Travels in the Riel World

Since I’ve long been an advocate of sabbaticals, I was intrigued to come across this article on the Brazen Careerist website. The piece is titled “10 Ways Generation Y Will Change the Workplace,” and sitting there at number four is - “We’ll Redefine Retirement.” How? Through a series of sabbaticals, or mini-retirements, throughout one’s lifetime.

Retirement is dead. It’s dead for a number of reasons, including the issues with social security and middle class America’s inability to save any money. But Gen Y will figure out how to save money to retire–we’re already demanding 401K’s and excellent benefits. However, we will re-invent retirement by taking multiple mini retirements instead of calling it quits a few years before its time to croak. Maybe in our late twenties we’ll take a few months just to travel the world. Then, as we approach parenthood and our kids grow up, we’ll take a year off to enjoy time with our family. Then we’ll return to work, refreshed and ready to go. When we hit 65, it will be the new 45 and we’ll have a solid 15 to 20 years left before we take our final, very brief, mini retirement. 

Have you heard of the Lost Girls? They’re three twentysomething New York friends who left their jobs and hit the road together for a one-year journey around the world. Along the way, they blogged about the trip and are now back home working on a book about the experience. Sort of like Sex and the City meets On the Road. They recently stopped by the Vagabonding site to chat about their travels and their writing. An excerpt:

What are each of you up to now?

Despite our passion for full-time vagabonding, the three of us accepted desk jobs in order to restock our bank accounts (boring, but necessary!). Amanda is a nutrition editor at a health magazine, Jen does integrated marketing for an independent film/television channel, and Holly now taste-tests chocolates all day for a major candy manufacturer (well, that’s her dream job…she’s actually a freelance writer and editor for several national publications).

Recently, both Jen and Amanda approached their individual bosses about the possibility of going part time in order to focus more attention on book writing. And to their shock—both supervisors agreed to the arrangement! We’ve realized that if you put in the time and hard work to cultivate a successful career, your company/boss is generally more willing to allow time off to travel, or to rearrange your schedule to accommodate special project.

Now, all three of us spend our Fridays together at a coffee shop in Union Square, so we can make the task of book writing a collaborate process—and a fun one, at that.

Do you still crave a life on the road?
Absolutely. After living out of a backpack for a year, we found that we craved the stability and comforts of home. But now that we’ve been back in NYC for a while, all three of us find that we miss the freedom and ever-changing nature of life of the road.

Travel brought us rewards in the form of new friends, discoveries, and cultural experiences. It’s kind of fun never knowing where the day will take you, and we can’t wait until our next adventure.

Are there any trips in the works?

When we finished our year-long trip, we vowed to take a Lost Girls Getaway together once a year for the rest of lives. Since returning, we’ve planned a few weekend excursions together in the United States, and have traveled independently to Antarctica, Ecuador and the Bahamas. For the next six months, we’ll be staying close to home in order to write and promote the book. Once we finish the first draft of the memoir in January ’09, we’re planning to return to Argentina, the country that inspired our around-the-world adventure.

I’ve promised more coverage on the topic of sabbaticals (or career breaks), so to that end I’ve developed a page on this site devoted to the topic of life sabbaticals. An excerpt:

Who is taking sabbaticals?

Sure, college professors have always been able to take a sabbatical, but what about the rest of us? You’d be surprised at the number and types of people who are taking extended time off from work these days. Such as:

*          Workers who can take a leave of absence from their job. One out of every four or five companies offer some sort of sabbatical policy for their employees, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, a statistic that has remained remarkably steady since the mid-1990’s. About two-thirds of these policies are for unpaid absences and one-third provide for a paid leave. Even if you’re not lucky enough to work for one of these companies, individuals who have been at the same job for several years can often negotiate individually for time off.

*          People who are between jobs. If you are leaving one job and have another one lined up for some weeks or months down the road, or if you don’t mind the uncertainty of being between jobs, this is a good opportunity to take some time to relax and recharge before beginning the next chapter in your life. Some individuals, in fact, plan a series of “mini-retirements” throughout life.

*          Students who are on a “gap year.” This has always been popular with Europeans and Australians and is becoming more common among U.S. university students. This year off may take place prior to starting a college career, after graduating, or sometime in between. The point is to take some time away from studies in order to have a more diverse educational or life maturing experience.

What are the personal benefits?

- We all get tired and stressed from the challenges of work and life. This time away gives us a chance to rest and recharge for the next chapter in our lives.

- Everyone can benefit from having extended time to reflect and, if desired, to redefine who we are or what we want to do.

- Many people dream of traveling, but these adventures usually require a period of time that is longer than an average vacation. A sabbatical, however, provides the time necessary for an extended trip.

- Our families often lose out to the urgency of daily life and to-do lists. Time away from a job can give us an opportunity to reconnect with children, spouses and parents, whether we take this time at home or on a joint adventure together.

- Often, we’d like to focus on a new skill or hobby, but the thought of fitting this into our already crowded lives usually means that we just never get around to it. A sabbatical gives us the freedom to grow and develop in new ways.

There is more information on the sabbatical page, including the benefits to companies that offer sabbaticals, a list of ideas to inspire you, and links to books and websites about the topic.

I’ve been seeing more press these days being devoted to the concept of taking a sabbatical from work. It’s an idea that particularly interests me, since my wife and I have taken two sabbaticals since getting married in 2001 - experiences that I chronicled in my book, Two Laps Around the World. So I thought I’d catch up on some of these press clippings and cover the topic a bit more frequently in this blog.

First, an article from the New York Times (”Sabbaticals Aren’t just for Academics Anymore”), which was published a while ago but provides a nice overview of the subject.

In an age of job hopping, a perk to reward loyalty — sabbaticals for those with five years or more on the job — is taking on increased importance.

Though the academic world initiated sabbatical programs, they have been embraced by the government and the private sector, including companies as varied as McDonald’s, Nike, Boston Consulting, Goldman Sachs and Silicon Graphics as well as law and accounting firms. Some companies restrict time off to educational forays and charitable projects, while others encourage everything from beachcombing, family time and travel. Leaves can be paid or unpaid and can last weeks or months…

Measuring return on investment is almost impossible, but companies with such plans seem as enthusiastic as any sabbatical taker. They discount fears that those taking leave will use the time to find other employment.

“A lot of times, people think it’s just for the employee, but it is a tremendous advantage that we get as a company,” said Richard Floersch, chief people officer and executive vice president for worldwide human resources at McDonald’s. “It’s re-energizing that lasts more than a day. Depending on what they do while they are gone, they come back even more skilled and talented than when they left.”

And, from a more recent Wall Street Journal story.

With constant travel and 60-hour weeks pushing him close to burnout, the veteran partner at Mercer, a major human-resource consultant, decided he needed a sabbatical.

Mr. Marcus pursued an elaborate self-improvement scheme and sharpened his professional focus during an eight-month break, which ended in November 2006. “I’m a better consultant today because I bring a more balanced perspective to my work,” he says…

A sabbatical can enhance your career, especially if you acquire valuable skills, experience and insights. Extended breaks allow for personal goals, such as travel, study or research…

Sabbaticals are attracting greater attention these days from the nation’s frazzled and disengaged workforce, according to Dan Clements, who co-wrote “Escape 101: Sabbaticals Made Simple.” He took five in 15 years. About 16% of U.S. employers offered unpaid sabbaticals and 4% gave paid ones in 2007, the Society for Human Resource Management reports.

Hmm, stories in the New York Times AND the Wall Street Journal. There can’t be much more of a sign that this trend is getting noticed.

First came the book, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. Then the Travel Channel decided to base a television series around the concept and selected a Denver couple, Albin and Melanie Ulle, to embark “on a 14-week excursion across 13 countries.” The Ulle’s experiences were filmed for the series, which premieres March 29, according to this story.

The Ulles came back changed by the experience:

When Albin and Melanie Ulle are asked about their favorite places … they talk less about the destinations than the people they met:

• The maitre d’ in France who proudly wore an American flag on his lapel.
• The Bhutan citizens who measure “gross national happiness” rather than the gross national product.
• And a poor black South African woman who single-handedly put four girls through private school during apartheid and later ran for mayor of her township.

Even some of the small lessons affected the way the couple now looks at things:

“There are all these little things that have changed for us,” Melanie says, noting one. “I notice that I don’t want to (do) drive-through coffee anymore. I enjoy drinking coffee, and people all over the world treat it as a ritual. I know its so minor, so dumb, but that means something.”

Albin adds: “We’re so rushed a lot of the time, and I think we all kind of know that, but to see people actually slow down, sit and talk and laugh. Good things can come from slowing down sometimes.”

The story notes that experiences such as these are part of a growing trend for people to take sabbaticals to travel or have other life experiences. And if you follow my blog, you know I’m a believer in that.

It is one of our great challenges, particularly for Americans with little vacation time — creating time in our lives to travel.  Rolf Potts, author of Vagabonding, has a variety of ideas for individuals who are determined to hit the road.

Short of simply asking for more vacation time, many people negotiate long-term leaves of absence or sabbaticals (paid or unpaid, depending upon the situation) to enable travel.  Others fine-tune their careers so that they are doing seasonal or contract work, which frees them up to travel between work engagements.  Still others will quit a job and then work a long-term travel stint into their life before accepting a new job.

With the advent of new communication technologies it has also become possible to adopt what has been called a “global mobility lifestyle” - which allows you to redesign your work life in such a way that it can mix in with extended travel.

He focused on the latter possibility in a recent interview he conducted with Tim Ferriss, author of the upcoming book, The 4-Hour Workweek.  Some highlights:

What are the biggest misconceptions people have about work, and making time for travel?

The biggest misconception about work is that you have to spend most of your life doing it. 

I’ve spent the last four years traveling through more than 25 countries interviewing people who have automated income or escaped the office, often without quitting their jobs.  Some of them negotiate “working from the home office” while actually trekking in Africa or touring in Europe, satellite phones and Quad-band Treos in hand. Others create simple virtual businesses that enable them to quit the grind and take one-to-three-month “mini-retirements” a few times per year…

Once you control the most valuable currencies in the digital age - mobility and time - $40,000 can get you more luxury lifestyle than a $500,000 per year investment banker who can’t escape the office.

Many people often can’t stop thinking about work minutiae, even when they’re far away from the traditional office setting.  How do you get your mind, and not just your body, out of the office?

In the experience of those I’ve interviewed, it takes two to three months just to unplug from work routines and become aware of how much we distract ourselves with constant motion.  Can you have a two-hour dinner with Spanish friends without getting anxious?  Can you get accustomed to a small town where all businesses take a siesta for two hours in the afternoon? If not, you need to ask: why?

Learn to slow down.  If you create a mobile lifestyle, whether through a remote work arrangement or entrepreneurship, escaping the “too-weak vacation” world is as simple as using a few common technologies and believing it can be done.

Two months ago, I wrote about a contest being sponsored by NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof in which he wanted to take a student with him on a future African reporting trip.  Kristof has now picked a winner, journalism student Casey Parks of Mississippi.  In a Tuesday column, he reports that he and the lucky winner will journey together to Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and the Central African Republic.

He also makes another plug for the importance of travel to a good education:

One of our country’s basic strategic weaknesses is that Americans don’t understand the rest of the world…So, for all the rest of you who applied for my contest, see if you can’t work out your own trips.  Or take a year off before heading to college or into a job.

…be aware of the risks, travel with a buddy or two, and carry an international cellphone.  But remember that young Aussies, Kiwis and Europeans take such a year of travel all the time - women included - and usually come through not only intact, but also with a much richer understanding of how most of humanity lives…

In the 21st century, you can’t call yourself educated if you don’t understand how the other half lives - and you don’t get that understanding in a classroom.  So do something about your educational shortcomings: fly to Bangkok.

Almost one-quarter of U.S. businesses offer some form of paid or unpaid sabbaticals to their employees, and many companies are finding that it can be a valuable tool for both rewarding loyalty and helping employees to recharge.

I can personally attest that sabbaticals are a great idea. Lisa and I took our first round-the-world trip because she was able to get a sabbatical approved by her employer in Massachusetts. When it was over, she returned to her job and was a happy and productive employee for several more years, finally changing jobs only because she had a chance to move back to her home state.  Our experience was so positive, in fact, that when we found ourselves with another window of opportunity during a cross-country move in 2005, we decided to travel for several more months.  You can read about our 2005 journey in a blog I published during the trip.

Unfortunately, the NY Times doesn’t allow on-line access to its op-ed columns, except through the subscription-only Times Select program.  But today’s paper has an excellent column by Nicholas Kristof about the educational benefits of travel.  (The article is .  A few brief excerpts:

Universities are - oh so slowly - recognizing that they need to prepare students to survive globalization. But most overseas studies programs are both too short and too tame.

So here’s my proposal.  Universities should grant a semester’s credit to any incoming freshman who has taken a gap year to travel around the world. In the longer term, universities should move to a three-year academic program, and require all students to live abroad for a fourth year. In that year, each student would ideally live for three months in each of four continents: Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe.

The cost of a year of travel would be far less than the annual cost of attending many colleges in the U.S. And students would get far more out of a year of travel than a year in classrooms.

Later, he notes that he is sponsoring a contest and will take a college student with him on a future African reporting trip. I think Kristof is on to something. My only quibble is that his proposal shouldn’t be restricted to incoming freshmen. Why not give credit to any college student who undertakes such a journey? My wife and I have been fortunate enough to embark on two different round-the-world journeys of a few months each, and some of the most amazing and educational experiences we’ve had have been in still-developing countries, such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Egypt. So go - travel!