Harvard Business Review recently posted the article “The Case for Sabbaticals and How to Take a Successful One” (https://hbr.org/2025/02/the-case-for-sabbaticals-and-how-to-take-a-successful-one).
This article makes a compelling case for leave and the type of leave to consider based on your situation. Reading this article reminded me of my own experience.
Years ago, I took a 3-month sabbatical from work. This leave was unpaid, but I could retain my health insurance and my employment with the company.
I was lucky to work for a company that offered this type of leave. The company I worked for didn’t advertise the leave options that they provided, so not many people knew about the possibility of taking extended time off from work. I found the types of leave offered through the company’s internal employee resources website.
After researching the type of leave I wanted to take and getting more information from HR on the logistics, I told my manager about the plan. I approached my manager with at least 6 months’ notice and a plan to help the team prepare for my absence. This was an instance of telling my manager this was happening and not asking for permission. However, I did make it a point to confirm the timing of the 3-month leave with my manager to ensure they were bought-in on the schedule of my sabbatical.
My primary motivation was needing a break.
I was five years into my corporate post-college job, and I was already burned out before the word “burnout” became common vernacular. I was promoted as quickly as possible at this company. I was always available, always prioritizing work before anything else, and always taking my laptop on every weekend trip. This kind of always-on approach was rewarded at this company, but it was draining. I was stressed and angry all of the time, and I was feeling lost in life about what was ahead of me.
I was 2 months into the 3-month leave before I felt that I was finally disconnecting from work. The amount of time it took to recover was one of the most important lessons I learned during my break. During my time off, I did not log into my work laptop. I deleted work-related apps from my phone, and my old work team was completely on their own while I was on my extended out-of-office. I put my time and energy into personal pursuits, such as traveling, visiting friends, and casually looking into new job opportunities. Despite cutting off work cold turkey, it took a long time before I felt “free.” This showed me how entrenched I was in work and how important the break was for me.
This company looked down on taking time off.
In addition to my burnout from working all the time, taking any time off was discouraged at this company. Anyone who has worked in an environment like this knows that it does not need to be said directly, but passive-aggressive comments and the examples set by leadership are subtle ways that command what is expected. We got a lot of PTO every year (I’ve never gotten so much PTO at a job since!) but we were deterred from taking it.
It was common to get a last-minute text at 10 PM on a Sunday night to report to a client site at 7 AM the next day (and the client wasn’t even there!), to be expected to cancel plans to work weekends and holidays (you have a family wedding to attend? Too bad.), and to work during natural disasters (you don’t have electricity? Better find some!).
This was the quintessential work-through-a-surgery environment. I had multiple medical procedures that a normal workplace would have expected employees to take off for, but I was expected to report to work the same day. There I was, attending meetings while still bleeding through my stitches.
It is ironic that the most unhealthy work environments I have experienced when it came to taking paid time off also offered the opportunity to take a leave of absence. This lack of respect for time off was a contributing factor to my burnout and why a break felt so necessary.
I knew that I needed to find another job.
I wanted to clear my mind and explore the possibility of other options for employment. It would take another year and a half before I found a new job and left this one, but I credit the time off with getting me out of the rut I was in at work, opening my mind, and helping me reprioritize. Besides knowing I did not want my boss’s job, which is the clearest indicator of not wanting to continue to climb the corporate ladder at a place of work, I also knew the work environment was toxic. There were moments of prosperity, but generally, it was not a company where I could continue to thrive.
Since leaving that job, that workplace has become my benchmark for an unhealthy work environment. When a work environment starts to feel the same way to me as that company did, I know it is becoming toxic. It’s a difficult feeling to put into words – it is one of despair, loneliness, and dread. There is constant stress of working under unscrupulous leadership, and there is no positive role model and no positive path forward. I have gathered so many more positive experiences since then, and leaving was the right thing to do. The time I took off from work helped me gain that clarity.
I always encourage people who can take leave from a job – because they can plan and prepare for it – to do so. A 3-month leave cleared my mind from the drudgery of the work and the unhealthy nature of the workplace. It also improved my emotional well-being. In hindsight, it was a short amount of time off, but I really needed it! I got away from working all the time, I had fun traveling and seeing friends, and I changed the course of my career towards work that was more meaningful. It could be because of a change of environment or a maturing outlook on life, but I have truthfully not felt that burned out since I took that leave. It was just 3 months, but I learned a lifetime of lessons from that experience
-kendra@lmk
lmkleader.com 
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