Summary: In the rapidly evolving landscape of employment, the concept of boomerang employees has emerged as a compelling phenomenon. Boomerangs are individuals who leave a company, only to return later in their careers to the very organization they once departed from.

The rise of boomerang employees reflects a broader shift in how professionals navigate their careers. According to a survey conducted by Workplace Trends, nearly 76% of HR professionals consider boomerang employees to be a valuable asset to their organizations. This sentiment underscores a growing recognition that individuals who return bring with them unique experiences, fresh perspectives, and a deeper understanding of the company's culture.

What drives these individuals back to their former employers? What transformations occur within organizations to welcome them back? Through the lens of boomerang employees, we delve into a narrative that explores the dynamics of professional growth, company culture, and the enduring relationships that define modern workplaces such as SoftWriters (SWI).

Joe Badaczewski
Senior Software Engineer
First Tenure: May 2020 – October 2021
Second Tenure: March 2024 – present

Joe Badaczewski, or Joe Bad, as he’s known by his teammates, joined SWI during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. He was impressed by the quality of the software development and lifecycle process at SWI. Joe even called it the “gold standard” for quality assurance. However, after 18 months with the company, he was approached by a third-party with the incredible opportunity to build out a brand-new mobile development team. This was a greenfield opportunity too exciting to pass up.

Joe Bad was with the new company for about eight months before leaving for the software behemoth of Amazon Web Services (AWS) where he worked for nearly two years. After 2.5 years away from SWI though, he began to miss the reliability that the processes and the people of SWI bring to the table daily.

“I had considered SoftWriters, and currently consider it, the best company I've ever worked for on multiple levels,” Joe exclaimed. “As an engineer, there are tons of variations between companies and how things are run. I've been at enough companies that I've gotten a feel of different variations on the software development life cycle and out of all the companies I've worked for SoftWriters has really nailed it. The level of organization is so high here that it leads to a degree of reliability and predictability that is just not seen in other places.”

Another aspect of SWI that drew him back was the family atmosphere. He said it’s not the cliché type of work-family that Michael Scott of the hit-show The Office boasts, but one that Joe Bad describes as “sincere” and “honest.” Joe noted that while this family-like quality can be seen across the board, it has been demonstrated most notably by the two managers he has experienced – Lisa Miller and Mike Bishop.

“At the worst companies, there's a lot of finger-pointing, and when mistakes are made, you get blamed personally for it. SoftWriters is the complete opposite of that,” Joe added. “It's very people first and they treat you like a human and not like a cog in the machine. They really are concerned about your personal well-being first and foremost.”

Michael Bishop
Director, Software Engineering
First Tenure: March 2021 – February 2022
Second Tenure: May 2022 – present

Ironically, the very same Mike Bishop that Joe Bad talked about making an impact on him is himself a boomerang. Mike first joined the engineering department during a season with a lot of change and newness in the Spring of 2021. There had recently been a transformation to the Agile methodology and the rollout of a vaccine management software, among other things.

“It was just very busy… it was very energetic,” Bishop recalled. “It was a very good time to start.”

Throughout his first year at SWI, Bishop was approached on multiple occasions by representatives from Amazon. Every time he quickly turned them down expressing his lack of interest in moving from SWI. After several iterations of this conversation, the financial compensation package was too much for his family to deny. After a rigorous interview process, he made the decision to leave SWI in February 2022.

“I still went back-and-forth. I still wasn’t convinced. It wasn’t leaving something that I wanted to leave,” Bishop noted. “(I left) solely because I looked at ways that I would be able to help my kids.”

Just three months later, Mike Bishop returned to SoftWriters.

“I realized that the financial aspect wasn't as important to me as I thought,” Bishop said. “It was the work-life balance, the mental health, the physical health, time for other things, the passion for what you're doing, liking the work that you're doing, and feeling like you're doing something that matters… those are all things that matter more.”

And all those things, and more, Bishop finds at SoftWriters. He said it is important to him to be able “to put a face” to the impact of his work. The patient who is ultimately impacted by the proper use of the software is a “tangible reality” that is much more important. Bishop was eager to return to an environment where people mattered. He made a phone call to the HR department, followed by a conversation with the President (Scott Beatty), and the rest is history.

“We just gave each other a big hug and just sat down and talked. You're not able to just go and do that with anybody, right,” Bishop questioned. “There are people you meet in your life that you can build those sorts of relationships with. You know that you're with people that you want to be around… (Scott and I) had a very open conversation talking about personal things and families and stuff and that helped me realize it.”

As a director at SWI, Mike Bishop said he truly encourages his team members to take interviews with other companies when they come. He tells them to think about what they like about SoftWriters, and what’s most important to them, write it down, and ask questions with those things in mind and see if they hear what they want to hear in the process.  

“I think a lot of people will stay at companies for too long because they think they have to. They don't have something good to compare it to. They don't know what good looks like,” Bishop remarked. “I think the other key is that you have to understand what you want out of your work life. Your expectations will allow you to get the most out of it.”

Nancy Zimmerman
Technical Account Manager
First Tenure: 2000 – 2007
Second Tenure: 2010 – present

Nancy Zimmerman has more than two decades of SoftWriters’ experience to speak to the value of the company culture and workplace environment. However, her work history also includes a brief three-year window away from SoftWriters, providing her with a whole new perspective upon her return.

Zimmerman first joined SWI in the early days of the company in 2000. She was a versatile, team player, who did everything that was asked of her.

“I was support, implementation, training, the whole thing,” she recalled. “It was just me. There was nobody else.”

After seven years with SWI, it was ultimately an exhaustive travel schedule teamed with her husband’s relocation to Michigan for work that drew her away from the company. During this time, Zimmerman was able to attend school at Ferris State University.

In 2010, Zimmerman called Tim Hutchison (President/CEO of SoftWriters, 1994-2017) to pick his brain about job opportunities. After a face-to-face meeting, Hutchison told her he wanted her to return to SoftWriters.

“He offered the job pretty much right away,” Zimmerman added. “And I pretty much accepted it right away because I knew the company and I loved the company… I never thought he would offer me the job.”

Zimmerman was amazed at just how much growth the company at seen in the three years she was gone. It made her feel even more comfortable returning because things were moving in the right direction. Fourteen years later, she still feels the same way about the place and the people.

“It's been so good to watch that company grow from nothing to what it is today,” Zimmerman said. “I love my team that I work with. You know they always, always, always have your back.”

Josh Futrell
Association Software Engineer
First Tenure: March 2021 – August 2023
Second Tenure: February 2024 – present

For some boomerangs, returning to the same company does not necessarily mean returning to the same team. Such is the case for our very own Josh Futrell.

After bouncing around numerous tech jobs around Pittsburgh for a decade, Futrell started at SWI in March 2021 during the same busy season Mike Bishop described earlier. Futrell’s role at that time was in product management. He worked with SoftWriters’ electronic content management software for the entirety of his first stint, which lasted nearly 2.5 years. While he loved the culture at SWI, he began to grow exceedingly uncomfortable in his day-to-day responsibilities.

“There were all these really good things about the culture and the people and the environment, but yet I found myself kind of frustrated and miserable… and it had nothing to do with SoftWriters,” Futrell explained. “I had been thinking about it in the back of my head for a long time that maybe I'm not a product manager, maybe I'm an engineer.”  

Futrell realized that the parts of his product management role that he liked best revolved around working with customers to figure out what problems to solve, testing and experimenting on new features, working with the engineering department, and white boarding solutions to problems. After talking with his supervisors and a handful of software engineers, he made the decision to enroll in a four-month coding boot camp. During this career transition, Futrell found tremendous support, and ultimately, another job on the other side of his training.

“I left in August (2023) to go to that boot camp. I had no promise of a position coming back,” Futrell mentioned. “But I was lucky enough that right when I was getting ready to graduate from the boot camp, they were looking to hire an entry-level (software engineer). It was a no-brainer for me.”

Futrell called it a “welcoming environment” walking back into a place that he had already worked at before. He believes knowing all the people, the lay of the land, and the tools allowed him to focus solely on what was new, and as a result, be more productive from the start.

The other thing that had him running back to SWI after his four-month hiatus? The people and the culture, a common theme among employees at SoftWriters, no matter their tenure.

“Beyond it being a solid company financially, a great market, and good relationship with customers, it’s a good place to start from an engineering perspective,” Futrell noted. “In terms of just how much there is to do and learn, you can make an impact early on.”

Larry Cassar
Application Support Analyst
First Tenure: January 2017 – June 2022
Second Tenure: January 2024 – present

Larry Cassar knows what it is like to make an impact at SoftWriters early in one’s professional career. He joined the team at SWI in January 2017, fresh out of college at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He joked that 90 percent of IUP graduates end up in Pittsburgh, but the Long Island native fell in love with the city.

“A major part of that was working (at SoftWriters) with people who grew up in the area and some people had moved to the area similar to me,” Cassar remarked. “The company culture itself was great.”

Cassar started at SWI as an application support analyst but later transitioned to an implementation role, and then a scrum master role. After five years at SWI, he left in June 2022 when he received a fully remote job with a substantial pay increase. While it was great on paper for him, Cassar later realized that a fully remote position was not for him.

“I missed having an office. I missed the connections that I was able to make in the office. I missed long-term care,” Cassar recalled. “I needed that human interaction. I just felt myself dying in my home office.” 

After 2.5 years away, the road back to SWI for Cassar began with a fortuitous meeting at a grocery store with a former boss.

“On the day before Thanksgiving, I'm walking through the Giant Eagle over in Shaler (PA) and Kathy Campbell sees me. She was my first boss at SoftWriters,” Cassed explained. “She is one of two people, her and Jena (Gutshall), who had spotted me at a career fair when I was in my last semester at grad school and kind of said, ‘This looks like a guy who works at a software company. They were right.’” 

After that meeting, Cassar monitored the SWI careers page for a new role. A few weeks later, he received a call from Jackie Maitland, the VP of Customer Success at SoftWriters, asking him to return to SWI right where he started as an application support specialist. For Cassar, it meant a lot to him on a personal level to be contacted by Jackie, someone he considers not just a boss, but also a mentor. Being able to have that connection again was everything to him.

When Cassar made the easy decision to return to SoftWriters, he said it felt like he had never left.

“I’ve been joking that everybody comes back. It does mean a lot to be part of a company where people are welcomed back,” Cassar said. “It goes to show the type of people who are here, who stay here, and why we're able to build such meaningful products.”

The Final Word: The story of boomerang employees at SoftWriters encapsulates the profound impact of company culture and personal relationships on professional trajectories. Through the experiences of individuals like Joe Badaczewski, Mike Bishop, Nancy Zimmerman, Josh Futrell, and Larry Cassar, we witness a narrative of growth, reflection, and the pursuit of meaningful work. What draws these individuals back to their former employer is not just the promise of reliability or organizational excellence, but a sense of belonging—a genuine connection with colleagues who value them as employees and individuals. As Mike Bishop aptly put it, it's about finding a workplace where one can build relationships and make a tangible impact, fostering an environment that truly feels like home. This story underscores the enduring importance of workplace relationships and the transformative power of supportive company culture in today's dynamic professional landscape.

If you are interested in exploring a career at SoftWriters, visit the careers page for more information.