- “Put your head down and keep working like a brute”
- “Grab all the projects your boss throws, you’ll get noticed”
- “Put in long hours, no one’s become a CEO by working 8 hours/day”
- “Always deliver a day ahead of your deadline”
I am a strong believer in taking breaks (sabbatical, personal time off…. Whatever you want to call them) and by “breaks” I mean several months off work.
Shocking? Read on…
The truth is that I don’t think I’d be where I am today in terms of seniority if I had not taken significant breaks in between jobs or assignments.
In the same way your computer performs much better when you switch it off and reboot, giving it an opportunity to update programs, your brain needs to switch off as well to put things into perspective and empower you to see the bigger picture.
Here’s how I came to this conclusion:
Dance routine
When I was in my late teens, I used to dance a lot. I was part of Mia Fry’s troup and would attend 3 to 4 classes/week. On the 1st day, we would learn the 1st part of a choreography. I usually struggled memorising the moves on the spot and barely kept up with other dancers. A couple of days later, during the second class of the week, we’d learn the second part of the choreography. As I would start to panic thinking “I could not even learn the first part and now we’re adding another part!!! I will be lost!” every week something magical would happen. On session 2, I would find myself, as if by magic, knowing by heart the first part of the choreography! Between class 1 and class 2, I had not thought of the 1st part or rehearsed it, I was immersed in my studies. This taught me that when you DON’T work on or think about something, you are still making progress, in an efficient yet unconscious manner.
Sleep and learn
When I want to learn something, I read it a couple of times before going to sleep. The next day, by magic I know it. Something happens while I sleep, don’t ask me what I have no idea. Many have experienced similar phenomenon. It’s a much better technique for me than to spend ½ the night trying to learn something, and then being sleep-deprived the next day.
Maternity leave
I have never had a maternity break myself, but I have often covered for colleagues who went on maternity leave. When female colleagues come back to work, I would notice many changes: They know how to prioritise much better, they panic less in the face of tight deadlines or big challenges, they become better at forming relationships with colleagues. Why? Surely all they did for 3 to 6 months was talk to a human being who does not talk back, change nappies and try to sleep whenever they had a window of opportunity (rare)! I think it is because they switched off their professional self for a few months and became someone else. Someone who pushed their own boundaries very far, someone they are proud of. They also had to deal with REALLY stressful situations (baby not breathing, changing colour rapidly) and learned how to keep it together and go for the essential stuff. They learned how to put someone at ease, how to calm down a situation, how to sound reassuring. These skills transfer beautifully at work.
My sabbatical
After working at Google for 7 years I was close to burnout: Really exhausted intellectually, drained out, sad. I decided to take a year off. The “year off” did not last a full year because I realised that I was not happy not working for so long but this does not matter. What mattered then was that I applied my skills, and enhanced them, by doing completely new things: Travelling, re connecting with loved ones, adapting to a new country, learning card games, reading a lot, resting a lot, laughing a lot, discovering the wonderful no-bullshit world of dogs by adopting a stray puppy, learning how to live in a community (I stayed with friends in Morocco for 6 months)… I came back to work a different woman and got my first CMO gig freshly returned from my sabbatical. This was a big jump from my role at Google as Head of Marketing for various regions. I don’t think I could have progressed up 2 levels while continuously working. I progressed because I stopped working for a while.
Details or strategy - most have to chose.
I noticed something since: Most people who do the heavy lifting, who (in my department) run campaigns and are knee-deep in tracking and analysing and enhancing…. Tend to struggle to put a high level strategy together, or a 2.0 version of how their team should work. I think it is because you simply don’t have enough distance when you work on details. By taking a break, you don’t lose the skills required to DO the detailed work, but you make room for the skills required to THINK BIG.
Some tips to “Break beautifully”:
- Unless you’re under financial pressure, I would recommend always taking minimum 2 weeks between jobs. More if you can push it. 1 or 2 months would benefit you tremendously in your new role, even if all you do while on a break is learn how to surf in Bali!
- Same applies when you get a big promotion. Before you take on your new role is time to take as much holiday as you’re allowed to take in one go. Trust me, don’t let others pressure you into stepping up on Monday. Take a break, breathe in, breathe out!
- Plan financially for a break. Breaks don’t need to be expensive, but you need to be able to fall back on your feet when you come back to real life and you need to be able to afford to take time to find the right role. The worst thing would be to take a break, come back all refreshed and ready to save the world, all this to be forced to accept a really boring role because you’ve run out of money. I think that at the end of your break you probably need 3 months of full expenses ahead of you, including rent or mortgage, to be comfortable.
- Don’t lie about taking breaks, it does not work. Besides, in the same way everyone understands the need for a maternity leave, anyone should understand the need for a break. If you new employer’s frowning at this, he’s probably not the person you should work for!
- During your break, try to push your boundaries: Learn something really challenging you’ll be proud to have mastered later on, re connect with people you’ve messed up the relationship with, go live somewhere that is an adaptation stretch for you…. All this to stretch your brain in different directions. DON’T READ BUSINESS BOOKS!!! (or this is called studying, not taking a break!)
- It’s perfectly OK to keep in (light) touch with headhunters and ex colleagues during your break, but watch yourself, these contacts should be exceptions, not the rule.
Have a great break!
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Published on LinkedIn