Re-entry took “no more than a day or two” before being up to speed. His work coverage plan allowed for training and development. And he was far more rejuvenated than after his first sabbatical, seven years prior.

Doug and his wife in Hawaii.

Doug credits the success of his second sabbatical with lessons learned from his first. He shared with me his best practices:

1. Make it about succession planning. Start identifying what you do and who you can delegate to as early on as possible. “I started six months in advance,” he says. “The work coverage plan for my second sabbatical was more about succession planning. On my first sabbatical, I didn’t have that consciousness, but you can’t start too early thinking about those things. I’m now 55 and seven years away from retirement. You have to start implementing things well in advance of retirement to make sure it’s a smooth transition.”
2. Colleague partnering is critical. Introduce your colleagues to clients well in advance before leaving on sabbatical. It maintains continuity of service. “When you’re in your year of sabbatical, you really need to take the colleague partnering up to a different level,” Doug says.
3. Tell your clients and prospects that you’ll be taking a break. Promote the fact that you’ll be gone and that your firm supports it. “It’s an incredibly positive message – more so than I would have imagined.”
4. Use your work coverage plan to delegate to bring benefit to your company. “Once you have the list of things you do in your role, go through the list and determine what you can permanently delegate. Then ask yourself, ‘How can I best re-deploy my time for the benefit of the practice?’” Permanent delegation of tasks allowed Doug to do more client interfacing, business development activities and practice planning activities, bringing a higher value to the firm.
5. Earmark some unstructured time. Doug’s first sabbatical was 30 days of travel with only one day to unpack and get the house in order before going back to work. For his second sabbatical, he combined two weeks in Hawaii with two weeks of “staycation”, letting the days unfold and allowing for some quiet time. “I felt mentally and substantially better rested with having some time where I wasn’t dealing with airplanes, travel schedules and being on a schedule.”
6. Disconnect – really. To get the benefits out of a sabbatical – for yourself and for the development of staff – ensure that you fully disconnect. No calling in. No checking emails. “It’s good for you,” Doug says. “It’s at the core of the sabbatical.”

Because Doug did a lot of advance planning and knew what to expect, he experienced far less anxiety about leaving for sabbatical than he did before he took his first work break.

If a sabbatical is in your future, consider Doug’s tips for successful planning and preparation.

Along with a gazillion other people, I am inspired by Tim Ferriss and his book, “The 4-Hour Workweek”. He’s the uber rock star of work-life balance, and he challenges us to rethink how we live and work and escape the 9-5 box.

But – and he himself probably knows this – Tim’s concepts aren’t entirely reality. Jonathan Mead does an excellent job of dispelling the myths in his blog post, “The Lie of the Four Hour Work Week.” One of Jonathan’s main points: A four-hour work week is only an enviable thing if you hate your work – if it’s truly a chore and not something you get too excited about.

Tim talks and writes a lot about “mini-retirements”, which he says “entail relocating to one place for one to six months before going home”. Tim apparently takes three of four mini-retirements a year. The guy is basically on a permanent, extended vacation.

What annoys me – and yes, this is, in part, semantics – is that his book incorrectly defines a sabbatical, which he says is different than his “mini-retirements”. Here’s what’s in his book: “Sabbaticals are often viewed much like retirement: as a one-time event. Savor it now while you can. The mini-retirement is defined as recurring – it is a lifestyle.”

Sabbaticals should never be viewed as retirement, and they are hardly a one-time event. Companies that have offered sabbaticals since the 1970s – like Intel, McDonald’s, and Arrow Electronics – have employees who have been on three and four sabbaticals. Stay with one of these companies, and you’ve got your lifestyle.

It’s a clever word, “mini-retirement”, but the “retirement” part of it is an unfortunate choice. How many people do you know who go seriously down hill in retirement? I can name several. And even if you can’t, then just look at the research that says the incidence of depression, substance-abuse, declining mental health, and suicide increases after a person retires. Wow – now that’s something to save your money for.

Go from being totally engaged in meaningful work to playing golf day after day, and something bad happens. Eventually – unless you add a few purposeful goals or activities to your time off – you start to lose yourself.

Jim Huhn agrees that a sabbatical is not a mini-retirement. As a software development consultant with St. Paul, MN-based Intertech, Jim gets three months of paid time off after every seven years of work. Even as a small company with only 35 employees, Intertech has managed to offer sabbaticals since 1999. Jim used his last sabbatical to visit family, travel, and spend time with his wife.

Jim’s time away from work gave him a chance to consider how he might design his life when, at some point down the road, he “retires” from Intertech. “It was an opportunity to investigate the activities that equal the return that I see from the work I do,” he said. Obviously, Jim’s the type who will engage in meaningful work even when he’s no longer earning income from it.

My mother argues that we should never retire, and I’m thrilled to partner with a Boomer who has so much energy and passion for her work, who isn’t living for the day when she’ll “get” to stop working and who’s committed to lifelong learning. By the way, she’s currently on a “mini-sabbatical”, sailing with her friend David in Central America. While I’m doing her work coverage, I’m picturing her sitting on the bow of the boat she once owned (David bought it from her), listening to the howler monkeys up the Rio Dulce.

Does the concept of retirement even still fit in the American way of living and working? Whether it’s Tim’s “mini” version or the whole gold-watch-and-goodbye thing, I would argue not. First, consider all of the dwindled “retirement” funds. You bet we’ll see people working longer than originally planned. And that’s okay, because the global knowledge economy needs your brains to stay in the game, you sweet, smart Boomers.

For sure, retirement isn’t part of Gen X and Y values. Why would you “retire” if you love your work, and your work and life co-exist? Read what one young blogger, Jamie Varon, just wrote in a post titled “you can label me these things, if you’d like”:

Millennial. Entitled to greatness? Yes. Impatient for an amazing life? Yep. Selfishly focused on my own development? Yeah.

Environmentally-conscious and globally concerned? Yip. Not to mention optimistic, passionate, and ready and willing to make change.

This young woman envisions a continuum for herself that has work, love, and life all mashed together into one ball of living. Suggest to Jamie and all her Brazen Careerist friends that they work for 40 years SO THAT they can finally live, and they’d probably throw a Facebook punch at you, drive off in their Zipcar … and then Tweet about it.

What does all this mean for companies? They must make jobs rewarding enough (and not just with money) so that people choose working over not working. In that world, with that lifestyle, retirement becomes unnecessary and organizations retain their talent.