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It’s time to put aside three lines of thinking that are no longer valid: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

Dirk and wife, Karen Steadman

Not too long ago, Dirk Baxter, a management consultant with global experience and a PhD in industrial and organizational psychology, spent two weeks doing business in Spain. After a week of saying “escuche” to any Spaniard due a pardon, Dirk was informed by an American who knew better that, although “escuche” sounds like “excuse me” … it actually means “listen”. That’s right, he was basically telling people he squeezed by in crowded spaces to “listen”. An understandable mistake – but one Dirk won’t make again.

Dirk will soon begin a career sabbatical that will combine working in an emerging market and immersing himself in the Spanish language. Having been recently laid off from consulting giant Development Dimensions International, Dirk quickly determined that looking for a job in this economic downturn is perhaps a poor strategy . Instead of working during this recession, he’ll make the recession work for him.

This concept of using the downturn to your advantage was just written about by Peter Bregman in CNN’s section on “Road to Rescue: The CNN Survival Guide“. Peter’s article, along with many others in the series, puts aside all the doom and gloom and looks at the opportunities we all have with our sour economy. One opportunity: Get more training. Another: ”Expand your comfort zone with new activities, new people.”

Dirk knows this to be true not only for himself but also for the leaders with whom he consults. “I am practicing what I preach by filling out one of my development areas (learning Spanish) and finding an opportunity where I can use my strengths, such as volunteering or working for a business in an emerging market,” Dirk says.

If anyone could get a job right now, Dirk could. In fact, he’s turned down a few lately. The Alaskan native and Atlanta resident has a powerful network, which he maintains via traditional and social networking means. Even when layoffs abound, Dirk is a desirable acquisition for talent recruiters.

He’s also uncommonly smart. A MENSA, in fact, which means even Einstein would be challenged with Dirk’s level of intelligence. And he combines super-smarts with practical, hands-on skills – this experienced outdoorsman could be on the cover of Outside magazine, and he’s been known to get his hands dirty in home renovations (currently, he’s completing a new master bathroom in his Atlanta loft space).

Spanish fluency won’t take him long, particularly if he immerses himself in study and surrounds himself by Spanish speakers. He’ll start his immersion in Peru and will remain open to opportunities in other emerging countries.

Dirk’s a really good consultant in a really bad economy. But instead of tough times, he sees opportunity – after his brief sabbatical, he’ll return to the job hunt recharged and with fresh perspectives that can only be realized through new experiences.

So, all you doom and gloomers, ”escuche”: what are YOU doing to turn this economic downturn into an opportunity?

Other companies, in both the auto industry and beyond, are working hard to preserve jobs. Even small businesses are finding ways to buck the current trend of layoffs – see this article in today’s Wall Street Journal about how they’re doing it.

For some companies, it’s about pride and reputation – establishing an employer brand that keeps its people through thick and thin. That kind of care can certainly create a loyal workforce.

But let’s also recognize the pure business sense it makes to preserve jobs, if possible. Sound business strategy includes long-range thinking and is not all reactionary. We’re not going to be in this trench forever. And if the standard statistic is correct – that re-hiring and re-training costs a company three times the job’s salary – then keeping the team in tact during an economic downturn should be a goal.

As companies grapple with strained budgets, tight credit, waning demand for products, and layoffs, flexible arrangements like sabbaticals are a way to keep morale high. And they don’t have to cost much.

Employees worried about their jobs tend to be reluctant to seek out such arrangements, said Ellen Galinsky of the Family Work Institute, in a recent Reuters article.

“What I’m hearing is that people are more afraid to ask for it,” she said. “I hear from companies, even those who want to promote flexibility, the employees are a little bit more nervous about it.”

Yet this may be the best time to ask. In bad economic times, companies are forced to get creative when trying to keep morale high.

A self-funded sabbatical program costs the company little to nothing and allows employees to have time to do things that are important to them, whether professional or personal in nature.

Slate editor David Plotz told his writers that they are to exit the work-a-day rat race, take a break, and return with one “long-form feature” to be published in the online magazine.

According to the Observer article, Plotz has reservations about the term “sabbatical” because all the “long-form feature” work performed will be for Slate. Perhaps Plotz needs an education on sabbaticals, because very often the work/research/education/etc. that is performed while away for the job is indeed for the employer to which the sabbatical-goer returns. Or perhaps Plotz, being the wordsmith that he is, simply wanted to coin his own term. Apparently the in-house name for the Slate sabbatical experience is “Fresca Fellowships” – an inside joke about how much Plotz adored the Fresca sodas that used to come free to the Slate offices, but have since been written out of the budget.

Whatever the term, we think Plotz is indeed an innovative thinker.