I literally took my yoga pants off for 1 month.

They were exchanged for bikini bottoms and shorts for a month on the island of Majorca or, if you prefer, Mallorca. That’s the freedom of going on a sabbatical. Hey, those stretchy yoga pants deserve a holiday. And I needed couple’s therapy by relaxing and adventuring internationally with my husband. No work.

From Houston, Texas, it took us 24 hours and 3 plane segments to arrive on the Balearic Island off the East Coast of Spain. If you’ve heard of Ibiza, it’s just 1 more plane or ferry hop over.

As I reflect on taking on zero clients during this period—which my husband will tell you is a first in our 25-year relationship—I enjoyed my daily 4 miles walk on the beach surrounded by azure waters with temperatures averaging 78 F/25.5 C.

Last week my husband’s daughter visited us in Seattle, Washington. We discussed sabbaticals, and she set me straight on one perspective. Although I didn’t conduct 1:1 consulting with clients, I was still responding to potential ones that inquired through my website, Google business listings, or LinkedIn Services page. Yvonne stated that was my choice; I actually didn’t need to respond to potential clients. Yes, that’s correct, but I just have a thing about client courtesy.

And it made me wonder what I could do differently in the future.

Which got me thinking, did I really go on a sabbatical? I’ll get to the answer in a minute.

In my book Clicks, Tricks, & Golden Handcuffs: 5-Point Roadmap for Tech Executives to Land Big-Impact Roles, I devote an entire chapter regarding taking a potential sabbatical. What follows is an excerpt on the subject related to companies who offer a sabbatical, industry research, and my personal experience.

Did you ever feel a little envious of a colleague who took off work for six months to cruise the Greek islands, thinking, why couldn’t that be me? Maybe it is time for you to go on a “Think About.”

In 2019 while enjoying delightful seafood pairings with cava for a month on the Costa del Sol in Spain, I penned a blog regarding Fortune 500 companies offering sabbaticals. As you can tell, I’m in love with Spain, especially the beach.

Soulaima Gourani noted in her 2020 Forbes topical sabbatical article: “The majority of people who choose sabbatical leave in the United States, England, and other developed countries are lifelong careerists who are in search of the optimal work-life balance. They have spent years at their jobs without significant breaks other than the one or two weeks of vacation they get each year.”

Soulaima further stated that a Facebook VP believed sabbaticals are essential because it allows their most talented employees time to think. I re-coined the term to a “Think About.”

What Is a Sabbatical?

The difference between a sabbatical and a vacation is the time allocation, intention, and proper break from work intensity. A vacation is typically a week or two; a sabbatical is a more extended period of up to a year. It can be the adult version of summer camp with joy, learning, and new adventures. Employers provide this opportunity for employee retention and increased job performance. During a sabbatical, you can recharge and pursue your unique areas of interest.

My colleagues have gone on sabbatical for various reasons:

• Decompression: When you are away from work, your brain can take a career break to return refreshed and energized; it is your time to examine goals and priorities.
• Education: How about being able to focus on a master’s degree or technical certification, including AWS Certified Architect, Azure, CCNA-Cloud & CCIE, CISSP, PMP, ITL, and Scrum Master, without splitting your attention on a full-time job and family responsibilities? You gain a new skill that increases your expertise, job performance, and, ultimately, your paycheck.
• Life Change: Although more companies offer parental leave, some new parents want extended family time. On the other end of the life continuum, some colleagues need to take time to care for a parent or family member. I have two clients who took time off during Covid in 2020 to homeschool their children.
• Exploration: Many of my colleagues have hobbies they want to explore further without the constraints of working. They are book writers, budding chefs, travel enthusiasts, and adventurers like me with bucket lists.

Life-Work Balance

Why do we call it a “work-life balance” versus a “life-work balance”? Shouldn’t we place our personal life first? I think it depends on how much time you spend at work.

Two Harvard professors tracked 27 CEOs of multi-billion-dollar companies; these executives worked on average 62.5 hours weekly, including time while on vacation. If we follow their lead, we spend 9.7 hours per weekday at our jobs—commuting, working, problem-solving, agonizing—and only 6.3 hours awake in our personal life. This calculation does not yield a work-life balance; I am advocating switching the ratio toward personal life.

Believe it or not, work-family human resource initiatives help the corporate bottom line. A study of Fortune 500 firms that offered these work-family initiatives drove $60 million in shareholder value. If only everyone embraced personal time off. Have you experienced a boss who made you feel guilty for taking a vacation or leaving early for a family activity? I have.

So, you might ask, what companies are offering sabbaticals? Here’s a list for your consideration.

Companies Offering Sabbaticals

Fortune Magazine, ForceBrands, Glassdoor, and Built In have compiled lists of hiring companies offering sabbaticals after 5-10 years of service, from four weeks up to 12 months in the case of Starbucks. Are there any surprises here in this list for you?

• AARP, Adobe, Alert Media, Alta Planning + Design, Aptitive, Ascent, AuthO, Autodesk, Away
• Bain & Company, Betterment, Biogen, Blue Moon Digital, BrewDog
• Car Gurus, Casper, Cedar, Centro, Charles Schwab, Checkr, Chicago Public Schools, ChowNow, Cisco Meraki, CLEAR, Clif Bar, Club Automation, Cloudflare, Code3, Code Climate, Coder, Cognite, Cohesion, Coinbase, Course Hero
• Deloitte, Doximity, Drift
• eBay, Enigma, Enova, Ensono, Envoy Global, Epic, EzCater
• Genentech, Grammarly, Greenhouse Software
• Harry’s, Havenly, Headway, HIMSS, HomeLight
• Immersive Labs, InfluxData, Intel, Invitae
• Jelly Vision, Justworks
• Kinship, Kyruus
• Logic20/20
• Matillion, Maven Clinic, Maxwell, Melio, Mentor Collective, Modern Times, Modernize Home Services, MongoDB, mParticle, Morningstar
• New Belgium, Newsela
• oak9, OCC, OJO Labs, Onna, One Medical
• Pangea Money Transfer, PayPal, Peak6, Perkins Coie, PerkSpot, PHYTEC America, Pitchbook, PopSockets LLC, Prefect, Purchasing Platform
• Real Chemistry, Redgate Software, REI, Rent the Runway, Rev.com, Reverb, RightHand Robotics, Rokt
• Scaled Agile, Sift, Simply Business, Skillshare, Soofa, Spins LLC, Stack Overflow, Starbucks, Surefront
• Tamr, Teachers Pay Teachers, theSkimm, Thoughtworks, Toast, ThrivePass, TrueAccord, Trupanion
• Uber
• Vistaprint, Vivid Seats
• Webflow, Whole Foods Market
• Yieldstreet, Yotpo, Your Super
• Zello, Zen Planner

Did I Go on a Sabbatical?

Not really.

It took me one week to not talk about work with my husband. For me, it’s challenging to turn it off and on. I know others that are brilliant at decompressing.

Although my email featured an “out-of-office” response, I still checked my email. And responded because I’m in denial. Midway through this so-called sabbatical, I was a speaker for 1 hour at the WomenTech Network Conference discussing women ascending to the C-Suite. At 11:20 pm in Mallorca because that was 5:20 pm ET. I scheduled and sent new client calendar meeting invites. The list goes on …

So, what did I learn? I’m not the poster child when it comes to life-work balance.

Here’s what I will do differently in September when I spend a month in Seville and Torremolinos, Spain:

• LinkedIn – change my headline to state “on sabbatical”
• Google Business listings for Seattle & Austin – update office hours as closed
• Email – don’t respond for 1 month because people respect an out-of-office message

Bottom line, I admire people who take 1 month or longer off to explore their world and pursue their hobbies. I would love to hear about your experiences!