BITN: Quit? Vacation? Or Sneak a Sabbatical?

Posted on: Wednesday, April 10th, 2019
Posted in: HR FYI | Leave a comment

Covering BreakAways in the News remains a relatively quiet beat compared to, say, Trump. Yet the working world keeps predicting more potential for the idea, like covert prophets forecasting work/life balance atop balance-sheet profits. Here are a few recent stories that hit the Interns’ inboxes.

  • Everybody loves a quitter

Who knew? There really is an International Quit Your Crappy Job Day. None other than LinkedIn pays homage annually. And maybe you know a few people who impersonated Johnny Paycheck and sang “Take this job and shove it” on March 31. That’s the date, BTW. Oh, you didn’t know? Just as well. You need the money.

Anyway, this year’s blogger, Ozlem Brooke Erol, makes a decent case for jumping ship if you are miserable or the stress is eating you alive—and insists that “new doors will open up for you” if you “leave now and come out of a place of love and abundance, not fear.” Delusional? Sure. But such wild words could change your life.

  • Next PTO trend: FTO (Forced Time Off)

Well+Good recently published a post bringing fresh thoughts and stats about the dreadful trend of people working during vacation time. Like, 54% don’t disconnect when away. 50%+ don’t even use all their vacation time. Most people who work at “unlimited vacation” employers take even less time off than normal folks. And of course, the majority of people polled say work causes anxiety and keeps them awake at night. Hey, you need a BreakAway!

Bummer for us. Yet Big Pharma is probably okay with the surge in anxiety, depression, and insomnia. There’s a pill for all that.

Author Amy Semigran offers some solutions, like unplugging—including from SM—while away. The most intriguing, though, is a new-ish movement to institute “mandatory vacation” days. Makes sense—if The Management really cares about employee mental health, recruiting, and retention.

Forced time off. Brilliant. But…will the Boss will have to hire bouncers?

  • Bloomberg sells sabbaticals

Over at Bloomberg, meanwhile, a sponsored post pumps the sabbatical goal—including a mention of the concept’s origin from biblical times. (We did not invent this!)

Assuming these stats are True News, here’s the latest on employer participation: 6% of overall employers offer sabbaticals; 28% of “small businesses” do; and 19% of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For are on board.

One can’t help notice that the story sponsor is an investment company. (One also often finds that behind the vacation-promotion initiatives hide various airlines, credit cards, and tourism bureaus.)

Yet it’s true: Your sabbatical won’t pay off without due diligence to money management. So if you follow some of the article’s common-sense tips and think big, you, too, may BreakAway. Someday.

  • It’s not all about the money, honey

Most Americans work 90,000 hours over a lifetime. So we do have time—a whole lifetime!—but what shall we do with it? While $ matters and remains the #1 reason people work so hard, one of BreakAway’s Five Five-Word Mantras insists: “It’s not a financial decision.”

It that sounds silly to you, consider: You’ve probably applied that logic to your love life, family planning, education decisions, and that fancy martini you had last Saturday. (Never mind the golf clubs or the botox treatment.) So hey, why not try that philosophy for getting away?

You may be more free than you thought. Just a thought.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Leave a Reply