Ask HN: What did a sabbatical do for you? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What did a sabbatical do for you?

30 pointscauliflower9922 comments

I've just come across this HN post (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34958102) about sabbaticals which is fascinating and exciting to imagine. But I wonder if it is all true. So I'm calling everyone who has ever taken a sabbatical!

- Why did you take the sabbatical in the first place? What made you consider it and eventually muster up the courage to take it in the end?

- Did you take an income while on a sabbatical?

- What were the positive benefits in hindsight related to work, relationships, family, personal meaning?

- Did you do any projects while on your sabbatical? What was the biggest benefit from it?

- Did you return to your old job? Did the sabbatical have an effect on your attitude when you returned?

- Would you have done anything differently?

- Is there anything bad out of the sabbatical that you didn't expect?

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Studied Japanese in Kyoto for a year. Quit my job and turned down offers to continue working, which was the correct decision. I took it because I was feeling burnout but also because I was 27 and felt like language school had a time limit to fully enjoy it (you can go later of course, but socialising becomes harder, and I was able to join university clubs at that age).

Positive benefits: learned Japanese, massively improved social skills (met more new people than the last 10 years), chance to redo university as I sort of wasted it. Got into a relationship. Had all kinds of new experiences. Hung out almost exclusively with Japanese people although getting to know people from Thailand, Taiwan, Russia etc. using Japanese as a common language was also fun.

Negative: lonely at times, I didn't work on personal projects as much as I wanted (felt like a waste), went back to my old job instead of trying to look for a new one in Japan.

So yeah, I really recommend language school, working holiday, etc. if you don't have any grand plans for your sabbatical. Be prepared that you might not work on any big projects and you might be too lazy to find a job after. But I can't imagine not having done it now. It'll always be a part of me.

I quit my job, because I was burnt-out, and felt unappreciated. I spoke with my brother about it at the time to see if he had any advice. He simply asked me "Do you see yourself working there another 5 years?", that sealed it for me. No income, was living on savings at the time. During my time off (~3 months) I barely did any development, my focus was on fitness and improving my mental wellbeing. I didn't return to my old job, instead I started working for myself as a contractor. I no longer felt burnt-out, and the team I joined really appreciates me; so overall I felt the time off was a great decision. The only thing I would have done differently is create a new schedule, and reward system then stick to it. Do X this week, go do Y this weekend. I didn't expect the withdrawal symptoms, I still felt like a part of me was still at work. It takes a while to adjust to your new freedom, reality only started sinking in after the 1st month off. Time goes by so quickly, before you know it it's over. Ideally I would have liked more time off (6-9 months), but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to start working as a contractor at the time. My advice is if you're considering a sabbatical, do it! Just understand why you need one, and decide how long it should be then double it. Chances are you will only take a few sabbaticals in your career.

Took a half-year to hike and camp around forests and parks. No income, no hustles. A few hobby projects to scratch the problem-solving itch.

Pros:

- I got to learn about myself, and try new hobbies that I never knew I would enjoy.

- It was a good reminder that there is more to life than work, and most job stress is ultimately meaningless.

- It reinforced the belief that I have autonomy, and that it's okay to simply say no and leave bad situations.

- Finding a new job after wasn't too hard, most people will understand an honest explanation for this type of hole in your resume.

Cons:

- Huge opportunity cost. Between spending and lack of income, it probably cost low 6 figures.

- It might have been better to recognize that I was burning out sooner and look for healthier alternatives, instead of hitting my breaking point and swinging hard towards the opposite end of the work spectrum.

Ultimately, it's probably the best choice I ever made. Your youth goes away very quickly, and it would have been almost impossible to do with serious health problems, a mortgage, or a family to support.

I took a seven month sabbatical in 2001. Was totally burned out and it was the only way to take a break while nominally being employed (unpaid, but I was still on insurance among other minor benefits). I did not take any income, in theory if I’d gone to work for a non–profit it may have been possible.

Positive benefits: cleared my head about what I wanted to work on, what I wanted to avoid, and set up multiple long term relationships (friendships, spouse, etc). Took accelerate mandarin Chinese which was interesting but utterly futile when it came to use in my career.

Negative: my previous role evaporated at the end of 2000. I did absolutely nothing to set up my next job, because as a “highly valued employee” obviously it wouldn't be a problem (I was wrong). I didn't structure the time much at all, did not write the grand book I kept telling everyone I was going to write on the down time. Although my employer touted how wonderful its sabbatical/leave of absence program was, in practice I found it ended up being a negative mark against my employment history.

Regrets? I wish I'd planned it out a bit, and planned it for a full calendar year (at least through 2001). I should have lined up a role to return to before going on leave. The economy cratered while I was out and without a lock on a role I ended up in sort of a last-resorts role that I hated. I returned to work in a really bad month for my home city and dealt poorly with that trauma while diving into the world of a traveling consultant. I ended up leaving my employer after only three months back (for a startup, which was its own disaster).

I don't regret doing it? It's taken me some time to recognize how bad a spot I was in mentally at the end of 2000 and it was pure luck that I had the option to go on leave. I did not appreciate that the combination of returning from a foreign assignment in 2000 with a sabbatical in 2001 would leave me with a really weak internal network to find a new role.

A previous comment I wrote about this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27238018

Similarly, I took a ten week sabbatical (I didn't call it that) from my dot-com startup job in spring 2001 (before 9/11 terrorism). This was after almost two decades of never taking more than five days off work at a time, and even that maybe only once every year or two.

It worked out great. I started lifting weights and eating a little better and reduced my weight by about ten pounds as I recall (and it stayed off for many years). I visited my newly widowed mother half way across the country and got her to set up a POA and trust document for her estate planning, which proved invaluable years later when she suddenly declined in health. I drove with my spouse and 3 kids (middle school and high school age) to Palm Springs for a week and had a lot of fun both there and on the way.

My financial condition was such that I could afford it, but I had to go on COBRA for family health insurance and in all respects was basically treated as quitting my job by the company, with only a verbal promise to bring me back to my previous job. Interestingly, while I was gone, there was a major layoff of 15-20% of staff (out of a total of about 220), but they still welcomed me back with open arms at the scheduled end of my absence.

No regrets at all.

I'm currently on one. Was very burnt out from high stress environments and not practicing enough self care for the past five years. I experienced daily bouts of mild to intense anxiety despite being what most people interpret as a calm person. Reasoning, I was laid off and decided to not take a job.

I took unemployment.

Positive benefits: I mellowed out, started having more patience, and could see how a big source of burnout was how attached my ego was to my work.

I started working on a link shortener a couple of months ago. Despite it being a hobby project that a lot of folks undertake, building something resilient that is somewhat well-designed is a lot of work. Biggest benefit: I started looking at programming as more of something that I'm capable of instead of my self worth / value on display in pull requests.

> Did you return to your old job?

Nope.

> Would you have done anything differently?

More routine. It's liberating to be able to do what you want, as you want, but I would posit that a majority of humans thrive on routines.

> Is there anything bad out of the sabbatical that you didn't expect?

Friends and family being concerned for my well-being despite my spirits being much higher

-Be me, Linux admin for cartoon studio. -Script job away with Python and a couple of APIs. -Ask boss for more work because he's paying me to scroll reddit. Am promoted to Technical Director (Python-heavy role) on strength of self-started work - they had been happy to pay me to manually manage the systems, did not expect me to learn to code or make the work disappear. -Struggle as TD - textbook case of The Peter Principle. They are okay with it and I start to learn, the problem being, I have no animation background at all, so difficult to be productive at the same time. Had I not already made a whole job disappear, if this wasn't essentially free extra labour for them, it would've been a problem, probably. Then, company goes under.

-made choice to take a year to train myself up in animation skills. Great personal expense. Did this because my coworkers as a TD were better than any previous work experience, by astronomical distances. I cannot emphasize how much I liked them, and how contrary to my previous lived experience that was. I've done a lot of jobs mind you, including driving semis. I hated that job, not because of the work, which I still love doing, but because of the coworkers. My opinion of my former cohorts of the road has not risen in recent years.

I am now a few weeks into my second Technical Director position, and it looks to me like it's exactly as awesome as I believed it to be when I made that choice. I liked cartoons as a kid and as a grownup, but doing them was never remotely on my radar, but that is my profession now, and it's really really awesome.

If you know Python or C++, can grasp the concepts involved in vectors and shaders (watch Freya Holmer's shader courses on youtube to see if you can), and hate your current job, you might want to consider doing this instead. The pay is probably terrible relative to other Python jobs in tech, I've had the experience of listening to coworkers complain about the pay or whatever, and I just mind my business. I don't have to pull rocks for the flu klux klan anymore. Priceless.

If you have an idea of a place you want to be, and taking some time can help you get there, do not forego that opportunity, if it is available to you. Even at great expense.

"I'll let you know when it's financial burden out-weigh's it's cognitive benefits."

Perhaps its upbringing (for me, it likely is) but the fear in "stepping away during my earning phase of life" in pursuit of what could amount to proverbial navel gazing (i appreciate the cognitive benefits of time spent performing said navel gazing, I really do), I perceive as something untenable and even selfish (again, how I would feel about myself, not others - do note, i may gaze upon thee with greenest of eyes of course)

Then consider yourself a selfless machine. (No, I mean it, stay with me for a moment.)

Are you running optimally? Could you run more optimally? Are you making a mistake by not investing in a refresher for said machine? Could the machine run far better with a break from the grind and some deliberate tuning or decompression?

Or put differently, the earning is important, but for what purpose?

I have this belief too, then I watched a video on finance or something to the effect and it showed what commercials portray what retirement looks like; people fishing, and dancing and all that stuff. Shortly after, it showed what real retirement looks like: people sitting around a nursing home, waiting to die. Of course there may be a few years dancing and the like, but most of your retirement years will likely be sitting in a nursing home, waiting to die (if you are lucky). You only have one life and you need to earn money to survive, but find a balance you won't regret when you are sitting in a nursing home, waiting to die.

The comparison was stark.

What retirement or sabbaticals could look like is even more interesting, particularly the younger you can start: part time work, volunteering for things you’re interested in, mentoring younger people, learning entirely new skills, taking up an athletic pursuit, running for office or doing public service, etc etc.

Sort of? I was kind of forced into ~14 months of state-sanctioned unemployment when I skipped the pond and found out my dual citizenship was not going to be arriving by Christmas. (Long story short: Ireland has 2 kinds of birth certificates.)

It was hell. I burned through over $10,000 just trying to survive that year with my wife. At first I took it in stride, worked through a few books I wanted to. But then the second passport rejection came. And the third. And the fourth. I couldn't get a single person in the DFA to give me an answer beyond "don't worry, if it doesn't work we'll let you know." I began drinking heavier and heavier. I began rethinking the whole relationship that led me to such desperation.

Eventually I started timing my days around waking up at 2 pm to park myself in front of the laptop and ask them about every conceivable question or problem I could come up with; eventually I stumbled by pure luck onto what the issue _really_ was, and after getting the usual "don't worry" a few days later I got an email asking me to clarify some stuff. And then - finally - salvation arrived in the post as a little blood red book.

This probably isn't the kind of 'sabbatical' you meant, but being a quasi illegal immigrant for a year with no fallback plan because you spent the money you could have used for airfare back to a country where you can legally work again on rent last month is the kind of thing that leaves your whole inner risk portfolio a bit higher than it started.

The one and only time I took a sabbatical, it was because I was burnt out to the point where my performance was less than I could accept. It was either take a sabbatical or quit.

I spent the time mostly doing personal projects that forced me to learn new skills. And to think about life, what I wanted from it, and what I wanted from my work.

My sabbatical lasted 9 months, and when I returned, I was very much happier. I also had realized that I was no longer a good fit for the position I was in, and so I quit my job. That made me even happier -- my job was a huge weight on my shoulders, and shedding it was one of the best things I ever did.

I was in no hurry to find a new job, but ended up with one three months later in an industry that I wouldn't have expected to find myself. It was a great move. My work is no longer a burden.

In hindsight, it would have been better to quit my job up front instead of taking the sabbatical, but I didn't know that's what I needed to do. So, I suppose I wouldn't have done anything differently.

Nothing bad came out of the sabbatical. Only good. Both for myself and for my (now former) employer.

I'm wrapping up my current sabbatical, and I took one before.

In the first sabbatical, I left my job to work on a startup idea with friends, and I learned a ton from it, both technical and non technical. I did lots of side projects I'd wanted to do for a while when that flopped, which led me to learn some more technical skills I later used. I also hiked a lot more which was great. After maybe a year and a half I returned to the workforce because I missed working with people and my savings were dwindling.

In the current one, I left my job without much of a plan. I spent more time with friends and family, traveled a bit, mentored a bit, did some side projects, read more, and learned more. This time around I found I missed working with people sooner.

In both cases it was expensive but worth it. The most valuable parts were being more myself, spending time with people, and learning things I wouldn't normally.

I just wrote about how it transformed my path and why I did them on "Finding My Pathless Path" at https://www.sspaeti.com/blog/finding-my-pathless-path/.

For my life journey, these sabbaticals were transformative. I had several. I love the definition by Paul Millerd, "mini-retirement." Instead of waiting for your retirement in the sixties, take more minor once along.

Why - I got laid off from a job I absolutely loved. I loved my team, the project, the company. I felt like I found my calling, building software with AI to provide immediate benefits in a meaningful way. I didn't mind the high pressure and intensity because I got positive feedback from users and potential partners multiple times a day.

Then two weeks after everything took off (1400 users to 72K users, pilot expansion to 100 locations, a dozen potential license deals, international media coverage), I got laid off. I took it way too personally and got depressed. I decided I’d never pour my heart and soul into someone else’s project ever again. I was done with tech.

Income - I knew I didn’t want to be an employee. I needed time to figure out my next steps. We sold our house fully furnished, sold our rental property, sold our cars, and sold our business. We scaled back our living to be able to live on one income. After a year I took a couple of freelance gigs.

Benefits - Deeper relationships with everyone that matters. More time for spouse, kids, family and close friends. I learned how to exercise for the sake of exercise. I did a lot of therapy and meditation and learned how to manage my expectations, be kinder to myself, and stop assigning meaning to things that don’t matter. I realized all the things I wanted, I already had.

Projects - I took a year and a half off. In that time I took a bunch of course and joined a solopreneur community. I wanted to figure out how to have work fit my life instead of the other way around. I did 100DaysOfNoCode and built over 15 apps and websites. I took Pencil Pirates and learned how to be a digital illustrator. I made 30 podcasts in 30 days with Espree Devora’s cohort course. I made info-products on Gumroad (e-books and an online course). I delivered a virtual workshop and set up an Etsy store. I tried drop shipping. My favourite project is Unstuck in 15. It’s a decision making framework I developed that helps people get unstuck in 15 minutes with 3 questions. I have a potential deal to license it through an educational institution.

Return to old job - Nope, but found my way back to tech in a way that works for me

Do anything differently - I wish I would have enjoyed the journey more. I was so focused on trying to figure out my next step that I caused myself a lot of undue stress.

Bad - I didn’t expect it to take so long for me to figure out what I wanted to do next (co-founder for hire). It would have been good to have more frequent and open conversations with my husband about this journey. I’m fortunate that he believes in me and sees the potential for a better future. We’ve always been able to grow together so we were able to weather the storm.

I’m happy to answer any other questions

Helped me move towards resolving the internal conflict between "should I make as much money as I can since there are great opportunities open to me that may be later closed or should I take on some risk to pursue a path to help people and other animals suffer less" and therefore find a way of living my life that works well for me.

I ended up teaching some industry level programming tricks to polytechnics, including the teachers. It was a good time, boosted my confidence in my own ability, and we got to travel around the country. I ended up teaching bootcamps and certifications for a few years after that, but it wasn't really worth it as a form of income.

Can I add a question?

- Did you eat a big chunk of your cash savings, and if so how did you cope and was it worth it.

Living without an income for most of a year wasn't cheap, but I had planned ahead for it. I developed a budget, and I trimmed my spending down to the bare minimum. I got rid of my car and bought a cheap beater. I cancelled all of my subscriptions to things, including all streaming services, etc. I stopped eating out. And much, much more. If something wasn't needed to live, and didn't fulfill me on a deep level, I eliminated spending on it. I actually increased spending on select other things, though, as it became clearer to me what was actually important and what was not.

It taught me important things -- namely, that I can live on 25% of my usual spending without being any less happy for it. Much of what I spent was totally wasted -- it didn't improve my happiness one whit. So, now that I'm back in the workforce and earning good money, I've maintained the habit of spending very little. The excess money gets saved or invested.

I think it has made an enormous positive quality difference in my life.

Lost my job so flew back to live with parents for almost a year. Much cheaper area + no rent to pay wasn't so bad.

Did loose quite a bit on travel and presents tho. My kids are very little and parents haven't seen them yet so it was well worth it (we visited 8 countries).

Had my first day at a corporate office yesterday and it felt like a simulation, fortunately won't have to come in very often.

I quit in spring 2021. I bounced around the US, living in a few different parts, witj family/friends. Driving across the continent so much really made me appreciate its beauty, particularly the western and southwestern parts.

I sometimes get inspired to do little programming projects, never more than a few days. I don’t need to work right now and I don’t have much motivation to. If something fell in my lap I’d probably go with it.

Initially after quitting, I was pretty against ever working in the tech industry proper again. With time and hindsight, my view is a bit different now. I realized that if you have means, you don’t really have anything to fear in the workplace. If it gets bad enough just tell em to fuck off. The potential of layoffs, negative feedback, asshole boss/coworkers - who cares? I can just quit. So it’s been freeing to realize that, but I’m still not motivated to dive back in.

I’m not conquering the world or doing anything interesting and I don’t aspire to. I read and hang out with my dog, if it’s nice we’ll hike or something. I volunteer. I visited another continent with an old friend. I spend a lot of time cooking, which I’ve always liked to do. I live with and support a very close friend who nearly died in 2020. I’m very proud of how she has turned things around.

I’m just living a simple, easy life. I figured I would be restless, itching to get back in the game certainly after a year or so. But it’s almost two years and it hasn’t gone that way. I have a lot of gratitude for my life and I would be fine staying this way.

I’m waiting for an IPO that will likely change my circumstances, so my life has had a flavor of “sitting in the waiting room” the last couple years. That has gotten super annoying, there’s stuff I’d like to do that I can’t yet. But it’s the tiniest problem in the world to have.

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