“There has been a burnout and disengagement crisis,” says DiDonna of the current workplace scene. “You don’t want to keep disengaged, fatigued, burned-out employees—you want to help them find a role that’s working better for them.”
What do I want my life to be like? Have I gotten off path?’”
“Ideally, sabbaticals are measured in months, not weeks,” said DJ DiDonna, an entrepreneur and founder of the Sabbatical Project, an initiative designed to spread awareness about the positive effects of sabbaticals.
“The pandemic is forcing people to make a change and to think about life and about themselves in a way they probably wouldn’t have ever done normally—about how precious and short life and our time is,” DiDonna says.
Employees who take sabbaticals say they return to work energized and more productive. Managers who are worried about retaining top talent and how the Covid-19 era is wearing on employees’ well-being find sabbaticals engender loyalty and greater creativity.
In order to survive, let alone thrive, the way we take off work must also be part of this reckoning. It’s time …
Based on first-of-its-kind research on non-academics who have taken extended leave from routine work, DiDonna shares how his findings can help you live a better life.
Right after Harvard Business School, DJ DiDonna launched a startup. And then for 7 busy years he traveled the world, supporting small businesses in emerging markets. DJ’s company was successful, but he felt burned out. So he took a break from work, doing things unrelated to his job, like taking a walking pilgrimage in Japan. DJ’s time off was life changing, and he became intrigued by the transformative power of sabbaticals. Now he’s immersed in the Sabbatical Project, researching how long breaks can change lives and improve our work culture.
DJ’s journey to taking a sabbatical goes directly through his experience as an entrepreneur and the struggles he had with burn out. We explore the benefits of a sabbatical and some surprising data on who takes them. He is also working on a book from the findings of the research collected from the Sabbatical Project, an organization that’s looking to champion the idea that sabbaticals add a lot of value to both people and organizations.
