These are just a few of the adventures friends taking career breaks or sabbaticals are in the midst of or recently completed. Other friends taking extended time off work sited the opportunity to focus on health and wellness, giving themselves time to reconnect with family, or simply enjoy summertime in Alaska as the reasons they’re taking a break. Whatever the motivation, it seems like an increasing number of people are carving out time from work to focus on a different areas of their lives.
I started noticing the trend one sleepy Sunday morning as I lazily perused an old friend’s rad mountain biking photos on Facebook. “Cool weekend,” I thought. “Sarah’s really getting after it!” And then – maybe it was the coffee kicking in – I realized she’d been posting A LOT of envy-inducing photos. And wasn’t there something about selling her adorable Portland, OR home? And embarking on a new adventure with her husband? Yes and yes. I reached out to say hi and see what was up, and discovered that she and her husband, Thor, are two of the many people I know who are taking some time to live work free.
Although sometimes used interchangeably, career breaks and sabbaticals differ slightly: sabbaticals are time away from your job, usually for a predetermined period agreed upon with your employer, with a clear return date; career breaks are a time out from employment, dependent only on your ability to live without a job. Although fairly common in academia and religious institutions, only 23 percent of all U.S. companies and 17 percent of small to mid-sized businesses offer sabbaticals. Not