r/SabbaticalPlanning

As the title suggests, I’m looking for some productive ways to spend the next 6 weeks - 3 months whilst I’m on sick leave from work having had spinal surgery. It’s been 2 days and although I am very limited with movement, I’d love to take this time a bit more productively than laying on he couch (as much as I can post surgery obviously). Has anyone got any recommendations for new skills, hobbies etc that I could focus on?

35F — Am I too old to take a break from my career and study abroad?
I’m a 35-year-old woman from Japan, and I’ve been thinking seriously about studying abroad.
I’ve been working for the same company for about 12 years. My job is stable, and I’ve built a life around it, so walking away from that stability isn’t an easy decision.
However, studying abroad is something I’ve wanted to do since I was a teenager. For various reasons, I never actually did it when I was younger.
Recently, I traveled alone to Kazakhstan, and that experience made me realize that my interest in living abroad wasn’t just a vague dream. I genuinely want to experience everyday life in another country and improve my language skills.
I’m now considering spending several months to a year studying in Kazakhstan, probably starting around age 36. I’d like to study Russian and possibly Kazakh while living there.
My biggest dilemma is that I’m at an age where I’m much more conscious of money, career stability, and the consequences of leaving a job I’ve had for more than a decade.
Part of me thinks:
“If I’ve wanted to do this since I was a teenager and I still want it at 35, maybe I should finally do it.”
But another part thinks:
“Is it irresponsible to disrupt a stable life at 35 or 36 for something like studying abroad?”
I’m considering different possibilities, including taking a leave of absence if my company allows it, rather than immediately quitting.
I’d especially like to hear from people who studied abroad, took a career break, moved overseas, or made a major life change in their mid-30s or later.
Did you regret it?
Did it hurt your career when you returned?
Was studying abroad different as an adult compared with doing it in your 20s?
And looking back, would you make the same decision again?

I’ve got a feeling it’s more possible than most people think, but the details are hard to find.

If you’ve ever managed to get extended time off and still keep your job, I’d really like to hear how it actually went.

A few things I’m curious about:

• Who did you ask, and what did you say?
• Was there an official policy you could point to, or did you basically have to invent the request?
• How long did it take from the first conversation to getting a clear answer?
• Did they try to negotiate you down to something shorter?
• Did you keep your benefits and seniority? Was any of it put in writing?
• Did you time the ask carefully, or did you just ask when you’d had enough?
• Did you offer them anything in return?

I’ve been wondering whether the people who get a yes are the ones who frame it as a retention issue rather than a personal favour.

Also especially interested if you asked and got turned down. What reason did they give? And did you end up leaving anyway?

Would love any real details.

I keep reading about the money side of taking a long break and almost nothing about what it does to a household. The version I imagine is one person at home all day and the other still going to work, and I can't tell if that's fine or quietly awful.

If you've been on either side of it, did you talk about how things would change before it started, or did you sort it out as you went? And was there anything you'd handle completely differently a second time?

Also interested if you did it together at the same time. Curious whether that solved the problem or created a different one.

I feel so elated and it feels very right which Im a little surprised by and happy about that.

I have been working since I was 16 and was raised to be very focused on financial safety and professional success. I am a senior level UX designer now and got two promotions in 3 years at my job, I realized that even achieving everything I wanted, there's more to me than my profession.

Went through a divorce last year (he gained financially from it more than me) and I am not completely liquid and have money out of my house.

I feel so good about this, I am getting so many signs from the universe it's the right call. My final two weeks are going to drag!!

So my work has a fairly good policy on sabbatical leave. We're allowed to take leave every three years to help mitigate burnout. I haven't taken sabbatical leave in ten years.

Now I'm not sure how long to take based on what I can afford (I have a mortgage to pay) and what to do with the time off.

I suppose travelling but not sure I'm keen on the idea of continuous travel for months on end.

Say I take something reasonable and affordable like 5 months - what have others done with this much time off in terms of travel?

Is burnout so normalized that we don't even recognize it anymore?

I’m a 32yo female fullstack developer with around 7 years of experience in Toronto, making around $130–150k CAD/year. I’ve been thinking seriously about quitting my job and taking 6–12 months off.

I’m financially in a position where I can afford the time off. I don’t have any debt and have around $190k saved. I’m just feeling pretty burned out and honestly want some time to work on my own projects and figure out what I actually want to do next.

I’ve always loved coding, so that’s not really the problem. I just feel like I have no motivation left for corporate work. Every day feels the same and I’m exhausted from the people and the whole work environment.

I’ve always wanted to try being a solo entrepreneur and build a tiny SaaS or app that can at least pay the bills. I kind of want to experiment and see if I can actually make money working for myself while doing something I enjoy. I’d love to use the time off to see if I can make something work.

But I’m honestly really worried and afraid about taking the leap.

I feel like my job has become a big part of my identity. From the outside, it probably looks like I’m doing pretty well. I have a decent job, make good money, and have saved a good amount. I’m scared that if I quit, people will look at me differently or think I’m not doing well anymore.

I know logically that other people’s opinions shouldn’t matter that much, but it’s still something I’m struggling with.

Money is another concern, although I’m not too worried about running out. Depending on how long I’m unemployed, I might spend $30–60k of my savings. I can afford that, but I’d definitely be worried about finding another job if the SaaS/app doesn’t work out.

So I guess I have two main questions:

For anyone who has taken a career break, especially in tech, how did it affect your career? Did you regret it, or were you glad you did it?

And for people who have tried building their own SaaS/apps, how realistic is it to make enough money to support yourself? What was your experience like after leaving a stable job to do it?

Would love to hear some honest opinions, especially from people who have actually done either of these things.

I’m 43M, single and based in the UK, with total financial assets of around £1m. I have enough accessible savings to comfortably fund a year or more without employment income.

I’m increasingly considering pulling the trigger on early retirement, but I’m hesitant to make an immediate and irreversible decision to leave an established career. A 12-month unpaid sabbatical or career break seems like a sensible way to test it first: live on my intended retirement budget, see how I actually use the time, travel, focus on personal priorities, and then decide whether I genuinely want to retire or return to work.

I have worked for my current employer for more than ten years. It is a large US-headquartered multinational, but I haven’t discussed this with my manager or HR yet. I don’t want to reveal too much about my longer-term intentions before understanding whether such an arrangement is realistic.

My assumption is that a large multinational may be better able to accommodate one employee being away for a year than a smaller company, although I may be completely wrong about that. I also haven’t found much discussion on FIREUK about using a sabbatical as a bridge into possible early retirement.

Has anyone here done something similar?

• Did your employer agree to six or twelve months of unpaid leave?
• How did you present the request to your manager or HR?
• My employer’s internal policy appears to provide a right to return to the same role, or at least an equivalent role or grade. If your policy said something similar, how did it work in practice? Was your return genuinely guaranteed, or did it ultimately depend on a suitable vacancy being available?
• What happened to your continuous service, pension, benefits and redundancy entitlement?
• Did making the request affect how your employer viewed your commitment or future career?
• How far in advance did you raise it?
• Most importantly, did you eventually return to work or decide to retire?

My main concern isn’t whether I can afford to take a year away. It is whether an employer is realistically likely to approve such a request and how meaningful any right of return would be in practice.

I appreciate that every employer’s policy will be different, but I would be particularly interested in hearing about real UK experiences.