Add Category
My favourite part of playing school sport was always halftime. I would dash around the field for the first half trying to follow whatever ball was being kicked or thrown into the air while silently willing the referee to blow their whistle and take me to the safety of the sidelines.
It was there, surrounded by teammates, parents and a Tupperware container always filled with cut oranges, that I was finally able to stop and process everything that had just occurred.
Taking a break but still working – known as a working holiday – is an increasingly common way for workers to get some clear air.Credit: iStock
I had a similar feeling a few years ago when, after two decades of working non-stop, I called halftime on my own career. I stepped wearily onto the sidelines and decided to take my first proper break away from work.
To accomplish this, my husband and I jumped into a campervan and drove as far we could, exploring the sunburnt corners of Australia for the better part of a year. I noticed something strange happening during that long career break, as though my brain was thawing out after 20 years of constant mental churn. It took a few months for the work noise to quiet down until, finally, I felt like the long break had reset something inside me.
I know how fortunate I was to be able to do this. However, I also know that I am not alone. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, the number of people taking large chunks of time out of their career tripled from 2018 to 2022.
While many people take time off work for various reasons from childcare to health, from travel to education, a structured, proactive sabbatical away from the workforce is becoming increasingly common.
We have to normalise taking time out from work to spend it on other important things in life.
Researchers have identified three types of sabbaticals that people tend to unconsciously take when they choose to step off the treadmill for a set period. The first is a “working holiday”, during which some type of work is combined with taking time away from the usual pressures before rejoining your original profession at the end.
The second one is a “free dive”, where you metaphorically dive headfirst into something entirely different as a way of making a jolting change. The final one is a “quest”, where you just need to take time off to slowly heal and recover before exploring new areas.