Why More Professionals Are Taking Sabbaticals—And How It's Transforming Work And Well-Being

Forbes

5 days ago

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'Don't stop,' 'never settle,' and 'stretch assignments' have been the mantras of success. But beneath LinkedIn posts celebrating yet another achievement, many professionals have been quietly burning out, sacrificing health, relationships, and purpose.
Now, a growing number of professionals are pushing back by taking a pause. Sabbaticals to rest, grieve, heal, explore, and reimagine their personal and professional lives. And what they're finding is this: stepping away might be the most strategic career move they'll ever make.
Most people associate sabbaticals as a perk reserved for tenured professors and Fortune 500 executives. However, in 2025, they're becoming mainstream not just in corporate America but also in the social sector, with organizations such as the O2 Initiatives offering paid sabbatical for nonprofit executive directors.
Vignetta Charles, CEO of ETR, was the first executive in her organization to take a sabbatical: a 12-week leave after years of navigating pandemic-related challenges and leading through racial reckoning. 'It was a true identity shift,' she says. 'I no longer wear 'superhero syndrome' as a badge of honor.'
Her board-supported sabbatical was so impactful that ETR is now exploring how to offer the benefit across the organization.
Charles's story is uncommon.
According to a 2023 MetLife U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study, 65% of employees say they've considered taking a career break to support their mental health. Yet only 5% of U.S. companies offer formal paid sabbaticals, per SHRM's Employee Benefits Report.
In my conversations with over two dozen professionals across all sectors, burnout and PTSD-type symptoms played a key role, especially for midcareer professionals to carve out their own time off. Some with employer support, many without.
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For most, sabbaticals emerge from personal or professional breaking points. In fact, various studies place burnout rates at 66% to 82% of employees surveyed.
Factors that exacerbate the risk of burnout include return to office (RTO) mandates, push to adopt new technologies with little support and chronic stress from political instability.
The need to disconnect is no longer a perk—it's a prerequisite for sustainability.
LaMonte Guillory, founder of The Guillory Perspective, didn't have the benefit of employer support. He and his wife took their two children on a yearlong, 27,000-mile RV journey across North America to reconnect post-pandemic. 'People think sabbaticals are a luxury. Ours was fundamentally a necessary and deliberate response to the cumulative toll of the pandemic on our family. ' he says. 'For us, it was survival.'
Similarly, Nyam Adodoadji, 'felt the weight of my 14 year career pattern of crushing workloads, unsupportive managers and multiple burnout cycles' and decided to resign from her role and take a year off.
For Neha Patel, former co-executive director at State Innovation Exchange (SiX), the sabbatical came at the intersection of leadership stress and personal grief. She extended her employer-offered 3-month sabbatical into five months. 'I reconnected with myself in a way I hadn't in years,' she says. 'I redesigned my personal and professional boundaries.'
A former Starbucks executive, Christine McHugh, defined her second sabbatical as being 'particularly meaningful for a professional breakthrough', adding 'I'd been at Starbucks for 26 years and felt stuck and uninspired. I realized I had a lot to offer other companies and I needed to align my skills and values with an organization that was more suited to my interests. I came back after six months and then a month later, I quit and joined a healthcare startup. My perspective on a career and specific company as part of my identity really shifted. I realized that a company doesn't need to define me as it had for so long.'
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Sabbaticals Create Space for Creativity
Professionals I spoke with, structured their time away around deep rest, personal projects, and identity exploration. According to a Harvard Business Review analysis, the most meaningful sabbaticals involve 'intentional detachment'—completely unplugging from work and digital distractions.
Guillory, for example, cut off social media and leaned fully into family life. 'We cooked meals under open skies, body-surfed with our kids, and rebuilt joy from the ground up,' he says. 'It changed our family's emotional foundation.'
Others used the time to pursue creative passions:
These periods of rest have real tangible impact. A 2021 University of Tampere study found that sabbaticals significantly reduced stress and increased well-being, with effects lasting months after return.
People experience greater creativity, emotional resilience and boosted brain function.
For Charles, the sabbatical opened the door to a more creative self. 'I wrote. I rested. I didn't have to be productive—and that allowed breakthroughs I didn't know I needed.'
Weekes launched a podcast called The Rest of Us with Dana Tenille Weekes, which makes her concepts around rest as self-liberation more accessible to professionals and advocates, honestly, anyone who needs it.
Sorensen found herself becoming a more involved parent, 'doing school runs, going to school events' in addition to achieving personal bucket list items such as climbing Denali and getting her Commercial Drivers License (CDL) and working pro-bono on humanitarian projects.
Reintegration Isn't Always Smooth
Returning to work after a sabbatical can be disorienting. Many professionals report feeling misaligned, disconnected, or even penalized upon return.
Christine McHugh, a former VP at Starbucks who has taken three sabbaticals during her career, describes coming back to find her role eliminated—twice. 'It was demoralizing,' she says. 'I used a company benefit, but it felt like I was being punished.'
McHugh now coaches others and often shares advice on sabbatical planning and reintegration. Her advice? 'Don't over-structure your time off. Leave space for what you can't plan. And have a reintegration strategy before you return.'
Charles and Patel had more supportive reentries, with a two week period to ease back into work. Patel shares, 'I spent the first two weeks just meeting with people and reading things. I also only worked half days for the first two weeks.'
Others, such as Adodoadji, decided not to pursue full time work upon return from their sabbatical - choosing freelance opportunities instead.
Rohan Arthur, an engineering leader, chose to resign before taking a four-month break. He spent his time writing, motorcycling, and intentionally 'doing nothing of career value.' While reentering the job market wasn't easy, he sees it as a filter. 'If a company views rest as a liability, that's a red flag,' he says. 'I don't want to work there anyway.'
Guillory, a Black man navigating professional reintegration post-sabbatical, has faced significant challenges. 'I've been job searching for 17 months without a full-time offer,' he says. 'My brilliant wife, who happens to be white, found work at three. It's a stark reminder of how bias plays out—even when prioritizing mental health.'
Still, he says, 'The sabbatical made me a better father, strategist, and leader. That's the legacy I want to bring to any organization I join.'
Why Companies Should Care
There's a business case for sabbaticals. Employees who take sabbaticals report higher loyalty, engagement, and creativity. A 2018 study by TSNE Mission Works found that organizations reported positive impacts post-sabbatical, including stronger leadership pipelines and reduced turnover.
Companies such as Adobe, Autodesk, and Patagonia offer formal sabbatical programs—and report increased innovation and retention. But for most workplaces, even when offered, sabbaticals remain underused and misunderstood.
'Sabbaticals aren't just breaks,' says Weekes. 'They're transformational tools. When rest becomes part of workplace culture, people don't burn out—they thrive.'
If you're considering a sabbatical, experts and alumni offer this guidance:
Sabbaticals aren't detours. They're recalibrations.
In a society that measures success by output, taking a break is an act of courage and clarity. 'We don't have to wait until retirement to live,' Arthur says. 'We can take smaller retirements along the way. And they can change everything.'
As more professionals challenge the culture of constant doing, a new narrative is emerging: that the most strategic, creative, and sustainable work comes not from never stopping—but from knowing when to pause.