Episode 114: Sabbaticals and Work Breaks with Kelley Shields

Back with us for the latest episode of the Career Clarity show is the delightful Career Clarity certified coach Kelley shields. The reason why I asked Kelley back on the podcast is because we received a topic request from a listener and past client. We’re talking about how to take a break or sabbatical and give yourself the time and the space to do a proper reset. 

I thought this is a conversation worth having because there are so many ways to do it. There’s so many people who have done it successfully on their own terms. I often hear from folks that are so burned out and would love to travel or take a sabbatical. 

We are diving into what a work break is, how you can take one in a way that is doable, and finding new and different ways to navigate time travel and time off in our careers. 

Want to learn more about our strategic framework for successful career change? Download The Roadmap to Career Fulfillment ebook right here!

Show Notes:

• Career Clarity Coach Kelley Shields
• Episode 99: The Impact of Work Stress with Kelley Shields
• Episode 81: How to Overcome Shame with Kelley Shields
• Episode 37: You’re not undisciplined: Hacking Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies for career change with Career Clarity coach Kelley Shields
• Episode 19: Plan B: How to find a great career when plan A didn’t work. An interview with Kelley Shields
• Roadmap to a Fulfilling Career eBook

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Transcript:

Lisa Lewis Miller  0:04

Welcome to the Career Clarity Show. If you want to create a career path you’ll love, you’re in the right place. I’m Lisa Lewis Miller, career change coach, published author and your host. And each week, we’ll bring you personal transformation stories, advice and insights from experts about how you can find a more fulfilling, soulful and joyful career.

Hello, and welcome back to the Career Clarity Show. I’m your host, Lisa Miller. And I am delighted you’re back with us today. And the other person who is back with us today is today’s guest on the podcast, the delightful wonderful Career Clarity Show certified coach Kelley shields. And the reason why I asked Kelley back on the podcast today is because we actually got a wonderful listener and past client request for a podcast episode that I thought we just had to record. And it was a question that came in about taking a break. And taking a sabbatical and giving yourself the time and the space to do a proper reset. And I thought this is so worth having a conversation about because there are so many ways to do it. There’s so many people who have done it successfully on their own terms. There are people who have taken a work break who have not felt so good at the other end of it and wish that they had done things differently. And we can share some of the stories and lessons from those experiences. But most of all, what I hear from folks is a longing is a desire is a Oh, I wish I could do that. Oh, I’m so burned out and burned to a crisp, I would love to take a sabbatical. I wish I could go travel the world for six months. And so on today’s episode of the podcast, we are diving into what a work break is how you can take one in a way that is doable, that is not totally pie in the sky impossible. And to talk about the stories that we’ve heard from others, and in our own experiences, on finding new and different ways to navigate time travel and time off in our careers. So with that, let me welcome Kelley shields back to the podcast. Hello, Kelley. Hello, Lisa, it is fabulous to be here as always, well, let’s dive in with sabbatical as a concept. Because even contemplating the idea of taking a break from work on purpose, and making it intentional, can feel a little bit foreign or uncomfortable to folks. Some people might write it off completely and say it’s you know, it’s just a privilege. And I don’t want to do that because I don’t want to be that kind of a person. Other people might say, you know, I’ve grown up in a culture or an environment where taking breaks from work had a really bad connotation and Rob that went with it. So let’s just start by painting the picture of what sabbatical is or what a work break is.

Kelley Shields  3:14  

And for starting us off that way, Lisa, because I do feel like there is a very modern concept and feeling that we have to work and we have to keep working. And, you know, it hasn’t always been that way. In the past, when the world was more of an agricultural society breaks were naturally built into work, it wasn’t really so much about thinking about Oh, me to stop work to take a break, because there were natural periods of intensity followed by natural periods of, you know, much more calm and rest that were automatically built into the world. And then as we moved into more of an industrial society that changed, and even working nine to five year round is very different from working in very intense periods during harvest, let’s say, and, but then having no such a slower time during winter and having a time to rest and regroup. And then now, I love technology for and I love being connected. But so many of us feel like we’re on 24 seven. And then with a pandemic, those lines between work and what’s not work have really just dissolved for many people. And it’s one of the top complaints and struggles that people have been having. So the concept of, you know, a sabbatical of taking a break is really just getting back to these more natural rhythms that we designed to have that we evolved to have where we have, we work and we enjoy your work and then we step back and have a less intense period, both for us to know refresh and rest and recharge and to have a period to really step back and think about Get some perspective on our lives and our goals and our priorities.

Lisa Lewis Miller  5:05  

I think that’s so great. And I appreciate that you’re really pointing to that this used to be the default for the world, the the way that we live, the way that we worked, was based on seasonality. And that that’s changed and evolved. And I know for myself personally, when I think back to, let’s say, being in school, I went to school in the United States, I went to public schools, so I had summers off, as most American public school students do. And while there is plenty of research and evidence out there that might say that from a learning outcomes perspective, having around school would be a better thing for us. Having that idle time, having time to be bored, having time with nothing scheduled and having to create my own fun and entertainment, especially because Kelley You and I, we’re certainly not of the growing up with smartphones generation. Like there’s, there’s a big need to figure out how to entertain yourself and to spend a lot of time alone with your thoughts in a way that you might not have during the rest of the year, when you were sort of in the grind of day to day school or day to day work. And those periods of time were so helpful and so clarifying, to just clear out some of the some of the brain fog. I almost think about it, like skimming the algae in the muck off the top of a pond, it was so helpful to have that time available to dig in deeper and figure out what matters to me, What do I want? Am I happy? Do I even care about these classes and what I’m doing. And I think that there’s a really an underappreciated value to giving yourself the space and the grace and the opportunity, and the structure and the plan to make that happen. As an adult.

Kelley Shields  6:59  

I agree so much. And I think back to being a student also, and I worked really hard during the school year, and I don’t think you can do that non stop. And yet somehow, we expect that from ourselves as adults that we can perform at 100% day in and day out every day, year after year with what a couple one or two week vacations, especially in the United States down Cuse me, I don’t know anyone in the US who takes two two week vacations. Um, and that’s just not realistic. There’s so much that happens when you step away from active work. And even even on a micro level. Sometimes your subconscious is figuring things out when you step away from a project you’ve been working intensely on. And the same thing happens, it’s stepping away and just giving yourself a chance to, you know, use your imagination, reconnect with your creativity, get clear about you know, what you actually want for your life and your priorities and your goals that might be a little more active. But, you know, stepping away from the grind lets you get clear on what those things are and then make an active choice about whether you need to make a readjustment of some kind in your work or your life.

Lisa Lewis Miller  8:18  

Absolutely. And, you know, I think it’s important to highlight too that sabbaticals can be really good for employers. There’s so many employers that are starting to offer opportunities for sabbaticals either baked in right from day one that you work with them or as a kind of incentive and reward for having stayed at the organization for five years, seven years, 10 years, whatever it is. I mean, we still see sabbaticals in academia to allow for tenured professors to take some time and do some new creative thinking. That if you’re willing to trust that if you give your employee a little bit of space, they’ll come back. It can be a really compelling and interesting part of a benefits package. And I remember I first started learning about sabbaticals because of a TED talk. And Kelley, I don’t know if you’ve seen this TED Talk. It’s with Stephen. Oh, gosh, I’m going to butcher his name, trying to figure it out. You’re on the fly. I think it’s Stefan sagmeister. I will look it up after this, y’all I will put it into the show notes with the appropriate spelling, the appropriate name. And I believe this individual is a European who runs a design firm and closes the firm for an entire year, once every seven years. And he and the employees just go off and do their own things and explore and have pursuits and they’re creative. And then they come back to the table A year later, more creative, refreshed, relaxed, fired up, re committed to the mission, and doing even better, cooler work. So yeah, it’s amazing. I love it. I love it. And it if you haven’t seen it yet, definitely look in the show notes to, to give it a watch because it’s it’s really inspiring to see somebody thinking about rest, and sabbatical and I’m off from work as being almost a necessary component to be able to unleash your potential perform at the level that you want to be performing at, and to be cultivating creativity. And so Kelley, I want to talk about you and your story in particular here for a moment because the the reason why this listener question came in is because I listener knew that you have taken a sabbatical. So for somebody who’s new to the podcast, who does not know that you took a sabbatical, can you share a little bit about how that came about what that looked like? what you learned from it, all that good stuff?

Kelley Shields  10:49  

Sure, um, I just medical, as well. But it turned out to be the end of my career as a practicing attorney. And that has led to that because I’ve been really unhappy as my attorney for quite a while. And I finally hit a point where I just burned out. And I’m so really, I decided to take a break to recover from that burnout. And then also, while I was doing that, I also really knew I wanted to make a career change. So I decided to focus on both of those things during my sabbatical. So um, yeah, I left my job. I, you know, I had planned extensively, I will say, I knew I’d been unhappy for a long time, I’d been saving for a long time. And it was still a scary decision at the time for me to make because I didn’t really know people who had done that felt like I was doing something really countercultural, really radical, and that feels uncomfortable. But, um, I did a lot of research, I did watch that TED talk and read books on it. And one of my favorite books on sabbaticals is a book called reboot your life. And there are four authors, so I won’t give all of them. But the first author is Katherine Allen. And she’s somebody who I believe it was her and been like really high up in the Department of Defense and advise the vice president on national defense and was advocating all the benefits of taking us about a poll are really encouraging to see really excellent professionals who are advocating taking a break, that this wasn’t something I mean, I feel like many of us have these inner critic voices that say, Oh, this is lazy. And it’s not true. But you still hear that it feels that way. And then when you’re surrounded by just work, work, work, go, go Go culture, it’s really hard to sort through that. So I think getting that information was really helpful and giving myself permission. And it was really great. I, you know, I did a lot of resting and not doing a whole lot, I took some fun, I didn’t want to spend months traveling. For anyone who knows me, I have two delightful cats, and I’m not going to like abandon them at home for most others may not be in that situation. But I didn’t know. But I did take some lovely international trips that I still treasure, and really reconnected with so many people in my life and had more time and just rebuilt up my energy. And yeah, during that time, I definitely did, got career coaching and worked with you, and also got clarity on what I wanted to do, and that I wanted to be a coach and really transitioned into that work. So it was a great experience for me. And I’m a huge fan of them now and really encourage, you know, anyone who really, really wants that, that it’s absolutely possible and to go for it.

Lisa Lewis Miller  13:55  

Hmm. I love that. And you know, Kelley, one of the things that I hear a lot from people is that I’m afraid that if I take a sabbatical, it will torpedo my career, that you can’t get a job unless you have a job. So then I’m going to be unemployable. And nobody’s going to take me back and there’s there’s a lot of fear, and a lot of nuggets of potential truth in there. And there’s a lot of potential catastrophizing in there, too. And I think that hearing your story of how you utilized a sabbatical to then be the springboard for a career transition is a really beautiful thing. But I’ll also say if you’re listening to this and thinking, you know what, I actually kind of like what I’m doing right now. And I think I just need a sabbatical to recharge, and I don’t actually want to do a career change. I will put into the show notes, two articles that I wrote several years ago about sabbatical, one is just sabbatical. 101. How the heck do you even take one of the things and then article number two was how do you take a sabbatical without torpedoing and destroying your current career path? So if that is a concern for you, I definitely want to make sure that you know that there are resources out there to support you and thinking about Got a strategy for this? And if you’re listening and thinking, I am excited about a sabbatical, but I don’t even know how it started to plan and prepare for that. And it seems, it seems fanciful, it seems impossible. Just you wait, Kelley and I are going to get to talking about some of the pieces of how to plan it and how to actually make it happen in our conversation today. But Kelley, I want to talk about different things that people can do during a sabbatical because I’ve had some conversations with prospective clients and current clients recently where they’ve said, and I so wish that I could take a sabbatical. But travel is so tricky right now, with things changing and evolving every day due to the pandemic, that it just doesn’t seem worth it. So I know that you did do some travel on your sabbatical, but that was not the be all end all. So when you think about your own sabbatical, and when you’ve talked to people who have taken work breaks, what are some of the things that they do during that time, other than sit on the couch eating bonbons in their pajamas? What response?

Kelley Shields  16:04  

I mean, to be fair, I think that some of us really need a chance to sit on the couch and eat bonbons and our sweats. And yeah, like, guess what your mind and your body get tired of that. But maybe you just need a chance to do that for a little while. And when you give yourself a chance to do that. That’s actually something your body and your mind and your soul need. So you know, that’s what you feel like starting out with great, wait, we

Lisa Lewis Miller  16:28  

need to talk about this for a second. Because this is another huge fear that I hear around taking a work break is that this terror that if I allow myself to rest, if I allow myself to sit in sweatpants and eat takeout on the couch that I won’t ever stop, like there’s a real terror that I hear that I have to keep, it’s almost like I am whipping myself into shape. And I have to be really hard on myself and push myself and bully myself to keep going and going and going. Because if just if I was gentle on myself, and I let myself stop, this would all fall apart like an elaborate House of Cards, and I would start to sink into my couch, and I would never be able to get back up from it. And I think that what you said is so important. And I really want to underline that for anybody listening, that you’ll get bored of it. Maybe you need it, maybe you need three whole weeks of laying on the couch and bingeing something, or going down the Google or the YouTube rabbit hole, where you just go from video to video to video. But you get bored of it like that, that 13 year old who’s on summer break, who’s saying, Oh, I can’t do this anymore, I need to find something else. And that’s when a lot of the rejuvenation from a sabbatical can start to kick in. But besides giving yourself permission to actually have a breather and a break and hang out in yoga pants or sweats. What are some of the other things that people can use sabbatical time for?

Kelley Shields  17:59  

There’s really so much and you know, just a few of them are. Some people want to take that to pursue some sort of degree, maybe an advanced degree, maybe a certificate in another field or skill they’re trying to develop. Some people really feel an intense desire to like give back and want to spend some time really helping other people. So they really throw themselves into volunteer work. And some of them do travel and like to do that type of volunteer work. Other people do something closer to home, but they just really want that space. And other people have needs with their family or desires to spend time with the more time with their family for a season. So sometimes people do that. Spend more time with young kids or even to start a family and spend some time with young kids, or because their parents are getting older. There all sorts of family related reasons.

Lisa Lewis Miller  18:56  

Yeah, well, and I, one thing on the family piece that I think is so important to say is I’ve never spoken with someone who has taken a sabbatical to care for an aging family member who regrets it. Never, not once and I’ve talked to plenty of people who have taken a work break. And so if you’re listening to this, and you’ve kind of been kicking around the idea of, Oh, well, you know, my dad’s not doing so well. Or my grandma or my aunt or aunt or however you say hidden in your region of the world. If you’re feeling this little curiosity and this little pole inside of you of man, I really wish I could just be there. I wish I could take a step back. I think that this really ties to a larger sense of purpose and meaning in our lives. That if your work has now actively become in the way of you being able to show up as the person that you want to show up as, that can be really psychologically painful. I want to acknowledge, like, there’s some levels of privilege to this too. Like, if you have the ability to stay with that family member and live there rent free, they’ve got the privilege, if you have a store of money already saved up so that you don’t have to worry about that income and the change in income, that’s a privilege. But I also think that it’s worth highlighting that when we become really clear on what we want to do. Like I am committed to taking a three month break to be with XYZ member of my family while they’re going through chemotherapy. We are incredibly resourceful in trying to find ways to make that happen. So I want to, I want to let you get back to sharing about all the other things that people can do on sabbatical, too. But I just felt like that was so important to say that if that has been sitting on your heart, or in the back of your mind, listen to that. But anyways, Kelley, take the mic back, please.

Kelley Shields  20:55  

Thank you so much for pausing on that, I think that’s such an important thing that it’s hard to pause and consider. So that was definitely worth it. Um, I think another reason that can be good is some people want to explore creativity, finding, explore creative passion, or just reconnect with you the chance to really spend time on creative pursuits. I was talking to a client earlier today, actually, who has just been on sabbatical for about a month so far. But during that time, she’s taken up pottery again, and he’s just really been loving, you know, making things with her hands. And it’s gotten her back in touch with some joy, and spark some creativity about her future and some dreams for her future. Even just that simple thing. They’re all there. So maybe, maybe you want to write a book during that time, or spend time painting or studying painting. That’s really important for a lot of people. There’s, most all of us have creativity. And for some people, it’s really important to spend some time just reconnecting with it, especially if you’ve been in a career where you never get to use that. Yeah, but also, like, even just take some time to think and reflect and like you were speaking about just a minute ago, really reconnect with your priorities and your dreams and figure out Am I you know, actually living the way I would like to be living? am I showing up in my life the way I would like to be and what I like? And if not, how can I get intentional about showing up in a different way? What kind of changes do I want to make, that I can have a wonderful life and look back at my life, when I’m older, and be really thankful that I invested my time and energy in the places that were most important to me? Yeah, and I mean, even there are even people I work with fewer people who are in this particular boat, but I do know, some people even take a break shortly before retirement just to kind of test out retirement and see, well, do I really want to retire? Am I gonna get bored? Do I want to conditional retire, maybe I want to work part time, maybe I want to start a business, maybe just figure that out. And then this is a little bit of a different situation that in think we’ve experienced a lot of this during the pandemic. But again, sometimes even when you are unfortunately part of a layoff situation, and it’s outside of your control. And sometimes, you can use your unemployment or suffering sometimes to help. But sometimes it’s a good opportunity. If you’re able to take a little time instead of panicking and just jumping at the next job that you can possibly get. And spending all your time frantically just sending out resumes to really pause and get strategic about Okay, well wait, what do I actually want my next career move to make. And that can be a tremendous opportunity that can put you into a much better situation.

Lisa Lewis Miller  23:55  

That I love that. And I think when I think about the clients who come to mind when I think of people who have taken a sabbatical and been really happy with it, one person was on the east coast and desperately needed to recover from burnout. And this person took, I want to say three months of just time to spend with our puppy time to spend with her husband, time to reconnect with friends and families spending more time with her parents. And that was amazing. I had another client on the west coast. And she was wanting to make a career pivot. But wasn’t 100% sure what she wanted it to look like. So we worked together while she was on her sabbatical. And she played with a lot of different possible options, including a creative endeavor of going into jewelry making as a profession. And ultimately, that wasn’t quite the direction that she you know, decided to create a career in but giving herself this spaciousness. to just be creative, try play with materials. Try To set up your own store, see how it works, think about marketing, with all really helpful data. And then I have a final client whose story comes to mind, who reached out to me with a dream for her sabbatical. And she wanted to be able to take her camper van and drive around the US with her partner, going to see national parks going to visit friends going to meetups of other people who had this very specific type of camper van. And Kelley, this person is still on sabbatical To this day, she thought it was gonna be like a three to six month kind of a thing. No, no, it’s been multiple years at this point. And it’s part of that creativity of how do we get the money and the lifestyle pieces to work to make this possible and make this doable? But tell me about some of your favorite sabbatical stories? What have you heard or seen other people go and do?

Kelley Shields  26:01  

You know, one of my favorites is very similar to one that you discussed. And it was actually one of my best friends who packed up her dog and her boyfriend, or I suppose they packed up together and bought a truck. And they drove around the United States. And they spent, I think, eight months, just road tripping, and they didn’t get really creative. They there’s a website called couch surfing, and you stay in people’s homes for free. And then you win, you know, later on you host people for free. So they stayed, they had a lot of places to stay for free that camp sometimes. Sometimes they stayed at farms, and actually did some work around the farms, which led for some very interesting conversations, because experiences, she’d grown up in a city experience that she’d never had, but free place to stay and a great new experience. And they thought they saw so many national parks, and just so many states just had the most amazing experience. Then another one that I think it’s a little different, but really interesting to me, someone I know who just had a very intense legal job for a few years. And at the end of it, she was just burned out on being a lawyer. And so she stopped. And she’d been she didn’t completely stop working. She’s not being a lawyer. And she went to work part time for an animal shelter, and help them with marketing and PR and did something completely different that was meaningful to her. And after a period of time, she was ready to go back and be a lawyer again, go back into that work. But the opportunity to just do something completely different to give all that part of her brain just a rest to recover from it. And really connect with something that was really meaningful to her and involve totally different skills was really important to being able to get back to that work.

Lisa Lewis Miller  28:06  

That sounds like such a dream. I feel like now I’m going to be creating my own sabbatical wish list. And I I am such a cat person that the idea of getting to go to a shelter and play with kitties and take care of them just sounds delightful. So if in the future somebody listening to this episode of the Career Clarity Show and the Career Clarity Show doesn’t exist anymore, because I took a sabbatical to go work at an animal shelter. You know what happened and blame Kelley?

Kelley Shields  28:31  

Amazing. I’ll probably be right there with you, Lisa.

Lisa Lewis Miller  28:37  

Well, that’s actually a beautiful segue into talking about what I’ve been alluding to for our conversation, which is the planning piece of this because if I wanted to go and take a sabbatical and go work at an animal shelter, depending on how much money I make at the animal shelter, I might be able to do that right away. But for most people and most ambitions for sabbaticals, they take a little time and a little preparation, especially on the financial planning and the funding side of things. So, Kelley, when you think about advising somebody through the process of planning a sabbatical? Where do you even tell them to think about starting?

Kelley Shields  29:15  

I mean, the first thing I would tell them is, if possible, like we’re not, we’re really not thinking about something you’re going to do tomorrow. We’re thinking about planning in advance. And you know that how far in advance can vary by the person, but this is usually something you think about and plan for for quite a while, ideally, at least a year, maybe even for several years, maybe I think it’s really an ideal situation. Not it’s not something that always happens if you can say, you know, I know I’m gonna want to take a sabbatical in five, seven years and just plan for the whole time. That’s not everybody. Most of us don’t really realize that at first, but that can be great, and if not even six months can help a lot and allow you to save But there are all sorts of options, it doesn’t have to be just reliant on your savings. You don’t have to not work at all during a sabbatical. And we’ve given some examples of that, it can actually be a great time to do some part time work, maybe in a field that you’re interested in trying out. And maybe you can get, maybe you can try some freelance work and just get some different experience as a freelancer or see how you like consulting, see how you like having a side business of your own, or just the chance to work in something, it’s always interested in you. And that’s not the case, you don’t want it to be draining, you’d like it to be something that is easy for you, that is something that you’re getting a chance to try out. And that that’s what the key distinction is you’re taking a break from what you’ve been doing and working can actually fuel your creative juices and really be fulfilling. So it’s finding something that, you know, maybe maybe you do free, well, free internship wouldn’t really help with the expenses, but something that you’re wanting to try out or that some sponge do. Or that just sounds easy, and like, Oh, great, I can make some money and work part time. And you know, that’ll cover the rest of my expenses. You do really want to get good?

Lisa Lewis Miller  31:15  

Well, I think it’s also important to say that, if working or trying to figure out a way to generate money during a sabbatical doesn’t feel restful to you, you’re really needing to recover and rest from burnout or something like that. You can think about taking on a side hustle or something on top of what you’re doing right now to build up a little bit of extra money to be able to take that sabbatical sooner. I’ve seen several people make decisions like this, whether it’s taking on another part time job, doing gig work, whatever you can to build up that little financial nest egg that will empower you to either leave sooner or be gone for longer is a really worthwhile thing to think about, especially when we’re talking about that kind of extreme advanced planning. You were outlining, Kelley of forecasting a sabbatical out at least six months, maybe a year, maybe several years, to set yourself up with the kind of financial runway that you need to make that happen. But beyond either working during the sabbatical to make some money or working an extra job on top to be able to afford the sabbatical. What are the elements of planning that people should be thinking about?

Kelley Shields  32:22  

Well, I mean, again, this is kind of a this is almost a gimme one. But we’ve got a tax refund Seder tax refund, but it is vital that straight into a sabbatical button. You know, I realized that technically, you’re loaning the government money and like just getting it back, and they’re getting to use it for interest, but great, maybe it’s not, maybe it’s just a way of automating some savings for you that you don’t even feel so. Go ahead and do that. Um, I mean, also, yeah, look at lowering your expenses. I mean, honestly, your expenses really change when you’re not working every day. And I am not saying you can’t spend money on a sabbatical. But you know, if you wanted to travel, there are so many really creative budget, travel options, and so many amazing bloggers out there who have great ideas. I think my friend I just spoke about with doing couchsurfing and camping and staying at farms was a great example, one possible option. But I’m just even if you decide to stay at home, I know I certainly cut a lot of expenses. I wasn’t eating out nearly as much. I mean, yeah. Which actually does add up. I didn’t need to get my nails done. I mean, just small things that really you realize, Oh, I don’t need to do this anymore. Because I’m not trying to survive my life necessarily. I’m not trying to, you know, get through to the next day.

Lisa Lewis Miller  33:48  

Yeah, would you minimize the financial coping mechanisms that you’ve been using to try to make life feel more bearable, because you’re going to be giving yourself a sabbatical to recuperate and recover, and have some of the spaciousness and time you’ve been craving, it’s incredible the kinds of things you feel like you can actually just cut out of your life. Like, you might realize that you were going to the chiropractor or the mazouz, once or twice a week, and you had it covered, you know, based on your your health insurance at work. But when you’re not at work, you actually don’t need those services because you’re not in pain, because the work was driving the physical pain. And it’s insights like that, that can be so mind blowing about giving yourself the pain, the space and the permission to do a sabbatical.

Kelley Shields  34:32  

And I mean, I think we’ve all learned during the pandemic for many of us have learned there are so many amazing free things that you can do that are rejuvenating, and that way to connect with friends I know I have explored so many parks in the area just had so many amazing outdoor experiences as opposed to going to a restaurant and dropping a ton of money on dinner just to hang out with somebody and you know, things like that do add up and just To look at your life and say, Oh, I wonder where I can get creative here, there’s certainly bigger options that you can take, depending on your situation. But I think, you know, these are more common ones that everyone can do.

Lisa Lewis Miller  35:14  

Love it, I think that the tax refund idea is so smart. Well, let’s talk about some of the fears or the nervousness or the hesitations that folks will have when it comes to thinking about sabbatical. I know that one big thing that I had articulated earlier is that people are afraid, well, gosh, if I take a sabbatical, I’ll never be able to come back, you know, my old employer won’t take me back, my old job won’t be available to me, all will be lost, I’ll have to start over from scratch. And those fears, if they are 100% true, are absolutely legitimate things to be afraid of. But typically, when those kinds of fears are presenting themselves, there can be some creative ways to work around them. So Kelley, what would you advise somebody if they were freaking out that their current opportunity would go away? And would never be available? Again? If they were to look at a sabbatical?

Kelley Shields  36:10  

Oh, I mean, first of all, I just give them a hug, because I know how hard that is. But I mean, you don’t have to the time to take a sabbatical isn’t just because you hate your current opportunity. You might, you know, you can really like your current job or your current company and want to continue with it. So, you know, I would very strategically plan to try to have a conversation with you can make the decision in your case with either human resources or your manager and go and really present the information to them about you know, why you why it’s important for you to take a sabbatical how committed you are to your job, and or the company because you might maybe be interested in actually using this as a transition period in between roles at your company, that could be another option. But really letting them know how much you want to stay there. Doing things like I’m telling being clear on here’s how long I want to be away for and hey, here is how I’ve already thought through how my work can be covered and the things that I will do to make sure that this doesn’t hurt the company, and then presenting some of the business reasons showing if there are no competitors are similarly sized. Some companies that do offer even paid sabbaticals. companies offer both there are companies that offer paid fully paid sabbaticals. companies offer sabbaticals that are percentage of an employee salary, some that offer unpaid sabbaticals, but just coming in with that information, it is out there. And there are lots of companies that do it. I’m telling them how you know how much you do want to stay at the company. And how this is really going to make that possible is if you do get that break that you can continue to work. I mean, there’s a benefit to your company, to you not leaving, you have a lot of institutional knowledge and experience. And they’ve invested a lot of time and money to getting you up to speed and then your expertise and what you know, and replacing you is a big cost to them. It’s like they’re going to be without somebody for a long time, and then they find someone and then that person has to get up to speed. That’s not ideal for them. In fact, it’s a much it’s much faster for them, in most cases, for you to go take, let’s say two or three months away and come back and you know, be reenergized. There are lots of examples of people who come back and there’s just rested and creative and they can see things in a new way. And they can help solve problems that have been something their teams because their brains are rested, they’ve rebooted and they’re able to step back in and offer a new perspective. And that’s really valuable. And I mean, even if your company companies permit this, even without a formal sabbatical policy, and you don’t have to give up on this just because there’s not some formal sabbatical policy companies work things out with employees all the time. This is just essentially a leave of absence. And you know, maybe you won’t get paid, you can certainly try to negotiate for that. Um, but I’m like, this is just this is a way for them to hang on to a valuable asset and valuable employee, and to make themselves more attractive so that they can hang on to that employee.

Lisa Lewis Miller  39:29  

I love that. I think that that makes a lot of sense for me a logical perspective. One of the other objections that I hear from people who tend to be enneagram twos and enneagram sixes is I couldn’t possibly take a sabbatical because I don’t want to leave my colleagues in a lurch. I don’t want to leave them stranded without me. I can’t abandon them. What would you say to somebody who’s worried about that element?

Kelley Shields  39:55  

I mean, I hear that a lot to and from the same type of people and it’s really Consider it. I’m glad that they’re caring about their co workers. But, you know, there really, it’s only they’re only looking at one slice of the puzzle. And, you know, first of all, well, that opens up the possibility for other people at the company to take sabbaticals. So you can be inspiring someone to do something that’s really helpful to them. And that maybe enables them to stay at the company even longer. And if you all trade off and support each other, while you take sabbaticals, then you’re really just being good team and supporting each other, you’re not burdening any one person. There’s also the possibility and it does depend on the office sometimes, but um, it’s gonna be a great opportunity for more junior employees, or someone who’s want to experience in a different area, to actually get that experience without having to take a new job. And that’s tremendously beneficial to those employees, and to the company who ends up with, you know, work workers who are trained in even more areas, and you’ve developed more skills, this can be a huge benefit to a colleague who would love to try out and do some of what you’ve been doing. But if you stay is never going to get the chance. So you can really be benefiting them. And I mean, again, the golden rule of sabbaticals is planning. So it’s really about sitting down and figuring out okay, How could my work be covered? Who are the people who could pitch in and cover it? What are the options? I mean, is there any way to outsource some of it or hire attempt to cover part of it? part time temp or someone part time to come in? And can you? Are there big projects that you can maybe work extra on to make sure you get them finished up before you go on sabbatical? How can you organize your files so that your co workers who might need to cover for you have an easy time and can just knowing where to access the information, I do think it would be difficult and disrespectful just to walk out and have nobody knowing where to find any information they need to cover for any of your projects, but it’s actually in, you can take a day or two, let’s say maybe less, maybe a little bit more, and get your files in order for that or put everything on two flash drives and give it to different employees. If you’re somebody with clients, you can, if you’re somebody with clients, you can still do this, you can just give your email your plants and let them know that you’ll be away. Let them know who to reach out to and that they don’t need to worry. And that here’s here are the awesome people who are going to take care of them in the meantime, and just give them plenty of notice. So that they’re not caught off guard and then they have time to adjust to this like, give them you probably want to let them know this more than once. Give them an early heads up. And then a reminder closer to you with the contact information again. Any other thoughts you have on that? Lisa?

Lisa Lewis Miller  43:05  

I think that the the bottom line of what you’re saying is that this is all figured out a bowl that I think it’s so beautiful that that’s a concern that comes up for people because it says so much about their heart and the way that they serve. And it might be that over dedication to your team and thinking that you have to be there that might be driving some of the need for the sabbatical in the first place. So being willing to actually gameplan through like, what are the contingencies? Who would I be leaving up a creek without a paddle? How can I take care of them and planning it out in advance can be so so helpful. But Kelley, let’s pivot the conversation to the other side of somebody who is ready to take a sabbatical. And they actually do want to leave their job. And they’re terrified that they’re going to be unemployable, because they’re going to have this gap on their resume and that nobody is going to talk to them and have any interviews. What would you say to somebody who’s afraid of that side?

Kelley Shields  43:57  

I hear this one a lot, too. And, you know, generally speaking, the people who are bringing this worry up to me are people who actually have really solid consistent experience on their resume. They’re not people who jumped around between and had five or six different jobs in the last two years for people who had established careers and have a wealth of excellent credentials. And part of their concern is because they’ve always been really responsible. They’re really worried about what this gap would look like. And really, they’re they’re overthinking it like yeah, let’s think about this. But really, this is this is something that comes down to how you present yourself how you tell your story, how you brand yourself. And again, that’s very figure out of all this Can I actually use sabbaticals as something good that you can use to set yourself apart from the crowd? I mean, people want to interview Candidates who they’re interested in talking to. And I think it can be great and going to be very appealing to certain employers to say who I want to talk to this person who just took a sabbatical and did X, Y, or Z cool thing worked at an animal shelter for three months traveled around Asia backpack traveled around the US, whatever it is even just took a sabbatical that shows that you are bold, and your Don’t you think independently and creatively, it’s just lots of really good things about you that are very good, marketable selling points for you. And then you can’t control how anyone’s going to react. But you can control how you present yourself how you tell your story. And I generally would want to ask somebody, and I mean, the answer is up to them. But if you’re someone who is really wanting to take a sabbatical, and this idea is really appealing to you, are you going to be happy working for a company or team that frowns on taking a break so much that they would rule you out from even bringing you in for an interview because of it? Um, and I think that’s worth thinking about, it might be that this is some a way to weed out employers in situations that would be a poor fit for you.

Lisa Lewis Miller  46:22  

Now, what a truth bomb, that if you are interviewing with somebody, or you want to interview with somebody who would never give you the time of day, because they are that judgmental about a break in work, who, what does that tell you? What does that a proxy for about their workplace culture and the way that they think about work life balance, and how they give their employees the spaciousness to be human? That is a lot of big red flags. And I think the last thing that I’ll say on this to bring our conversation in for a landing here is that there are plenty of times when people have to take a work break. And it’s not by choice. When you have a family member who is not doing well, if you are wanting to start a family and need to be home as a caregiver, or to recover after pregnancy, if you need to take a break, because you were laid off, and you’ve got to figure out what’s next. And people almost inevitably end up back in work eventually. Does it look exactly how they thought it would? Was it exactly on the timeline that they wanted it to be? There might be some ambiguity there, there might be some squishiness some creativity that comes up in your journey. But people take work breaks and get back into the workforce all the time. So if you’re willing to put in the effort and the work that it will take to get back into the workforce, with networking, and with thinking about how you tell your story so that people get excited to talk to you about your sabbatical, you are going to be just just fine. So if you’re not willing to do that kind of a work to take a sabbatical, a sabbatical is probably not actually something that you want very much. But if you want it and you’re willing to do some planning, and get creative, and be not afraid of numbers, and share your vulnerable dream with the people around you to help get the kind of support, resourcing and brainstorming that it’ll take to make it happen. You might very well get to take the same kind of delicious break that Kelley took that our past clients who have started jewelry businesses and gone on road trips have taken and that is what life is really about. So Kelley, thank you so much for coming on the Career Clarity Show today to jam on this topic, and talk about stories and giving yourself permission and creating the plan to make it happen. And for anybody who is listening to this who thinks that Kelley shield is a delight and might want to hear more from her about her story, or about to work with her, you can definitely check out more information about Kelley at our website, get Career Clarity, Show calm. And I will link to Kelley’s profile in particular on the show notes from today. So especially if you are a burned out attorney who’s listening to this and thinking that you could really benefit from getting some coaching and maybe some support in this sabbatical. Kelley is definitely your person. So Kelley, thank you so much for coming on the Career Clarity Show, as always today. 

Kelley Shields 

Thank you, Lisa. 

Lisa Lewis Miller

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