Why we should all be taking more time off work

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.

Surprisingly, there can still be a stigma around choosing to step off the usual path, with some employees preferring to keep gaps in their CV hidden when applying for new jobs.

This is something we desperately need to change. We have to normalise taking time out from work to spend it on other important things in life.

In 2022, LinkedIn even added a feature that allowed users to give more context to explain gaps in their career history after a survey of 23,000 people showed that over two-thirds had taken a break at some stage in their professional career.

So how do you actually go about lining up all the moving parts so you can take time out at a moment of your choosing? One way is to quit your job overnight and Eat, Pray, Love your way around the world to find yourself, but most people will need to plan it.

This might involve years of thinking ahead of a proposed career break to align several areas in your life. You might have to consider existing responsibilities, like children and caring, health, savings and alignment with other important people in your life. You also need to pick the right career moment, ideally before you burn out or feel other negative effects creeping in.

There are some workplaces now that encourage career breaks as a way of keeping staff engaged over the long-term and other workplaces where you can only dream of handing in your notice and never coming back.

Whichever path you decide, taking time out of your career for a predetermined sabbatical is something you won’t ever regret. Because it’s there, on the sidelines, where you can get some real perspective on how to best re-engage with the rest of the game once you’re filled with renewed enthusiasm and fresh energy.

Oh, and don’t forget the oranges.

Tim Duggan’s new book, Work Backwards: The Revolutionary Method to Work Smarter and Live Better, is out now. He writes a regular newsletter at timduggan.substack.com

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