At age 56, Toni Riccardi “retired” from her partner role at PricewaterhouseCoopers in order to take a 
sabbatical for a year before returning to work. Her friends, Toni says, “were horrified”.
“They told me, ‘You’ll never get back in the job market if you leave now. You’re too old’”.
Toni’s sabbatical ended up being a two-year break, and after a few “no thanks” to opportunities knocking at her door, she accepted an offer to serve as Senior VP of HR and Chief Diversity Officer of The Conference Board and last year was selected (see picture) as the “Woman of the Year” by ALPFA (Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting).
Take that, dear amigas.
Even now, in an economic downturn, Toni believes that sabbaticals make sense for Boomers – or any generation. “My experience says that I can go in and out [of a career path]“, she says. “I’m 60 right now, and I think I’ll have another career after the one I’m currently in.”
It’s time to put aside three lines of thinking that are no longer valid:
- That all Boomers will soon retire. Actually, a good number of them intend to remain highly engaged. The reasons are in part economic – since they just lost about 40% of their retirement savings. But many of them, my business partner included, simply love meaningful work and will continue down a career path, meandering though it may be. And any businesses out there scrambling to combat the ensuing “brain drain” should consider offering sabbaticals to help retain Boomers loaded with such knowledge and experience like Toni.
- That “straight and up” is the only way to progress in a career. Career ladders are now lattices. Read Amy Balog’s latest post. Deloitte has recognized this and helps their employees with “mass career customization”, which centers on the idea that today’s career journeys look like a sine wave of sorts, with climbing and falling levels of engagement over time.
- That now is not a good time to have a sabbatical. See Alina Tugend’s New York Times column about how “The Best Time To Ask For A Sabbatical Could Be Now.”
And as for friends who are hanging on to old concepts even though they’re trying to love and support us, Toni advises we remain strong in own thinking. “It’s important to remember that we see things as we are, not as they are,” she says. “Sometimes looking to friends for support is not the best thing. It’s their own fears that are driving their perspectives.”
Watch out for the internal negative voice, too.
Toni had two goals for her time away from her career: 1. To be spontaneous; and 2. To discover her natural body clock and see who she was without work. She traveled. She took dance lessons and practiced a lot of yoga. And she spent time with friends.
She learned that her job didn’t define her nearly as much as she thought. “I have lots of other interests,” she says, and the sabbatical gave her time to pursue them. “My doorman said to me, ‘I thought you quit work, but you’re still always going’”.
And may she keep going … discovering herself and others in the now undulating journey we call “a career”.
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