r/SabbaticalPlanning

Hi, I will soon take a long break from work to look after my family. (As that will take up most of my time so I discounted it to 6 months.) Although the job itself wasn't even a key factor in the decision-making, I'm literally counting the days, crossing them off the calendar as if they weren't days of my own life. I'm at this point where I feel paralysed because the fairly long wishlist for myself is just that, wishes (to reconnect with friends and family, more active life style, to learn a language or two, to take some, I mean many, courses in the hope to pivot my career, to refurbish our living space, just to name a few). I also start to develop this unease that if I can't focus, can't be selective, can't make concrete steps for what's selected, I'd go into the sabbatical like a headless chicken. Or if I'd choose the "wrong" things to focus on. Both would mean a waste of this down time that doesn't come around easily.

Any past experience? How was your planning process? What made you sure of what you went for? How did you make adjustments along the way? I suppose lots of people here took sabbatical for travelling, how did you fill up the rest of your not so actively exploring days like in transit or quiet evenings?

I’m starting to apply to get back into working and I wonder if my sabbatical gap (1.5 years) is holding me back from getting interviews.

How have you guys handled these gaps on your resume?

Second year running and I'm taking a July sabbatical.

Last year felt wasted with no real plan in place but I realise I need structure in my day.

This year I plan on a solo trip off the grid for a few days to write, read, reflect and plan.

Beyond that though, I'm not sure what else. Someone said grab coffee with as many people as possible.

I do plan to try play some golf too but currently nursing injury so that might be hard.

Any other suggestions?

It's been over a year since I took my sabbatical and I'm now doing pretty good. I wanted to share what ended up working for the people here who are interested in the process and the journey.

Not everyone will relate to this.This is mostly for those feeling burnout and needing to take a break without knowing what to do next.

The Issue

It started out like it does for many of us. I had been in my career for awhile and wasn't happy even though the work was still interesting and the environment was ok. But I wanted to kill myself more days than not. Meds didn't do anything to help it so it was definitely existential. Maybe it was a midlife crisis. Maybe it was the 1+ hour commute. I didn't know. I had the desire to do some creative projects and business ideas but felt too drained to do them before or after work. So I planned a sabbatical with the intention of working on those things and maybe then the crisis would resolve.

The Sabbatical

I planned to take a year off to explore. I couldn't afford to travel but spent a lot of time at the local park looking at fungal and myxomycete ecosystems on decomposing logs, which are another world unto themselves. This served as the equivalent of traveling for me. I also wrote/illustrated two children's books about those worlds, experimented with perfumery, volunteered in a biotech lab looking at CAR-T cells, coached women's running, acquired an oncology data specialist certification, and worked locum tenens for my company (but at different locations than I had worked previously). Once I had finished doing those things, I started feeling restless and lonely.

After 7 months off, a friend offered me a job doing the same thing I had been doing previously (but closer to my house) and I jumped back into work, even though I technically had 5 months left on my sabbatical timeline. But this was perfect timing.

The Resolution

The one thing the sabbatical did for me was confirm that I NEED to work because of the structured social interaction work provides. While I don't get to do as many of the varied hobbies ADHD drags me into, socializing is essential. I wasn't getting enough of it without a full time job, even though I had all the time in the world to do mostly what I wanted.

The sabbatical took away the discontentment I had previously felt around not having enough time to do other things. I realized being social was more important for my mental health.

But that was all it did. Despite the new job and better working conditions, work still wasn't bringing me meaning. I then realized why I felt stuck. I am an ambitious person but there is nowhere left for me to go in my career without entering middle management (a big nope). I don't feel like I'm making any kind of impact with my work. I have already had three careers and haven't been able to find something else to do without getting an advanced degree I can't afford.

The Change

After being back at work for a few months, I ended up in a stock market simulation against some MIT EMBA students and did well. My high Sharpe ratio indicated it wasn't purely luck due to a bull market. I found out I could do stocks and work at the same time and started doing it with real money. Things have been going well. But it's not about money at all. I found something that scratched my itch for expansion and constant learning, even though it's technically living vicariously through other companies.

The sabbatical laid the foundation for me to understand why I felt stuck and helped me realize the underlying issue. The stock trading helped satiate my need for expansion by living vicariously through publicly traded companies. Maybe that was all I needed. The market may crash, but I'm prepared for it. The niche that I'm focused on, biotech, will continue doing its thing to some degree in spite of an economic downturn. But maybe I'll get bored and move on. Whatever the case may be, I know I will need to keep expanding in some way.

The TLDR:

I define the desire for advancement/expansion as the root cause of career burnout in ambitious people (who aren't in a toxic work environment). A sabbatical helps define if this is the case. If this is the case and you realize you need to work, the underlying issue can only be solved by finding other ways to expand at work. Your mileage may vary.

Long story short, last year I received a 7 figure payout from a startup I worked at for 4 years. After taxes, I paid off my student loans, got married and we just purchased a house.

Not endorsing this idiot, but the changes in taxes from the BBB and being able to file jointly meant that my refund was 6 figures.

I have about 500k in a brokerage account, and 200k in savings now. Over the last several years, I have suffered tremendous loss (COVID deaths, loss of best friend from alcoholism, murder of a family member). My nervous system is shot. I have worked in tech for the last 15 years, and honestly I'm burnt out. I went to school for data and analytics, and everything is AI now.

I want to take at least 6 to 12 months to reset and ride out this wave of BS in tech right now. However, I'm also worried with the breakneck speed of tech that I can quickly become irrelevant.

I see the job market and the struggles everyone is facing. Is it worth continue working, albeit maybe at a slower pace? Or is it worth talking this leap without anything lined up?