Shared from Fortune, written by S. Mitra Kalita. Original article here.

And on what employers need to remember if they try the returnship, I asked Rita Kakati-Shah, founder of Uma, a platform for women and people of color to build their confidence and leadership. She reminds employers to stay flexible with their new recruits:

“So far all programs around the world that do this only bring people back to a full-time position, which defeats the purpose of flexibility and either leads the returners back onto the hamster wheel of seeking a non-existent work life balance, or they quit roughly between 18 months to two years later,” she said. “The pandemic actually did employees a favor in that they forced companies to create flexible working conditions. Only time will tell if these now hybrid models will stay that way or revert to in-office inflexible working hours only, where employees will inevitably feel shackled and burnt out again.”