Whether it's a mini-sabbatical or an adult gap year, more people are
taking extended work breaks
[February 16, 2026]
By COLLEEN NEWVINE
If you daydream about getting a break from work, you might picture two
weeks of vacation or a long weekend getaway. But some people dare to
imagine something bigger and find ways to get a substantial breather
from stress or their day-to-day routines.
Mini-sabbaticals. Adult gap years. Micro-retirement. Extended career
breaks go by many names and take many forms, from using the time between
jobs to explore or taking an employer-approved leave to becoming a
digital nomad or saving up for a monthslong adventure. Creating space
for a reset, whether mental, physical or spiritual, is the common
thread.
Cost, personal responsibilities and fears of being judged by colleagues,
friends and family members are some of the obstacles that prevent people
from hitting pause on their work lives and setting out in search of new
perspectives, according to sabbatical experts and people who have taken
sabbaticals.
No longer just for academics
American attitudes toward taking time off are different from the ones in
much of Europe, where free time and rest are prioritized, said Kira
Schrabram, an assistant professor of management at the University of
Washington’s business school who studies meaningful and sustainable
work. In the European Union, workers are entitled by law to at least 20
days of paid vacation a year.
But more companies are allowing weeks or months of paid or unpaid leave
as a way to retain valued employees, according to Schrabram. Seven years
ago, she brought her experience researching burnout to the Sabbatical
Project, an initiative founded by Harvard Business School Senior
Lecturer DJ DiDonna that promotes sabbaticals as “a sacred human ritual”
to which more people should have access.
Schrabram, DiDonna and University of Notre Dame Professor Emeritus Matt
Bloom interviewed 50 U.S. professionals who took an extended break from
non-academic jobs. From the responses, they identified three types of
sabbaticals: working holidays that involved pursuing a passion project;
“free dives” that combined exciting adventures with periods of rest; and
quests undertaken by burned-out people who engaged in life-changing
explorations once they had recovered sufficiently.
More than half of the interview subjects self-funded their hiatuses. In
an article for the Harvard Business Review, the researchers made a case
for sabbaticals as a tool employers could use to recruit, keep and
foster talented workers. But since extended paid leaves are not common,
“we’re really pushing back on the idea that a sabbatical needs to be
sponsored by an employer,” Schrabram said of the Sabbatical Project,
which created a network of coaches and mentors to encourage the
sabbatical-curious.
Leading by example
Roshida Dowe was 39 years old and working as a corporate lawyer in
California when she got laid off in 2018. Instead of seeking a new job
right away, she decided to spend a year traveling. Struck by how many
how many people asked how she managed it, Dowe decided to decided to try
working as an online career-break coach.
She and Stephanie Perry, a former pharmacy technician who also took a
gap year to travel and found a calling in coaching, co-founded ExodUS
Summit, a virtual conference for Black women to talk about taking a
sabbatical or moving abroad. Speakers at the event discuss both
practical considerations like finances, safety and health care, and more
philosophical topics like the value of rest and breaking free of
intergenerational trauma.
Showcasing women who set off to see the world is powerful because “a lot
of us aren’t open to possibilities we haven’t been shown before,” said
Dowe, who moved to Mexico City as part of her own reinvention.
“When I coach women who are looking to take a sabbatical, the main thing
they’re looking for is permission,” she said.
For Perry, a 2014 vacation in Brazil served as a catalyst for when she
met people staying in her hostel who were traveling for months, not
days. She researched budget travel and found people making it work on
$40 a day.
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(AP Illustration / Peter Hamlin)
 Prior to that, “I thought for sure
people who traveled long term were all trust fund babies,” she said.
Funding the dream
Cost is a common obstacle for people considering a break. There are
creative ways around that, said Perry, who has legal residency in
Mexico and an apartment in Bogota, Colombia.
“Housesitting is the reason I can work very little and travel a
lot,” she said.
Perry, who has a YouTube channel where she posts videos about
traveling or becoming an expat as a Black American, raises money
through her subscribers to sponsor Black women on sabbaticals.
When Ashley Graham took a break from her work at a nonprofit in
Washington, D.C., she mapped out a road trip that included visiting
friends with whom she could stay for free.
“It was a great way to connect with my past life,” said Graham, who
subsequently relocated to New Orleans after loving the city during
her sabbatical travels.
Taylor Anderson, is a certified financial planner based in
Vancouver, Washington, specializes in helping clients plan for
sabbaticals. She said many of the same principles apply to saving up
for one as they do to saving for retirement. Both require financial
discipline as well as a willingness to recognize when it's safe to
spend.
“We talk about money breathing. Sometimes it’s inhaling, sometimes
it’s exhaling,” Anderson, who has experienced the benefits of a
sabbatical reboot herself, said. “Often we find that people do have
money saved, but they’re afraid to spend it.”
“The question of ‘What is enough?’ is really difficult,” she added.
Can everyone afford to take a month or more without a paycheck? Of
course not. But for those who have built up a nest egg, “the cost is
actually less than you might assume,” she said.
Risks and rewards
Artists Eric Rewitzer and Annie Galvin put two employees in charge
of their San Francisco gallery in 2018 to spend the summer in France
and Ireland.
“It was terrifying,” said Rewitzer, who described himself as having
been a workaholic and control freak. “It was a huge exercise in
trust.”
When they returned to San Francisco, Rewitzer saw the city
differently. He felt his life had been out of balance — too much
work and too little time in nature.
That shift in perspective led the couple to buy what they thought
would be a weekend home in the Sierra Nevada. It turned into their
full-time home when they shut down their gallery during the COVID-19
pandemic.
“It all comes back to that same place of being willing to take
chances,” Rewitzer said.
A way of life
Taking a break from college to be a ski bum in Vail, Colorado, set
Gregory Du Bois on a path of taking mini-sabbaticals throughout his
corporate IT career. Each time he took a new job, he negotiated for
extended time off, explaining to his managers that to perform at his
best, he needed breaks to recharge.
“It’s such a way of life that I almost don’t think of it as
sabbaticals,” said Du Bois, who retired from tech and began working
as a life coach in Sedona, Arizona. “For me, it’s a spiritual
regeneration.”
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