Reboot Your Life

April 25, 2011
These four executives, who dub themselves "the Sabbatical Sisters" and hold retreats to help people plan for "Reboot Breaks," offer a book that covers many varieties of taking time off: within jobs or between them, career enhancing, course correcting, family related, for emotional healing, volunteering, and pre-retirement. The authors lead readers through the four phases of a reboot: creating space, reconnecting, exploration, and reentry. The business case for sabbaticals is emphasized; workers are more productive after a break. How to fund a break if one's employer doesn't offer a formal sabbatical program is covered, as is how to have the best break possible and deal with the feelings of loved ones. The concept of a sabbatical is timely, both in light of the economic downturn and America's chronically stressed workforce (the Center for American Progress recently reported that Americans work longer hours, and have less support, than workers in any other developed nation). Ironically, the authors' collective voice comes across as bland, even timid. The book leans heavily on cheery case studies from the 200 break-takers interviewed and less on practical advice, a problem that could have been easily solved by beefing up the checklists and freeing them from the Appendix.