Who doesn’t love a holiday? No matter how much you love your job and your team, it’s great to take time away from work when you need to.
We appreciate the effort our team puts in every day, and offer lots of great benefits to show it. One of the most popular is a paid, four-week sabbatical as a reward for long term commitment. That’s an entire month to switch off, recharge, and come back feeling refreshed.
We caught up with three of the team who took their sabbaticals recently to find out what they got up to. First let’s explore the positives of supporting an extended break, for both the business and the team.
How everyone benefits from sabbaticals
People who’ve been with the company for seven years are invited to take a continuous four-week break in addition to their standard annual holiday allowance. We feel it’s important to give the team the opportunity to pursue life goals outside work which would be hard to achieve without extended time off.
Sabbaticals can also offer great opportunities to the rest of the team. They have the chance to step up and take on new responsibilities temporarily. For some, that means trying management for the first time. For others, they get to extend their current role and gain wider business experience.
For the business, it’s a way to say thank you for years of hard work and dedication. In our experience, people return from their sabbaticals re-energised, with renewed focus and fresh creative energy, which is great for the team.
Precious family time: Christian, VP of Sales
My seven years at Cambridge Intelligence has flown by! It’s been great to be part of our journey since 2016 and to see so many talented people join and grow the business.
People often ask why I’m still here and for me it’s being surrounded by smart people who really care about delivering quality software to solve real problems. I like our no-nonsense, data-driven approach to business.
“I’m really grateful that the company was able to let me disconnect, and knowing that my workload was covered.
The sabbatical is a great benefit, it feels nice to be rewarded for loyalty to the business and after 7 years it’s a great opportunity to take a step back and recharge a little.
And it came at the perfect time for me: my partner and I welcomed our first child last year, so I was especially keen to take some (extra) time to enjoy our first few months as a family.
We took a number of trips with some relaxing nice days at home in between. One highlight was a road trip down to Washington and Oregon, and a separate stay in a beautiful cabin on a nearby Gulf Island. Oh, and I spent a day hiking up and down three mountains on one trail!
A month is a great amount of time to forget about work for a bit. I’m really grateful that the company was able to let me disconnect, and knowing that my workload was covered.
Weirdly enough, one of my favourite things about the sabbatical was that it forced me to think about how I can do better at delegating my responsibilities. The deadline of being away for a month gave me the perspective I needed to think about how I can work smarter, and give others the opportunity to pick up new skills and experiences.
I came back to a clean slate. It meant I could focus on the tasks, goals and responsibilities that were most important for our strategic plans. It was fun to find out what had happened while I was away. Surprisingly, issues that I thought would become a problem had a habit of resolving themselves over time without my input.
It was definitely a reminder to keep my ego in check and recalibrate my work/life fit.
Rest and relaxation: Rachel, Management Accountant
Back in 2015, I joined Cambridge Intelligence as a bookkeeper, and now I’m a Management Accountant. The company helped me to progress my career through its personal development scheme, with study days and course funding.
I’ve loved my time here – it’s been great meeting lots of different people across the business with a wide range of interests and experience.
“When it was time to return to work, I genuinely felt refreshed and ready to jump back in.
My sabbatical was a great opportunity for some rest and relaxation. I spent the first two weeks visiting friends and family in Dublin, enjoying walks in the beautiful Irish countryside and having precious, uninterrupted family time.
The second part of my sabbatical was on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria where I recharged in the sunshine. It was a lovely change of pace, with plenty of strolls along gorgeous beaches, and some exploring to experience different parts of the island.
When it was time to return to work, I genuinely felt refreshed and ready to jump back in. I’m so grateful I got the time away from work to disconnect, spend time with those closest to me and have fun travelling.
Solo adventures: Catherine, Content Strategist & Team Lead
It genuinely doesn’t feel like I’ve been here for over eight years, largely because I’ve had two very different roles in that time. I joined as the company’s first technical author back in 2016, then switched careers and moved to marketing a few years later. I’m still here because I get to work with marketing professionals at the top of their game, plus a manager who’s a brilliant mentor.
“The team had covered my tasks so I didn’t come back to a huge backlog.
I’d covered for our Marketing Director while they were on sabbatical and loved hearing about their adventures, so I was excited for my turn. I’m lucky enough to have had a sabbatical at a previous company, and I spent that one settling a new puppy into our home (exciting, challenging and exhausting in equal measure). This time, I wanted to do something special for me that combined my love for outdoor adventure, history and culture.
I kicked off with a solo hike along the first 120 miles of England’s South West Coast Path and loved every minute. After that I enjoyed some family time – first in a picture-postcard coastal cottage, then in our little VW campervan – before heading to Europe for another solo trip. I took trains and buses from Munich, Germany to Verona, Italy, stopping off at Innsbruck, Austria along the way, and spending a week hiking in the sunny Italian Alps.
On my first day back at work I felt ready for anything. Luckily for me, the team had covered my tasks so I didn’t come back to a huge backlog. They were all still thriving too – turns out I’m not as indispensable as I might think! That’s an important reality check and a huge comfort.
Sabbatical goals
If you’re lucky enough to earn a sabbatical at your place of work, we hope you have an amazing time. If you’re not but you like the idea (who wouldn’t?), check out our current vacancies.
