Bringing Back Professionals of Yore

A growing number of universities, such as Babson College, Harvard and Dartmouth; and employers, such as Deloitte and Touche and Lehman Brothers, are developing programs for one-time professionals who left the workforce for primarily family or personal reasons. College programs include technology updates and refreshers in accounting and finance; employer programs include extended sabbaticals and Lehman's retraining program. Reasons given for the programs include increased access to trained professionals, reduced hiring costs and greater commitment and loyalty by employees, especially those in such programs.

While European-style employment paternalism is unlikely to take hold in the U.S. it is also true that not all employees which can add value to a business necessary desire the 40-70 hour pressure cooker that exist at many companies. Even within a specific employee's career, needs may change: the same person who willingly accepted 60 hour work weeks in their 20s and 30s to advance may need an extended sabbatical in their 40s to care for an ailing child or parent; improve their own health; work for a charity on an extended project or overcome "burnout". Another employee may be unable to work full time but could effectively contribute ten hours a day for three days a week.