Embracing Change: A Sabbatical Journey

Kicking off 2025 with a whirlwind of changes, I, Don Thompson, bring you a podcast episode filled with personal insights and professional shifts. As we usher in a new presidency, the potential impacts on our administrative state—especially for those of us with family ties to government—are unknown and intriguing. This episode takes on a special significance as I announce my sabbatical from the podcast world to embrace a passion for teaching media and film courses in Washington DC and Maryland. It's a time of transition, reflection, and new adventures, and I'm deeply thankful for your unwavering support throughout this journey.

Curious about the growing trend of sabbaticals? Get ready to uncover insights from the Harvard Business Review as we explore this fascinating topic with the help of authors Kira Schabram, Matt Bloom, and DJ DiDonna. From the rising popularity of employer-offered sabbaticals to the independent options chosen by professionals, this discussion unveils the three types of sabbaticals and their benefits. Whether you're contemplating your own career break or just interested in the evolving workplace dynamics, this conversation promises to shed light on the purposeful pauses that can redefine careers and lives alike.

You can read the Harvard Business Review article referenced in the podcast here.

Music: Ty Simon - 'Lifted Spirits'

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

Thank you very much. Hi Don Thompson, here with another podcast for you today and I have an announcement. First, I want to say Happy New Year, because we are now in 2025. This is very exciting. We've got a lot of exciting new stuff coming down the pike in 2025, and some maybe not so exciting, like our new president. We don't know what the heck is going to happen with that. We'll see. Some people think it's going to be nirvana. Some people think it's going to destroy democracy or certainly the administrative state as we've known it in the Washington DC metro area. Certainly A lot of downsizing and cuts and what not. We'll see what happens. It's going to be a really interesting ride. It could impact me personally because my family's involved with the government, so you never know what'll happen. I'll keep you posted. But before I keep you posted, I have to make an announcement here. I'm going to take a sabbatical, I'm going to take a break. So I've appreciated and really, really am grateful for the listeners to this podcast, people who have listened to this podcast. I'm very grateful to you. You've kept me going.

Speaker 1 1:54

Just seeing the fact that there are listeners, the people downloading, and it's been going up steadily, you might say, well, why stop a good thing? I'm not really intending to stop it, I'm just intending to take a break. Basically, I'm going to be doing some teaching. I'm going to be going into Washington DC and teaching for a university in Washington DC and I'll be teaching media, a course related to media theory, and I have also been teaching at a university here in Maryland, which has been a lot of fun. I've been teaching about films and movies, and it's been a real enjoyable experience. I must say I do love to teach. I guess I'd love to listen to my own voice. I don't know, maybe that's what it is. I do love to teach. I guess I'd love to listen to my own voice. I don't know, maybe that's what it is. I just love to hear myself talk. I'm not sure, but you know. To turn to a more serious aspect of this particular talk or this particular announcement from Don about his sabbatical, I wanted to go over some research that has been done and documented by a couple of academics out there, and this is coming from the Harvard Business Review. Now, the Harvard Business Review is, of course, a very well-respected journal, and so I would trust that we could look at this information and think well of it and maybe take it to heart. So I'm just going to step through some of the key ideas that are laid out in this article and this essay and see what they have to say. This is going to be Kira Shobram, matt Bloom and DJ Didana. These folks are writing for the Harvard Business Review. So here's the summary.

Speaker 1 3:55

In recent years, the number of employers offering sabbaticals has grown exponentially. In addition, many more workers, especially employees in managerial and professional roles, are taking their own unpaid sabbaticals when their organizations fail to offer them. Both groups need to know what are the major benefits of a sabbatical. How can you take a sabbatical and keep it structured in order to maximize its benefits? Research shows that there are three types of sabbaticals that people take, each one for different reasons and with different outcomes. Different reasons and with different outcomes. Further, organizations looking to motivate and retain employers can smartly incorporate sabbaticals into their offerings.

Speaker 1 4:47

Now this is speaking to. Sabbaticals is from sort of a corporate perspective. In other words, an employee is offered a sabbatical from an employer. I'm offering myself a sabbatical because I'm not really. I'm my own employer, so I'm offering myself a sabbatical. Because I'm not really. I'm my own employer, so I'm offering myself a sabbatical, but I thought it would be interesting to read about, well, what are some of the types of sabbaticals and you know how do they differ, what are the benefits and outcomes of different types of sabbaticals?

Speaker 1 5:16

There's, of course, the traditional academic sabbatical, which is typically when a professor will take a leave of absence, a sabbatical, and they'll go do some research or they'll go write a book, or they'll just take some time to travel and whatever, in order to replenish themselves and come back to their vocation, their teaching, with a renewed perspective. Now, I'm not going to be doing that because actually, in my sabbatical from this podcast, I'm going to be teaching. I'm going to be going and teaching and jumping into some additional teaching work in a really renewed way. So I'm not really taking a sabbatical from that. What I'm taking a sabbatical from is the podcast, and the reason I'm taking a sabbatical from it is that I feel like I've sort of said what I wanted to say and I think that there are signs to me that maybe I should take a break and just listen for a while rather than talk. Just listen for a while rather than talk. So I'm going to be listening. I'm going to be listening and teaching. I'm going to be teaching my younger students In that case, in that way, I won't be listening but I will be teaching. But I will be listening in terms of, well, what does mindfulness have to say, what does mindfulness have to offer? I'm going to be listening to see what I can learn from my new experience in academics, in teaching in a different way, different material. What does that tell me about mindfulness? And then I'll come back, you know, in a year or so or maybe sooner, and I'll let you know how it went.

Speaker 1 6:55

But let's go over these three different types of sabbaticals as laid out by the Harvard Business Review, and I'll just go over them briefly, as laid out here by these folks. So the first type is called a working holiday and they say that people are pulled in this type of sabbatical, did so, or do so to work on a passion project, for example, you want to volunteer for something. So during a working holiday you might alternate between intense periods of work and dedicated breaks to rest and rekindle long, neglected relationships. I'm sort of maybe going on a working holiday because, again, I'm going to be taking a holiday from the podcast, a sabbatical from the podcast, but I'm going to be teaching again. I'm going to be taking a holiday from the podcast, a sabbatical from the podcast, but I'm going to be teaching. So I'm going to be doing something that's, you know, sort of like a passion project. I guess I'm going to be teaching. So so far, the working holiday is resonating with me for the type of sabbatical I'm going to be taking.

Speaker 1 7:56

The next one is called a free dive, and so people who fall into this category are pulled into sabbatical by wanderlust. They want to travel. They have read inspiring memoirs or have heard about friends' stories, about places they've gone and adventures they've had. They say, well, I want to do that too. So that's called a free dive and that's not really what I'm doing. But I have to say that there may be an element of a free dive in my sabbatical as well. I might be doing some traveling. Probably in the summer I might be doing some traveling, but we'll see how it goes. I have to negotiate that out with my spouse, but I think it could happen. So a free dive may also become a part of my sabbatical journey.

Speaker 1 8:45

The next category is known as quests. So this is the third group that the researchers found, the third bucket, you might say, of sabbaticals, the third type of sabbaticals. So questers weren't pulled into projects or adventures, but they were pushed out of work by unsustainable expectations in a toxic organizational culture, exhausted and burned out. The sabbatical was a last resort because continuing on the current path was untenable. Okay now, this is very interesting because I have to say that in a way, I've been suffering a little bit of burnout, not really I wouldn't call it burnout, I would say that perhaps being a little bit tired or feeling somewhat, you know, exhausted sometimes because I've been just trying to do a lot. So by trying to do a lot, sometimes I can overextend myself and I could suffer from a little bit of burnout. So I think part of the sabbatical is also, you know, a reaction to that. I'm trying to tone it down. You know I'm trying to recalibrate, I'm trying to not do so much and I'm not expecting myself to do so much. So if I don't do the podcast for a while, that's one less sort of in quotes responsibility that I need to take care of. And so I would say that the questor types, the quest motive for a sabbatical, is also partially why I would be taking a sabbatical. So they go on to talk about, well, you know, building the right kind of sabbatical for you and you know, talking about what kind of sabbatical you want, talking about what kind of sabbatical you want and should you work, should you go solo, meaning, should you take the sabbatical by yourself or go with your spouse, or join your children or partners or whatever. And it's a very you know it's a very informative article. I'm going to post it down below the podcast so you can give it a read in case you happen to be thinking about taking a sabbatical.

Speaker 1 10:55

I think that, with the new administration coming in, I know that some people will be forced into sabbatical. A lot of people have been working for the government for a long time that are going to be leaving the government now in this area, in the Maryland Washington DC area where I live. Ironically enough, that's not what life laid on my lap, it was more. Take this opportunity in Washington DC, go in and be another one of the people going into DC to try to change things, try to mix things up, except for maybe I'm going to be an outlier. I'm not exactly a Trumpian advocate per se, you know. I'm more of a contrarian from a different perspective, from a mindful perspective. But you know I'm a different kind of contrarian than Mr Trump and company. I'm definitely not into doing whatever you can to get ahead. I don't think that's the way to go and it's sort of that's my read on the administration and Mr Trump. You know he sort of did what he could to get elected and told a lot of people a lot of things and made a lot of promises and we'll have to see how it goes right. We'll just have to see how it goes. I wish them luck. You know I really do.

Speaker 1 12:14

I hope it all turns out well because I think it'll be better if it does work out. If it doesn't work out, it's going to be, you know, more pain and suffering for people. There is going to be pain and suffering for people regardless, because he is going to be downsizing I think you know it seems like maybe substantially the government here in DC. There's going to be cutbacks and there's going to be people rolling off their jobs and this has happened before, by the way, it's happened before In the Reagan years, back in the 80s, there was some of this going on and periodically there will be cutbacks in government and they will, you know, reel it in, so to speak, and budgets are cut and they're trying to make government more efficient and cut the fat, you know, and make things better for, you know, americans, overall over the longer term, and this is what Mr Musk says. He says, you know it might be painful in the short term, but over the longer term it'll be better. So let's hope they're right. You know, maybe something good will come out of it. If they overextend themselves and go too far, well, I'm sure you know they're going to hear about that and I'm sure that you know to the extent it creates a problem, then you know who knows what will happen. We'll keep an open mind about it.

Speaker 1 13:30

So I'm going to leave the podcast at that. Again, I thank you so much for listening to the podcast so far, and when I return you'll just see it in your inbox. So if you're following the podcast, it's just going to come back and suddenly you'll see Don with another podcast somewhere out there in the future. I can't say whether it's going to be three months, six months, a year, whatever, but I'm going to, you know, just take a little bit of a break here, I think, probably certainly until the summer, until probably June at least. But regardless, you know you'll see the podcast come back into your inbox and then we can start fresh with perhaps a new set of topics. So again, thank you so much and I'll talk to you soon. Take care, bye, bye. Thank you, the Thank you.