Career break - anyone done it?

[Definitelysometime]

I'm starting to feel desperate for a break from work. I'm nearly 40 and have worked in the same industry for 19 years. I'm feeling overwhelmed by the jobs around the house that need doing, the decluttering... but also desperate for some headspace. Some more time with my two young DC and time to think about the next 30 () years of work ahead of me and what I actually want to do.

Has anyone done this and taken 6 months or a year away from work? Did it help? And was it easy enough to get another job afterwards?

Feels like maybe this is the worst timing, with costs of living on such a sharp rise. But even if I could plan a break for a year's time or so, and start saving, I feel it would get me through!

I took an unpaid career break to study for a year but retained my job when I was younger. Some larger companies will have a "career break" policy where you can take a defined period of time off unpaid, but come back to your job. I also left my job to go travelling for 6 months pre-DC. We had substantial savings and I was confident I'd find something on return. I did a bit of freelancing when we came back then had a job 3 months after return. But we had no DC then and a smaller mortgage.

It depends on a lot of factors. How much do you have in savings that you could draw on? How valuable are your existing skills, and would their market value decrease if you were out of work for a year+? Would you have a backup plan if it took substantially longer than expected to get back into work? A year is a pretty long time off, and it's not always easy to get back if there isn't a job held open for you.

I wrote almost exactly the same post yesterday. Most replies were saying go for it. Still need to weigh a few things up, but may do this myself .

I took a 3 year career break when we moved abroad for DH's job. I had to do a few keep in touch days with my employer (civil service), and picked my role back up when we returned.

oh thanks @Oncemoreforluck - i'll go and have a look for your thread. It just feels that life is pretty short, and work takes so so much of our time. I just want some time to get straight and actually think about what I want to be doing for the rest of my career. But I need to get off the hamster wheel to do that.

Yes @AquaticSewingMachine maybe some unpaid leave would be an option so I could come back again after a few weeks or months. I will definitely look into that.

Wow @skippy67 three years is a good break! Did it do you good? Were you happy to go back to the same role after that?

Do you have a defined idea of how you would use the time to move you forward in terms of clarifying your future goals?

I'd be surprised if simply not working for 6 months would be sufficient to somehow bring that into focus without effort/coordination from you. Life rarely works that way. You need some kind of structure, focus and goals for how to use the time.

Otherwise you end up 6 or 12 months down the line feeling the same way you do now (only without employment and possibly in a recession). The treadmill of everyday life and looking after a home won't have magically vanished in a year either. Not without investment in change.

You can reflect on how you run your life, what's important, find ways to better nourish yourself, even start changing direction without being unemployed. What you're describing sounds a lot like when people relocate to try and escape their problems - unless you make changes within yourself first, the problems follow you.

I have had 2 career breaks, one pre dc where DH and I travelled for 6 months. Then one around the time DS took GCSE'S . 2 different employers but both happy for unpaid leave. Didn't regret either

I took a year and a bit off work in 2020/2021 to retrain into a different field because I wasn't enjoying my previous job and it was the best thing I could have done. The year out was great for me and I was able to dedicate a lot of time to studying (self teaching). I got a job after that I absolutely love that pays 3x what I was making before, and I'm so much happier and more fulfilled. So if you can afford it, I say go for it! It'll give you the time and headspace to think about what you might want to do and give you a much needed break.