Is It Time To Take A Sabbatical From Work?

Feeling burnt out at work and considering taking a sabbatical? Many of my career coaching clients have taken the leap. By witnessing their experiences, I know planned sabbaticals can be an excellent opportunity to recharge, gain new experiences and skills, find clarity about career direction, and explore budding interests.

Or they can be horrible experiences.

The difference between my clients who thrive during their planned sabbatical versus struggle is how thoroughly they’ve thought through the following questions.

Why do you want to take a sabbatical?

Sabbaticals take many forms, including partly paid, completely unpaid, a break from an organization to which you’ll return, a change in tasks and workload, or a time after quitting one job and before searching for the next one.

Regardless of form, in order to make the most of a planned sabbatical, get crystal clear about why you want a sabbatical:

• Are you feeling burnt out and need time to recharge?
• Do you want to explore an interest, gain a new skill and/or work toward a personal milestone?
• Is your sabbatical intended to care for a loved one, such as a child or ill family member?
• Are you looking to figuring out what’s been missing in your work and gain clarity about what you want next out of your career?
• Do you want to completely change career direction, including building and warming up your network to head in that new direction?
• Is the goal something else entirely?

Understanding your motivations can help determine whether a sabbatical is the optimal choice. Perhaps there’s a different, less drastic, way to get what you need or want.

Being out of work full-time may truly be the only want to meet your goal. Just be sure to know exactly what you want to accomplish from the sabbatical. We can’t meet a mark we’ve never identified.

What is your financial plan for the sabbatical?

In my practice, financial discomfort is the #1 thing that undermines the effectiveness of a planned sabbatical. It’s exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to recharge, explore interests, or gain skills when we’re preoccupied with money stress.

Key preparatory questions include:

• Do you have enough savings or other resources, such as parental gifts, to support you during your sabbatical?
• For precisely how long will your savings or resources last?
• Does the amount of time you can afford to take a sabbatical match the amount of time you need to accomplish your goal(s)?

Also consider how you’ll feel watching your savings decrease over time. That occurrence is usually inevitable and predictable during a sabbatical, yet some of my clients panic as soon as their savings begin to drop. This panic undermines their planned time away from work. How you’ve reacted to dwindling savings in the past may be a reliable indicator of how you’ll react in the future.

All in all, it’s essential to have a detailed written financial plan - likely including a budget, perhaps a strict one. Before embarking on the sabbatical, do a deep gut check on whether following that plan will truly be feasible and comfortable for you.

Do you have structure for your sabbatical?

It may sound incredible to have nothing to do all day, every day.

At first, it is. It’s like being on vacation. Clients in the “honeymoon” phase of a planned sabbatical do look like they’re floating on air.

Before long, though, - and usually on the order of just two to three weeks - boredom, fear, lack of direction and/or uncertainty about the sabbatical begin to kick in.

Having a clear plan for your day-to-day is essential to thriving during a sabbatical.

• How will you breakdown your overall sabbatical goal into daily actions?
• What would your ideal day look like, hour by hour?
• Which people in your life will help support you emotionally and offer accountability as you work toward your goals? How will you engage them in supporting you?

Even burnout recovery requires a plan; we don’t recharge simply by having time off but rather by intentionally doing activities that energize rather than numb us.

Is this the wisest moment to take a sabbatical?

There will never be a “perfect” moment to take a sabbatical from work. And sometimes we have to take the sabbatical right now due to circumstances beyond our control, such as a family member’s illness.

When we do have choice over timing, though, context is important to consider. Factors include:

• Macroeconomics. Is the economic outlook rosy, likely offering plenty of opportunities when you return from sabbatical? Or is the economy contracting, meaning you might miss key opportunities to add value while you’re away?
• Industry trends. Regardless of the state of the broader economy, each industry has its own trends of growth or contraction. For instance, in early 2023 tech was suffering while hospitality and healthcare were still growing. Be sure to study not only the industry you’ve been in but the one to which you’re considering changing, if a career change is planned during the sabbatical. I’ve seen clients only focus on the former, which creates major challenges for their planned pivot.
• Family considerations. Those of us who live with others don’t make our decisions in a vacuum. Is your partner also miserable at work and considering a change or sabbatical in the near future? Are you planning to start or expand your family soon? Do family members depend on your income and/or benefits in a way that can’t be replaced by savings? Anticipate your constraints not to make you upset, but rather so that you can be mindful and creative about the possible solutions.

All in all, taking a work sabbatical is not a decision to take lightly. It can be a life-changing choice, in all the best ways, or it can be a panic-filled experience that you wish you never embarked upon.

Assess your reasons for wanting to take a break, plan for the financial implications, have clear structure for your time away, and consider the larger context. With these factors in mind, you can make an informed, confident decision about whether a sabbatical is the right choice for you.