A survey conducted by the recruitment platform Applied last year revealed that while around a third of employees had taken a career break of six months or more, the majority felt reluctant about disclosing that fact to potential employers during the recruitment process.

What’s more, this figure rose to over 75% among executives. This is despite Bill Gates popularizing the concept of a “think week”, whereby he would shut himself away from work, technology, and indeed society in order to read and think about things.

A hard sell

In societies that have come to be defined by the Protestant work ethic, taking such prolonged periods away from work can feel all kinds of self-indulgent. Indeed, data suggests that over half of Americans fail to take their full holiday entitlement (which is already much lower than most other countries), if they even take any holidays at all in a given year. So the thought of taking several weeks off is understandably anathema to many.

Yet, research from the University of Washington argues that sabbaticals can actually be hugely beneficial for employees and employers alike. The researchers found that people who take sabbaticals nearly always return with a fresh sense of confidence, renewed purpose, and a pronounced sense of voice.

The researchers examined how people who had taken a career break felt when they returned to their jobs again. The reasons for the career break varied, with some taking time out to spend time with family, some traveling, and others working on special projects, such as volunteering or writing a book.

Different forms

The sabbaticals taken by people tended to fall into one of three types that were based on whether the purpose of the break was to practice, explore, or recover:

• Working holidays, where time is spent between both practice and recovery.
• Free dives, where time is spent between exploration and recovery.
• Quests, where there is a progression from recovery to exploration to practice.

The most transformation occurred among those who embarked upon the “quest” approach, but all included considerable periods of recovery as nearly all of those who embarked upon a career break did so due to stress and burnout.

It was also common for sabbaticals to have an element of exploration in them. Most people wanted a break from their daily routines, with a combination of intense activity and periods of calm and silence.

The last key element of many sabbaticals was an element of practice, with people taking time to apply what they had learned during the exploration phase to a new endeavor. For instance, people might experiment with new ways of working to help pay the bills during their sabbatical or embark on a new path entirely that was more in keeping with their dreams and values. This practice period also provided a useful bridge to the return to work.

Working holiday

For those who took the “working holiday” route, they were found to return to their previous lives, and their previous work, with renewed confidence, albeit alongside a greater desire for balance in their life.

Those who took the “free diver” were found to want a better fit between their work and their values when they returned from their sabbatical. Finally, those taking the “quester” route were most likely to desire dramatic career changes.

“For questers, the sabbatical had the most profound influence on their work lives and led to the most drastic career changes,” the researchers explain. “It’s a no-brainer to send people on work holidays and free dives, but quests? Most will not come back.”

While there were differences across the three approaches, what was common across each was a sense of being more affirmed and even more confident as leaders. There was a feeling of refreshment and clarity that enabled them to be better as individuals and for their teams.

The Covid pandemic has seen both a rise in stress and burnout, and also the trend for quiet quitting that is so strongly associated with this. Offering sabbaticals could be an effective means of both recruiting and retaining talent.

“It’s not expensive and employees find these options attractive when job hunting,” the authors conclude. “By offering sabbaticals, an organization could prevent a strong employee who is burnt out and exhausted from leaving or prevent someone from leaving on really bad terms.”