After five years working in PR, rising through the ranks from intern to senior account manager, I had the sudden urge to explore something new. But, it wasn’t a new agency or job that was calling out to me. It was a break from commuting and the nine to five routine. I wanted adventure on the other side of the world.

I’m sure many industry peers can relate to that feeling — after years of working hard for promotions, tackling the seismic shift of a pandemic and the constant hum of world politics. It’s easy to feel burnt out, even in an agency that you love with clients that excite you. Which is why a sabbatical — a temporary break from working life to explore and live the life of a traveller, with the comfort that my job was there to go back to — felt like the right thing.

Being a seasoned PR, planning for my adventure came relatively easily. Using a heavenly spreadsheet filled with budgets, timings and key contacts to map out a month travelling New Zealand in a campervan, and the must-do Australian east coast adventure.

There’s no denying that I was tempted to trade in my working life for morning coffees in the sunshine, surfing lessons and zero emails…until I remembered that a job would need to be slotted in somewhere. Which is where the motivation for returning to London and my normal routine came in, with the travelling bug being satisfied, and a new lease of energy being found for my role at H&G.

I would encourage everyone to consider a sabbatical when they have that itching feeling of needing a change but not quite sure what that really is.

If agencies want to retain the talent they have carefully nurtured, offering a sabbatical is a great solution for both parties. Your employees will come back refreshed, reinvigorated and full of new perspectives and experiences to share. Not to mention the benefit clients and teams will get from a renewed sense of energy and passion; but also knowledge learned from exploring new cultures, meeting new people and experiencing a different way of life.

There is also of course huge cost-savings from a recruitment perspective too, which can be expensive and time consuming. Offering valued colleagues the chance to take a break, on the condition they will come back, is a great way to mitigate that. It’s win-win.

I’m beyond thankful to work at an agency that offers me exactly that, a couple of months of freedom with the security to return to a job and company culture I love.