A career break is a period of time out from employment

Employment

Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...

. Traditionally, this was for mothers to raise children, but it is now used for people taking time out of their career

Career

Career is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person's "course or progress through life ". It is usually considered to pertain to remunerative work ....

 for personal development

Personal development

Personal development includes activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitates employability, enhance quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations...

 and/or professional development

Professional development

Professional development refers to skills and knowledge attained for both personal development and career advancement. Professional development encompasses all types of facilitated learning opportunities, ranging from college degrees to formal coursework, conferences and informal learning...

.

History

A career break is usually between one month and two years long. Six months to 2 years is the most common period of time for a career break . It's also possible to take a mini career break of less than one month, which enables people to try out career break activities without committing to longer periods of time. Shorter career breaks are most popular with the over-45s.

It can take the form of a sabbatical

Sabbatical year

Sabbatical or a sabbatical is a rest from work, or a hiatus, often lasting from two months to a year. The concept of sabbatical has a source in shmita, described several places in the Bible...

, which can be paid or unpaid - unpaid sabbaticals are much more common. Sabbaticals were originally only offered to academics and clerics but are now being increasingly offered by companies .

A career break is not simply a period of unemployment. Career breakers usually do one or more of the following:

• Travel
  Travel
  Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...
  
  
• Voluntary work
• Paid work abroad
  Work abroad
  Work abroad is the term used for when a student interns, volunteers, or teachers in a foreign country through a program. Students gain work experience while being immersed in a foreign work environment, though the position may be paid or unpaid...
  
  
• Studying or training
• Offering palliative care
  Palliative care
  Palliative care is a specialized area of healthcare that focuses on relieving and preventing the suffering of patients...
  
  
• Raising kids
• Staying up-to-date with (profession related) news
• Recovering from accidents or illnesses

The career break has grown in popularity over the last five years, with 75% of the British workforce currently considering a career break . Every year, around 90,000 professionals are estimated to take a career break . It is most common in the UK, where it grew out of the gap year

Gap year

An expression or phrase that is associated with taking time out to travel in between life stages. It is also known as sabbatical, time off and time out that refers to a period of time in which students disengage from curricular education and undertake non curricular activities, such as travel or...

 concept. The career break is sometimes referred to as an 'adult gap year', which reflects the commitment towards developing skills and gaining experience while out of the workforce. This was talked about by Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan Sagmeister is a New York-based graphic designer and typographer. He has his own design firm—Sagmeister Inc.—in New York City. He has designed album covers for Lou Reed, OK Go, The Rolling Stones, David Byrne, Aerosmith and Pat Metheny.-Biography:Sagmeister studied graphic design at the...

  in his TED talk "The power of time off".

There is currently no law in the UK requiring an employer to offer or grant career breaks.

See also

• Gap year
  Gap year
  An expression or phrase that is associated with taking time out to travel in between life stages. It is also known as sabbatical, time off and time out that refers to a period of time in which students disengage from curricular education and undertake non curricular activities, such as travel or...
  
  
• Sabbatical year
  Sabbatical year
  Sabbatical or a sabbatical is a rest from work, or a hiatus, often lasting from two months to a year. The concept of sabbatical has a source in shmita, described several places in the Bible...
  
  
• Leave of absence
  Leave of absence
  Leave of absence is a term used to describe a period of time that one is to be away from his/her primary job, while maintaining the status of employee...
  
  
• On-ramping
  On-Ramping
  On-ramping is the process of re-entering the workforce after taking a career break . It is paired with the term "off-ramping", or exiting the workforce as a temporary career break....
  
  
• Work-life balance
  Work-life balance
  Work–life balance is a broad concept including proper prioritizing between "work" on the one hand and "life" on the other. Related, though broader, terms include "lifestyle balance" and "life balance".-History:The work-leisure dichotomy was invented in the mid 1800s...