“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It’s time to put aside three lines of thinking that are no longer valid:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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”.

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.

Lois Draegin, 55, lost a six-figure editing job with Readers Digest. Now she works unpaid for a start-up website, trading her knowledge for new online skills. Her very cool story – about a media maven who’s mentor is a 20-something social networking wiz – is in today’s Los Angeles Times. Written by Geraldine Baum, the article also mentions yourSABBATICAL.

Draegin is interning for free with “The Women on the Web” or WOW, learning about search engine optimization, Google Trends, and keywords. She’s even Twittering.

So while we’re all licking our wounds in this economic downturn, beautiful things are happening. For several years now, we’ve been hearing about the trials between Boomers and Gen X/Y in the workplace. Draegin’s example gives hope that we’re not only working it out…we’re evolving into higher levels of learning from one another.

Best of luck to Draegin. May her internship sabbatical result in a fun and prosperous future.

Yesterday’s New York Times had an article – “Those ‘Gap Years’ Aren’t Just for Students” – addressing the growth in sabbaticals both as a midcareer boost and a “more creative long-term way [for businesses] to weather the economic downturn than layoffs”.

According to writer Tanya Mohn: “A report on adult gap years released in July 2008 by Mintel International, a market research company, described the potential American market for gap years as a ‘sleeping giant.’ And now, with job cuts on the rise, the newly unemployed may find the timing for a gap year to be ideal.”

Several midcareer breaks are exampled, including that of Dennis R. Sinar, M.D., (pictured) a practicing gastroenterologist and professor of medicine at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. Sinar recently returned from a year-long sabbatical spent exploring things like stone masonry, antique restoration, archaeology and traditional Eastern medicine, in locations spanning from Alaska to Nepal to Romania. He kept a daily blog of his career break.

He’s back at work but already planning sabbatical #2, considering the following very cool ideas for his time away:

• Volunteering on an organic farm somewhere in the world.

• Volunteering as a light maintenance person at a bed and breakfast somewhere fun.

• Railroad car restoration.

For planning help, he uses U.S.-based gap year planning organization, The Center for Interim Programs.