basket-weaving in the rain somewhere, they are likely to return rejuvenated and also to become one of the most loyal members of the team. Allowing them to fulfil their personal ambitions means that a firm or department is likely to welcome back a more motivated employee, who feels valued as a person, and is willing to repay the firm through commitment and hard work. Linked to this, such investment in people is well known as increasing an employer’s retention rates and also generally making the firm appear an attractive place to work. Finally, there is the increasing importance of corporate social responsibility to consider – firms which are progressive and support employees who get involved in charity projects, can advertise this as part of a strong CSR programme.

Timing is everything

For those considering a career break, the advice from the recruitment industry is that, as with everything in life, timing is crucial. As one consultant stated, “If two people in your team have just gone on maternity leave or reduced their working hours, asking for a sabbatical is not going to be welcomed. You have to get your timing right.” Their advice is to present a case as to why you should be allowed to take the break and what benefits it will bring for both of you. It was also thought important to “make it clear you wish to take a break for personal development and that it is not an indication of your commitment to your career in the long term”.

The consensus of those to whom I spoke was that such breaks are perfectly plausible and firms should generally consider them, as it is likely to make them more attractive to employees, both current and potential. From a recruitment perspective (and indeed perhaps an employment law angle) it will be interesting to see how Scottish law firms react to the increased demands of their employees, as these new practices and options become more engrained in our working culture.

Sue Lennox is the pen name of a practising solicitor

BACK IN THE FOLD – The brief who came in from the cold

Having recently returned to practice after a nine-year break, one can at last look back and laugh at all the wacky, zany fun you can have being a sometime “ex-lawyer” – like the job interview I once had with a director of a recruitment consultancy, a sufferer of rosacea so vivid that his nose looked like a lava lamp, who told me that he didn’t think I had much “potential”.

He hired me nonetheless; but within six months he was sadly gone, a victim of the coups and purges that sometimes afflict sales organisations – events whose survivors declaim their enthusiasm for the new regime with the kind of spontaneity one might expect from North Korean conscripts.

Sic transit gloria mundi, we all said… as we laughed behind our hands.

Pace John Wayne, on the odd occasions I bumped into old colleagues and associates they all had the good grace not to say that they thought I was dead; but the look some had in their eyes…

Initially, it hadn’t been my intention to return to practice at all; the grand plan was to move on to sunnier uplands and greener pastures from a job possessing all the allure of penal servitude in French Guiana. Any sunnier uplands or greener pastures would do, and if I were re-admitted, well, that would have been the icing on the cake.

However, a lunch with two not so leathery old Dumbarton Sheriff Court hands from days gone by resulted in a conversation in which my desire to return to practice was probed with devilish subtlety, resulting in an interview, then a second interview, then a written question and finally a job offer.

The re-admission procedure was straightforward, and the Law Society of Scotland could not have been more helpful.

In the short time I’ve been back in chambers, it’s been very noticeable that the nuts and bolts business of lawyering hasn’t seemed to change very much: a little surprising, given the sheer volume of legislation that Holyrood and Westminster have vomited onto the statute books in the last 10 years. The old principles – mainly that as long as you know where the case citator is and how to use it, and then actually do use it, the rest is a walk in the park – still seem to hold good.

For a solicitor, the broader question of whether or not an extended, or even accidental, sabbatical is to be generally recommended can be answered in a relatively straightforward manner – yes and no.

For a while I felt I had lost my vocation; so my own best interests, and those of my clients, dictated that I seek employment elsewhere. This can take one down some unusual pathways. It might surprise some in the profession to learn from one who has made their living both as a solicitor and as a call centre operator, that in some customer service centres the range and complexity of enquiries that operators are required to handle, the standards of proficiency to which they must work, the constant call volumes, the level of responsibility they are expected to assume and the regulators’ eagle eyes can all conspire to making wearing a headset for a living sometimes just as stressful as wearing a gown.

Those most likely to walk away are those who feel that they cannot cope with their duties to their clients and their brethren. Solicitors in that position, a very difficult mental place to be in, should not continue in agony but seek their brethren’s support to find not just a better way of working but also a better way of living instead. It’s a profession, for sure – but it’s not a priesthood either. Not being a solicitor any more isn’t really the worst fate in the world.

On the other hand, I would not recommend taking a break to any who feel perfectly happy going about the business of lawyering but who might feel less than satisfied with their pay or conditions. Anyone in that position just needs a change of scene, not a change of career.

I’ve made the right move in returning – my principal Jon Kiddie and the board of the Paisley Law Centre have been extremely supportive, and I look forward to working with them for a long time to come. As a certain other short guy once remarked, at the end of his own series of fantastical adventures – “I’m back”.