Have a break... it might do you some good

Is a change as good as a rest? Do holidays recharge batteries and help you think afresh on your return to work? As someone who likes routine, and then gets to feel trapped by routine, these questions often exercise my mind in idle moments.

In the last while I have met people at different stages in life who were all contemplating major changes, either in what they did or where they lived. I know these feelings well.

They can become quite unsettling if you don’t do something about it. I am a great believer in sabbaticals. When I was a lecturer at Trinity College it was their generous policy that enabled me to try out a job in RTE, aware that I could return if it didn’t work out. It changed my life. I adored working in television. I was very happy working in TCD. But I was restless, with good reason it turned out.

I sometimes wonder what would have become of me had I stayed in a permanent and pensionable job where I think something called ‘gross moral turpitude’ was required to be fired.

I suspect I would have lost my enthusiasm and become very mediocre, a quality which no one in education should display.

It is good to get an opportunity to try something out.

Two of the people I met over the last while were happy in their jobs in the private sector. One company had a policy on sabbaticals and the other did not. The first person took the six months, spent three travelling with his family, two doing a course, one at home, and returned to work with renewed vigour.

The other is still wondering is there something out there that she is missing despite loving her job. I suspect that feeling will grow.

Another person I know had spent a long time thinking about getting out of the big city and living in the West of Ireland.

This got as far as almost putting the house on the market and buying a place that looked appealing, before he sought some advice. “Why don’t you rent for a while and see how you get on,” was the suggestion. It turned out to be very good counsel indeed. It took only four months for the realisation to set in that this would have been a huge mistake, and a costly one to boot.

And it wasn’t even a particularly wet winter!

The world of permanent and pensionable 40-year jobs is slowly shrinking. Where it does exist, I suspect paid time off every five years, job swap programmes, leave for further education, and travel, would produce a more flexible, competent, effective and satisfied workforce. It might make for better citizens too.

Life is far too short to spend 40 years doing much the same thing. Unless you really want to. This is a very interesting planet. Get to know it.