The Art of Taking a Break: How to Avoid Burnout with Katrina McGhee
Are you feeling stuck in your career and considering a break? Taking a career break can actually be beneficial, allowing you to step back and re-focus your energy on advancing your professional prospects. Today, we're discussing how to plan for one successfully. Whether you're feeling overwhelmed at work or actively planning for an upcoming hiatus, this podcast episode is sure to provide valuable insights and strategies for maximizing the potential of a career break.
In This Episode, You Will Learn About:
How to Know You're Ready For A Break
Turning A Career Break Into A Promotion
Planning For A Break
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About our guest:
Katrina McGhee is a Career Break and Sabbatical Expert - a certified life coach with an MBA - whose signature Best Break Ever course helps mid-career professionals create happier, more fulfilling lives by designing bold and transformational life breaks.
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Taking a Career Break
Are you feeling stuck in your career and considering a break? Taking a career break can actually be beneficial, allowing you to step back and refocus your energy on advancing your professional prospects.
Today’s guest is a career break and sabbatical expert, a certified life coach with an MBA whose signature best break ever course helps mid-career professionals create happier, more fulfilling lives by designing bold and transformative life breaks.
Well, you and I were able to share this incredible story of how you’ve made several pivots within your career and ultimately how you took a very long extended career break, but also how that has helped you succeed in your own career.
I think it’s a story that many people can relate to. I started out in a first career that was a really great career. I was really excited, I was really motivated. I moved down to Atlanta and started work as an actuary within the healthcare industry. I had a lot of great experiences there. But, ultimately for me, that wasn’t really the most aligned career that I could have, and I really love people. I was seeing sort of a limit to how much engagement I had and how much joy I was finding in my job. I decided to go back and get my MBA to make a pivot and change into a second career. I went back full-time, two years, had an amazing experience, came out of that into my second career in market research, and went out to work for a big company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I really liked some aspects of that job, but it became clear to me at that moment that I was feeling really burned out and I wasn’t feeling at home in the corporate space at that time.
So I decided to hire a life coach and figure out what wasn't working and what was, because I really was tired of making these big life changes and feeling like it wasn't quite right. Through that experience with her, I had this realization that I wanted to take a career break. And so in 2013, after saving $40,000 and 18 months to plan and save for the break, I took off on a 20 month break. And for me, what was so transformational about that break beyond the experience itself was coming back after 20 months away from the working world and landing five job offers in just five weeks, and seeing that, not only was my break, this thing that I did that was nurturing to my spirit and to my soul and restorative, but it actually, when positioned correctly and when designed well, could be this gateway that led me to uplevel or this catalyst leading me to uplevel in my career, you know, of those five opportunities. One of them was a promotion and a 30% pay raise. One of them was a complete change in career. One of them was a dream job, which is the one that I ended up taking. But I think what I really realized and what became crystal clear to me is that breaks can actually be beneficial, and instead of being, as people think of them, you know, career regression and sort of taking a step back, they can actually help you bust through the plateau that you might be at in your life and or in your career to create even more success on the other side.
That is a powerful story because a lot of times we hear this fear around taking a break and also the perception that if we have any resume gaps, any gaps within our resume, that it might hinder the progression within our career. But that's what you found quite the opposite. In fact, you took a break and a pretty long extended break and then came back to five job offers. What would you advise to somebody who might be considering a career break, or how do they even know that they're ready for one?
I want to acknowledge what you just shared. Career gaps get a lot of bad press, but you know, what's been shown and what they've done research on is that through this pandemic, gaps have become almost insignificant to people searching for a job. LinkedIn now talks about career breaks. They give you a tool and a filter to let you have this conversation. Just even understanding contextually that taking a break is not nearly the misunderstood or the sort of elusive thing. Like, more people are talking about it, it's becoming more and more relevant every day. As far as thinking about on an individual level, might this be something that I need, might I be ready for this? Might this be something I should be considering? I want to say, first of all, the metric is not, do, does this feel good? Does it feel safe? Does it not feel scary? Because honestly, it will always feel uncertain. You're leaping into the unknown and you're doing something different. Instead, it's really thinking about, “What is it that I am craving right now in my life that I'm not getting?” And for some people it's feeling so burned out that you're just reactive. You don't have the space that you dream of and that you crave to proactively plan your life or to proactively lead your team or to proactively design your day. It's like you're always putting out fires and you just feel like, “Oh, I just need to like, pause time and suspend time for a bit so I can catch up and catch my breath.” For some people, it's that they feel like they've been stuck at that same level for years or maybe they've lost their spark and it's like, I need my spark back. I need to sort of like, figure out a way to break through to this next level that I can't seem to get. Everything is feeling flat right now, and I don't remember what makes me special or what makes me really unique and really awesome. So getting back in touch with that.
And then I would also say sometimes people just know that they want one. There are experiences that they wanna have. They feel this sense of time is precious. Maybe they have a family that they want to travel around the world with. I have clients that have done that. Sometimes it's the solo travel, but there might be, or writing a book. So There might be this sort of bucket list item that you're tired of putting off, and you have this awakening sense that time is finite. And it's like, I really feel like if I put this off any longer, it's never gonna happen. I just wanna hit pause and take some time for me to live the fullest, richest life I can have.
You're speaking to my heart because I started working when I was 14. Started working full-time when I was 16, while going to high school, working two jobs through college, I never had a break in between my jobs. I worked at one company for five and a half years, then went straight to the next company, then went straight to the next company, and I never had taken a career break. And it wasn't until through the pandemic when I took a step and I left corporate and I actually allowed myself a couple months to enjoy the holidays to grieve the loss of my mom at the same time to create a space where my husband had returned back from a deployment and to reintegrate. It was through that experience that I got crystal clear on what I wanted in my life and not only what I wanted the person that I wanted to be. How I wanted to show up in the world and the impact that I wanted to make, and it was completely unexpected. It wasn't necessarily my intent, but I can relate a lot to what you're saying, where sometimes those breaks can be the biggest breakthrough in what we want in this next phase in our career and in our life.
You're not the only one that benefited from that, right? Your family benefited from that, but also the people that you're here to serve. You're serving them in a different way and in a bigger way and in a more aligned way because of that break. I personally didn't go back to corporate, but through this, I've been able to start a podcast, write a book, I do speaking engagements. It was looking back and saying, “Well, really, what impact do I wanna make? What legacy do I wanna have on others?” And you're right, it's about showing up as the best version of yourself because you're truly happy from the inside.
Let Ourselves Take a Career Break
You’ve had a client too, you work with a lot of people because this is how you support people as being a career strategist for people to take breaks. Tell us a little bit about some of the clients that you’ve worked with and the guidance that you’ve given to them as they’ve taken on this journey.
I counted it up a few weeks ago, maybe about a month ago, and I have personally supported over 54 breaks, and counting on top of many other clients doing other things. But this is my passion and I have a million examples of people that have overcome limiting beliefs or reasons they thought a break couldn’t be for them. They’ve gone all along the career spectrum. But one of my most recent clients that has returned from his break was a VP at a Fortune 100 company. He worked so hard. He had been working so hard. Similarly, we had a family, he had I think it was two kids, a wife. He was really responsible for a lot of humans and he’d never really stopped to take a break thinking that makes you soft. Or thinking that’ll get you rusty, like no one needs to take a break. You just gotta keep going, looking for the next opportunity. He had been really successful and he was an awesome human, that loved leadership and really made a difference in people’s lives. But he saw this opportunity to take two months off. Even though it was scary, even though it felt like, I’m not sure how I’m going to fill this time, am I going to be bored? Am I gonna regret it? He hired me before leading up to it to prepare for it. Then we worked together during his break. He had a job that he had planned to move into at the end of his break. He became the CEO of a digital company, which is where he’s at now. For him it was like, he would tell you in his words, this break allowed him to prepare for that role in a way that just deciding mentally and doing all the reading and all the research and the informational interviews, like he never would’ve been prepared to be the CEO the way that he was with this break. He said for him, everything just clicked. So many things solidified in this time off. Like you said, things become clear, you start to connect yourself in a different way. The same was absolutely true for him. I remember this pivotal moment that we had during one of our calls where he talked about maybe shortening his eight week break because there were financial benefits to staying, I think an extra two weeks, and he talked about, I don’t want to leave these incentives on the table, of course I’m not gonna leave them on the table. I asked him, “What do you think that you’re exchanging for taking this? Because when you say leave it on the table, what you’re really taking back is your time and your time is valuable. When you think about the default, I can’t leave the money on the table. I want you to think about what you’re sacrificing for that.” He ended up deciding to actually leave those incentives on the table. He will tell you, we’ve talked about this many times. It was the most impactful moment of his entire break experience, because it showed him and allowed him to see the value of his time. He has become a better leader to his people and a better CEO because he understands this whole other side of himself and of like that he didn’t before. He was like, I want to become a person that can help other people take this break. Take a break like I did to have this time to reset and restore. And he said his only regret is that it took him 40 plus years to finally realize that he deserved a beak and that he could benefit from a break. But other than that, he sings its praises. He is so glad he took one. He says that it makes him an incredibly motivated, inspired, and restored CEO and that he couldn’t perform at the level that he needs to perform at if he hadn’t had this period and this gap between these two roles.
There was a report that recently came out from HubSpot and it talked about consumer trends and the top five reasons why people are leaving organizations, and the number two reason is burnout. It's absolutely burnout. I would imagine by him experiencing and understanding the value of a break and how it can actually help somebody show up as a better version of themselves, I would imagine he's probably very inspirational and encouraging his team to take wellness breaks so that they can prevent the burnout.
He's in full support of them and I think living it and seeing not just the impact on him, but the impact on his family and the impact on the people that he works with. The benefit of your break will trickle down to the people in your sphere and in your circle in ways you can't even imagine. And him being in such a high position and modeling, putting himself first and taking care of himself so that he can be the best him when he comes to work. That's an inspirational story and experience that will hopefully motivate people that he works with when they get to know him and they get to know the story to be like, “Wow, maybe I could do something like that too.”
Taking Care of Yourself
Okay, so let's talk about the people that maybe are going, “I don't know if I'm ready for a break.” But here's another stat that I want to share with you. I was reading some research recently and it stated that 52% of Americans do not utilize their paid time off. These are individuals who have a company that is going to pay for one week, two weeks off, but they don't do it. I have to admit, I was one of those people. I worked in an organization for five and a half years earlier in my career, and when I ended up leaving that organization, I had 32 days of unused PTO time. I look back and reflect back and I wonder why. I was in sales and every third quarter I would break out in hives all over my chest from the stress. That's probably an indication that I should have been utilizing my PTO. But again it's because we get so focused on doing our job, and sometimes we have the story that we tell ourselves in our head is, if I take time off, even though it's paid, will that affect people's perception of my work ethic? So let's dig into this one a little.
I think that is so true when it comes to taking vacation. When you come to thinking about taking a break, we have this concept or this idea that we are only as valuable as what we are doing. We are not necessarily as valuable as what we are. You talked about having this time to consciously decide. How you want to be the kind of person you wanna be. So much of that is how do I receive the daily flux of life? How do I show up for the people I care about? How do I show up for myself? How do I lead others? How am I a person that can find joy and gratitude, even on the hard days, and just feel better about my life?
And I think that we have to walk away from the concept that we are only as worthy as what we produce. What do I have in my hands? This is my value to like, who am I being and how, like holistically, like what am I producing? But also who am I being and how am I being and how am I impacting others? I think that's a really important reframe because if we're not paying close attention, we can start to think that I always need to be doing, I always need to be producing.
Perception I think is another big one where it's like, how will people view me? I want to tell you what I know from not just my own experience, but from coaching dozens and dozens of people on taking some time off. You are the most magnetic, you are the most inspired, you are the most energized and the most creative version of yourself when you take care of yourself. It's not about how many hours I worked this week. How many reports did I do? How many presentations did I get? It's really about what impact did I make and how did I show up and inspire other people. Am I driving these things for, am I being efficient with the time I have? I want us to break away from the idea that we just have to keep grinding it out. Sometimes taking a pause is the most productive and the most effective thing that we can do. When you think about athletes, professional athletes, they have to have days where they stop, where they're off because your body has to rebuild. They are not the best athletes when they just run every single day, seven days a week, Monday through Friday. You need time to build up and you need time to come down. That's repair and restoration and that's critical for us in our spirits as human beings that are doing all of this work.
Leading An Example
I also want to add too, because we've talked a little bit about why it's so important for us and to add another layer of leadership. It's so important as a leader. I was leading a leadership program the other day and we were talking about the importance of burnout and burnout prevention, and not only the burnout prevention for us, but taking the time to be in tune and ask the questions of our team and identify the times what maybe we observe that our team is going through burnouts. Opening up that dialogue and giving them, and supporting the permission to say, “Look, it sounds like you're burnout. And I want you to know that I care about you, I value you and the contributions you make to this organization. And why don't you take the time off? Why don't you, you have PTO time. Take some time off. Go relax, go enjoy time with your family. You will come back more recharged, and I encourage you to do that.”
The company that I worked for example, we didn't have a set PTO Days. We ended up going to a flexible PTO, which I often found that people took less PTO, which was counterintuitive. But there were times where I saw that some of my team members, we were in sales and it was at the end of the quarter and they've been grinding really hard, and it's saying, “You know what? You hit your number. Or even if you didn't hit your number, I know that you tried. Go take the day off, go relax, go recharge.” Because if we continue to go, that's when we burn ourselves out. That has a ripple effect, not only on ourselves, but the people around us and the culture within the organization.
I think it's just the way our human brains work, but it's so easy when we're in it to not see it. But the second that we take a step back, we're like, how on earth did I even last that long? You just get so used to being on and go, go, go, that you can't necessarily see how much it's taking from you. But really deciding that your life is more than this one bucket called career and devoting your time and energy into filling up the cups that are around you, your health, your connections to others, your relationships. It can be so amazing and sometimes you don't even know how amazing until you've actually stepped away.
And we have a responsibility as leaders, as well as peers and colleagues to ensure that we're supporting our team, and our colleagues when we see burnout. Sometimes we don't see the burnout within ourselves because we're so focused on the go and that's when we really rely on the others to say, “Hey, I just wanna bring to your attention it looks like you're burnout. And I say that because I care about you and I want what's best for you. And encourage them to take that time off.”
Ways of Starting to Have a Career Break
What are some three words of wisdom that you want to have on people? If they're thinking about am I ready for a career break and how to do it?
First word of wisdom is, it's never too soon to start planning. If you are thinking, well, for me a break would be two years out, or I would have a lot of things to do, you can start to think about your why, right? What would this time need to be for me to be successful? And maybe when would be a good time to go? You can be proactive about it. So absolutely, the worst thing that happens is you have this clarity about what's missing in your life, or what you want to create space for, and what you would do with some time off, and maybe you're saving towards that goal. and you're becoming self-aware in the process. And the worst thing that happens is you get to that point and you're like, you know what? Being this aware of what I needed and giving it to myself all along the way, I don't feel like I need a break, which is awesome too.
I would say the second thing is really be honest with yourself about what you feel like your next level would look like and think outside of just your career. When you think about this is where I'm at, but what is the picture I want to paint of life, sort of this next level up, is it that you have more time with your loved ones? Is it that you've lived some adventures? Is it that you've become a better leader? I encourage you to just think about how taking time off to live your wildest adventures, scratch off some bucket list items, maybe get a certification that you've been wanting to get, or do some research into something that is fascinating to you and that you're so geeked up about, but it doesn't necessarily translate into your business goals for the year. It always gets pushed to the side. Really indulge in all the possibilities of what you could do if you reclaimed a little bit of time for yourself and really think. How expansive that could be to not just you today, but like you in the future?
The last thing I would say is it matters how you show up and the break experience or taking time off, whether it's those vacation days, it goes so much beyond just you. Modeling for people how to prioritize self is how we all have enough to give to other people and to give our best. Living our best life is really about pouring into ourselves. We have more to give and we can contribute to the others who need it or the others around us, or the others on our team.
I encourage you, especially if you're a leader, when you're thinking about, I'm scared to step away, or it feels bad to step away, or I feel guilty, like my people need me, I think more than they need you to just do the doing. They need you to model how to have balance. They need you to model how to prioritize well-being and like personal responsibilities along with the professional ones. Just think big on that and know that reclaiming your time is so powerful. Not just to you, not just to your loved ones, but also to the people that look up to you and that might view you as a model for what's possible.
Modeling that behavior so that we are setting the intention and giving and showing that we value it. And I want to add something else to what you said, because this really resonated. There was a time when I was a manager and I took 14 weeks maternity leave when I had my twins. What I found when I came back was that my team was actually stronger, and the reason being is because each of them stepped into leadership roles to support each other in ways that they hadn't done before. They were so used to coming to me, which was great. They obviously found value in our conversations, but then they started to become a little bit more self-reliant. They started to stretch themselves in new ways. A lot of times we think, “Oh, if I take a break, if I go on vacation, then I'm almost abandoning my team. My team needs me.” But in those moments, when you give them the opportunity to step up and take leadership, that's when they grow and they develop.
That is such a beautiful reminder. I have a recent client who took a sabbatical and it was the same thing. It was like, “Oh my God, my team is gonna, I'm the one person that does my thing and I don't know what's gonna happen when I leave.” We talked about instead of doing all the fishing for them, really being thoughtful about how she thinks, how she would handle problems, and teaching them how to fish. And she was out for four months and is coming back and the team is in a better place because they've created efficiencies that she couldn't see because she was doing the doing. There was no need to think about how to do this more efficiently, so that we don't need somebody doing it all, spending all this time on it. And so to your point, the team is in a better place. People have thrown and stepped up into the void and it's amazing.
