職業生涯中休長假的意外好處1

When Winston Chen told his friends that hehad quit his job as chief technology officer at a software company to move to asmall island in Arctic Norway with his family for a year, few people called himcrazy.

當溫斯頓.陳告訴他的朋友他要辭去軟件公司首席技術官的工作，和家人搬去挪威北極圈的一個小島住一年時，幾乎沒有人說他瘋了。

Instead, most people simply replied: “I wish I hadthe guts to do that.”

相反，大多數人的反應只是：“我也希望有勇氣這樣做。”

You have to create the urgency for livingthe life you want.

你需要製造緊迫感，才能按照自己希望的方式去生活。

While many people dream of taking time offmid-career, few actually do it. But the number of people taking lengthysabbaticals later in life is increasing, according to experts. That’s in partdue to companies becoming more open to the idea and the higher rate at whichpeople are changing jobs. And depending on how you play your cards, you canreturn with a better job than when you left.

儘管很多人都夢想着在職業生涯中休一次長假，但是幾乎很少有人真的這麼去做。但是根據專家的觀察，現在越來越多的人開始選擇在職業生涯的後期選擇休長假。這一部分是因爲企業對這個觀念越來越開明，和習慣了人們跳槽的高頻率。如果你處理得當，回來時你能得到一份比原來更好的工作。

Time for a change

改變的時刻

For Chen, who had been with the samecompany for a decade when he quit in 2011, it was time for a change, he original plan was to find a new job, but the idea of taking time off —inspired by a TED talk — got him seriously thinking about a sabbatical. At first, he said he was concerned that timeaway from the industry might hurt his career.

溫斯頓在一家公司呆了十年後，於2011年辭職，他說，是到了作出改變的時候了。他原來的計劃是找一份新的工作，但是在一次TED演講的啓發下，他開始認真思考休長假的計劃。起初，他說他擔心離開行業一段時間會不利於他的職業生涯。

“That's the main reason that keeps people from doing this, and I wasno different,”he said in an email. “But you have to create the urgency for living the life you want.”

“很多人不敢這樣做，主要原因就在這裏。而我也是一樣，”他在電子郵件中寫道，“你需要製造緊迫感，才能按照自己希望的方式去生活。”

After quitting, Chen did look for anotherjob — until a family friend mentioned that a small island in Arctic Norway waslooking for a teacher. Chen’s wife, who was born in Norway, wanted to go backto work after being at home with their kids for five years. “She calledand basically got the job,”said Chen. “So, very quickly, we decided that was it.”

在辭職後，溫斯頓也找過工作——後來他家的一位朋友告訴他挪威北極圈的一個小島上正在招聘教師。溫斯頓的妻子生於挪威，她在家照看孩子五年了，剛想要重新工作。“她打了幾通電話，工作差不多就定了。”溫斯頓說，“然後，我們很快就把這件事定了下來。”

Increasingly popular

日益流行

Paul Payne, managing director of UK-basedrail and construction recruitment firm OneWay, is one of a growing number ofprofessionals in the recruiting field who have seen a number of clients optingfor a gap year or sabbatical midway through their careers.

英國鐵路和建設人力招聘公司OneWay的總經理保羅·佩恩（Paul Payne）等招聘領域的專業人士發現越來越多的客戶選擇間隔年或在職業生涯中休長假。

More and more [companies] are offeringsabbaticals as a retention tool.

越來越多的企業將長假視作一種留住人才的工具。

“It’s an interesting idea, particularly when firms are looking tohire and, crucially, retain millennial talent who tend to get itchy feetquicker than their predecessors,” he said in an email. “While it’s not forevery business, more and more are offering sabbaticals as a retention tool bygiving their employees paid leave to travel, volunteer or simply to take timeoff to recharge their batteries.”

“這是一個有趣的想法，尤其是當企業想招聘以及更關鍵的，留住比前輩們更喜歡跳槽的千禧一代時。”他在電子郵件中寫道，“雖然不是每家公司都這樣做，但越來越多的公司將長假視作一種留住人才的工具。他們給員工開帶薪假，讓他們去旅行，做志願者工作，或只是休假充電。”