{"id":2897,"date":"2026-02-11T04:13:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T10:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/?p=2897"},"modified":"2026-03-25T15:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T20:57:12","slug":"boomerang-employee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/boomerang-employee\/","title":{"rendered":"Boomerang Employee"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"what-is-a-boomerang-employee\"><\/span>What Is a Boomerang Employee?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A boomerang employee is someone who leaves their current place of work to return to the very same company at a later date.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"why-might-an-employee-leave-your-company-and-then-want-to-return\"><\/span>Why Might an Employee Leave Your Company and Then Want to Return?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>There are a few reasons why this might happen, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Maybe they left to try another career path, only to find out that it wasn&#8217;t for them<\/li>\n<li>Maybe they left for personal reasons to concentrate on raising a child or to spend time with a sick family member<\/li>\n<li>Maybe they received a more attractive offer elsewhere \u2013 whether it was better pay, more responsibility, or the opportunity to learn new skills.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Should you be looking to rehire staff that has previously left your business?<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"pros-and-cons-of-boomerang-employees\"><\/span>Pros and Cons of Boomerang Employees<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>There are plenty of pros and cons that you need to think about when you consider rehiring a boomerang employee. Here are a few to think about.<\/p>\n<h3>Pros<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>They know your company culture and must enjoy that to want to return<\/li>\n<li>They know the job inside out already; there is less need for investment in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/on-the-job-training-program\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">training<\/a><\/li>\n<li>They&#8217;ve been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/employee-onboarding-checklist\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">onboarded<\/a> before, so the second time is much quicker<\/li>\n<li>If they left to learn new skills, they would be bringing them back to your business<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Cons<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>No matter how good they were in their position before, you may have moved on with your processes and they may no longer be the best fit.<\/li>\n<li>If they&#8217;ve been away for a while, the entire business could have changed \u2013 the management, the culture \u2013 and this could leave them feeling out of place when they expected to fit right back in.<\/li>\n<li>If they didn&#8217;t leave on good terms, you should think twice about rehiring them. No matter how good they were at their job, there is a strong likelihood that old issues may come back, and that could disrupt the current team.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"how-do-you-hire-a-boomerang-employee\"><\/span>How Do You Hire a Boomerang Employee?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve decided to talk to the boomerang employee, you should consider a few things when interviewing with the prospect of rehiring.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some questions you should consider asking:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Why do you want to come back?<\/li>\n<li>What have you been doing or working on since you last worked here?<\/li>\n<li>Do you have any issues with coworkers, management, or culture that caused you to leave the first time around?<\/li>\n<li>What have you added to your skill set since you last worked at the company?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>******<\/p>\n<p><em>See our full list of over 50 Small Business Terms <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/small-business-glossary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Is a Boomerang Employee? A boomerang employee is someone who leaves their current place of work to return to the very same company at a later date. Why Might an Employee Leave Your Company and Then Want to Return? There are a few reasons why this might happen, including: Maybe they left to try [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.10 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Boomerang Employee - Zoomshift<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A boomerang employee is someone who leaves their current place of work to return to the very same company at a later date.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/boomerang-employee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Boomerang Employee - Zoomshift\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A boomerang employee is someone who leaves their current place of work to return to the very same company at a later date.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/boomerang-employee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zoomshift\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-11T10:13:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-25T20:57:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ZoomShift\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ZoomShift\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/boomerang-employee\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/boomerang-employee\/\",\"name\":\"Boomerang Employee - Zoomshift\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-11T10:13:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-25T20:57:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9ba35c556ffdf9d8dab06992b17a4b0d\"},\"description\":\"A boomerang employee is someone who leaves their current place of work to return to the very same company at a later date.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/boomerang-employee\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/boomerang-employee\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/boomerang-employee\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Boomerang Employee\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Zoomshift\",\"description\":\"SMB Management Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9ba35c556ffdf9d8dab06992b17a4b0d\",\"name\":\"ZoomShift\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/05af010fb3485fa8095793cfff89a5e6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/05af010fb3485fa8095793cfff89a5e6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"ZoomShift\"},\"description\":\"The leading scheduling software designed for hourly employees. Build your work schedule in minutes with ZoomShift.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/author\/zoomshift-author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Boomerang Employee - Zoomshift","description":"A boomerang employee is someone who leaves their current place of work to return to the very same company at a later date.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/boomerang-employee\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Boomerang Employee - Zoomshift","og_description":"A boomerang employee is someone who leaves their current place of work to return to the very same company at a later date.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/boomerang-employee\/","og_site_name":"Zoomshift","article_published_time":"2026-02-11T10:13:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-03-25T20:57:12+00:00","author":"ZoomShift","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ZoomShift","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/boomerang-employee\/","url":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/boomerang-employee\/","name":"Boomerang Employee - Zoomshift","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-02-11T10:13:27+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-25T20:57:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9ba35c556ffdf9d8dab06992b17a4b0d"},"description":"A boomerang employee is someone who leaves their current place of work to return to the very same company at a later date.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/boomerang-employee\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/boomerang-employee\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/boomerang-employee\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Boomerang Employee"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/","name":"Zoomshift","description":"SMB Management Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9ba35c556ffdf9d8dab06992b17a4b0d","name":"ZoomShift","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/05af010fb3485fa8095793cfff89a5e6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/05af010fb3485fa8095793cfff89a5e6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"ZoomShift"},"description":"The leading scheduling software designed for hourly employees. Build your work schedule in minutes with ZoomShift.","url":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/author\/zoomshift-author\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2897"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2897"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3195,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2897\/revisions\/3195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zoomshift.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}