The Year Of The Sabbatical (okay, it's 18 months but who's counting?...)

Time is the ultimate gift. The approval process to grant time off is tough.

You know who gets to approve it? You.

When my company restructured and I stopped working at the end of November 2020, I knew I needed time to myself. We had a series of deaths in the family starting in 2015 and I also had experienced burnout and health issues even before COVID-19 changed the world. I decided early on that I would take a sabbatical until March 2022. In the middle of the pandemic, it was a relief to be home safe and be 100% available to my kids during lockdown.

I know almost no one who has taken an extensive sabbatical. There is no roadmap or guide on how to do it right. There is nothing written about taking a sabbatical during a pandemic. I thought I'd share my experience because of this rarity. The questions about sabbatical are mostly about fear when you google it. (And Ryan Reynolds....spoiler alert - most sabbaticals don't involve running 2 other companies, interviews and worldwide headlines.)

What do you do during a sabbatical?

Will people forget me if I take a sabbatical?

I'll have a gap in my resume. Will I have a hard time getting another job?

The main one is "how do I afford it." I'm not going to talk about the financial planning aspect of sabbatical - that's an entirely different article. I'm going to focus on the challenges I didn't expect and what I learned. Besides, I'm leaving banking and financial services for a reason. I know the value of financial planning. I just don't want to write about it anymore.

Identity

The first challenge I faced was that of identity. I didn't know how to introduce myself when I met new people. Since I only walked the dog or bought groceries, this wasn't really a problem but it made me think about who I am if I don't work. I experimented with how to tell my story. It was both freeing and terrifying. I learned that most people don't really care what you do. They are just curious to figure out where you fit into the world. It's easy to define yourself in terms of relationship ie either someone's mom, a dog owner or a wife. I started to introduce myself as a writer as this is the work that I've loved since I was a child. People ask very few questions about being a writer but it gives you an exceptional scope to learn about people. Writers are expected to ask questions.

Clothing is closely tied to identity. I've always embraced business wear. Even in high school I wore pencil skirts and blazers. My style had relaxed over the year but the stores I was drawn to while I was working corporate no longer served my needs. I had to decide who I wanted to be, how I wanted to feel and what influence my clothing would make. I never realized how restricted I was by dress code. It's weird to be able to buy something and wear it just because you like it, not because it will also do double duty as office wear. I find that my family has distinct opinions about what I wear. I bought a vegan leather jacket and my husband died laughing because he's never seen me wear something like that. My daughter promptly stole it.

"What do you do all day?"

This question used to annoy me when I had little kids. Ever see that cartoon of the house and the calm, relaxed mother sitting in a chair, reading a book and drinking tea? The house is trashed - kids running everywhere, laundry strewn around, dirty dishes in the kitchen. The husband comes home and asks the wife what happened, fearing kidnapping or worse.

"You know how you ask me what I do all day? Well, today I didn't do it."

My goal, therefore, was not to do housework all day. Bane of my existence although necessary. I've always worked according to a schedule. How do you plan your day if you don't need a calendar? I found I had to add structure back into my day. For so long, I was getting up at 4 am to be able to write on LinkedIn ahead of my workday. I no longer had to do that - sleeping in was heavenly. I found that I missed the silence though. Without intention, my day was shaped by the kids' school schedule and my husband's work.

Ideally I start my day with meditation, walking the dog, reading a bit and then writing. This is my ideal morning. To be able to have space and time to focus on myself and what I want to learn and share. I did attempt to add exercise into the mix but my foot has never been the same since I broke it in 2012 and I reinjured it twice this year. I swam every day during the summer. I move so much more now - it's hard for me to sit at my office chair for any length of time. My 2022 goal is to face the fear of hurting my foot again and really embrace health and nutrition. I'm playing small but I witnessed how weak my mom got without exercise and I never want to be that dependent.

Losing people

When I changed jobs in 2019, even though I stayed within the company, I lost people. I no longer had access to the systems and people who valued my subject matter expertise so I lost the people who needed me on a transactional basis. So I had a taste of what it would feel like walking away from the company completely. This turned out to be a blessing because I had low expectations. Initially I went no contact with anyone. I stopped writing on social media for 5 months. I gradually started to send private notes to people I cared about and started telling the story of what had happened. I paid attention to which interactions felt good and which ones didn't. I focused on the people who made me feel good. I also joined a networking group and hired a coach. It felt good to shift the focus onto me. Mindset is everything. What I missed was the impact - after a while I started to feel guilty about taking the time when I knew my experience and knowledge could help people. That's when I started crafting and implementing the consulting plan.

Mind the gap....

I decided early on that I would tell the story of being off work and build a value proposition catalogue of my work and learning. I created websites, started a blog and a podcast, I tried out LinkedIn Live and started this newsletter. There is no gap if you demonstrate value. The goal is always to become bingeable.

The final stretch

I have a final quarter left in my sabbatical but this will involve being more intentional with my time. I will be launching a consultancy focusing on hybrid/remote work with a focus on transparency, organizational narrative and employee engagement. I'm going to build out a schedule and stick to it. Designing boundaries will be key. I love having full autonomy to make decisions. My husband is self-employed and I've been involved in building that from the ground up. I need to start as I mean to go on and I also need to look at the future of what I'm building. What will this look like in 5 or 10 years?

I don't regret taking a sabbatical at all. I regret that it's almost over. And I will be planning to take another one. The time to invest in self-care, rest and upskilling was invaluable. I adored being able to say yes to my kids without having to consider any other agenda.

If you are interested in going on sabbatical, plan for it.