Luci Corley talks about her career break

When Luci Corley, Regional Commercial Retail Manager, learnt career breaks were an employee benefit, she jumped at the opportunity.

Having recently returned from a 12-month break, she says: “It was never that I wanted to leave, do a different job or work for a different company – I just needed time. The benefit for me and my family was immense, and having returned, I believe the business and my team are benefitting from a renewed level of energy in their manager.”

At the end of 2024 I observed that my mind was not in the game. I was still getting through my work, enjoying the job and loved the people I worked with, but I knew I wasn’t operating at my peak.

At the same time my husband and I were facing some challenges with our son who had experienced some difficulties since starting school the year before.

I didn’t want to leave Scentre Group, but I knew some time away from the workplace was what I needed.

I was wondering about how I could make that happen when I received an email about our employee benefits. The list included taking a career break – well that immediately spoke to me.

Scentre Group offers our people the opportunity to take extended time off, and I organised to take a career break during 2025.

It wasn’t until I was on leave that I realised just how needed that time off was.

I was able to focus on my son without worrying about completing a day’s work. Knowing that I could be completely focused on our son to support him through a tough time, reduced the stress the whole family would likely have felt had I been working at the same time.

Our son is now thriving in a new school and back to being his happy self. The saying that you’re only ever as happy as your least happy child is something that deeply resonates with me, and my career break was what we all needed to see the light.

Now that I’ve returned to work, I see my career break has other benefits too.

My time away created an opportunity for another team member to take on a new challenge and build capability by stepping into my role.

My team is benefitting from a renewed level of energy in their manager. And I’m delivering for the business in a way, that in hindsight, I just wasn’t capable of in the period immediately before my break.

I never wanted to leave our business, so having the opportunity to step away with the security of being able to return is something I deeply appreciate.

Knowing that Scentre Group supported me when I needed it the most has built a deeper level of commitment to what I truly see as being a genuine partnership.

I’m incredibly grateful that a career break is something we offer as a business.

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