A fortnight off rarely means a fortnight of rest. By the time most people have properly switched off, it is time to log back in. Clarity's mini sabbatical works on a different premise: every five years, every Clariteer has the opportunity to take an extended, fully paid break, however they choose to spend it. For some that has meant travel, for others it has been extended time with family after parental leave, or finally getting round to renovating a house. The only requirement is that it is genuinely theirs to spend.
Our mini sabbatical sits within Clarity Cares, one of the three pillars of the Clarity Compass, alongside the wider approach to wellbeing and flexible time off. The idea is simple. Real rest, and real perspective, can take longer than a standard holiday allows. It's also still one of the least commonly offered types of leave. Fewer than one in five employers offer paid sabbaticals at all, which is exactly why it says something about the kind of place Clarity wants to be.
Over the last three years, 31 Clariteers have taken theirs. We asked four of them what it actually looked like once they stepped away.
Will Julian-Vicary, Chief Technology Officer, Remote
Will took five weeks and stayed in Cornwall with his boys through a well-timed heatwave, filling the time with swimming, cycling, camping and family. He also picked up pottery for the first time, learning to throw pots on the wheel, badly at first, though it is the first new hobby in years that has actually stuck.
“Two weeks never quite lets you stop thinking about work,” he says. The first week goes on winding down, the second on bracing to go back. By week three of his sabbatical he had properly switched off, and came back with more in the tank than any ordinary holiday had given him.
Marie-Louise Banks, Senior Vice President, Creative Strategy and Production, Remote
Marie-Louise spent three weeks camping with her kids, properly unplugged, no screens, no inbox, no shoot schedules, followed by a trip to Ibiza with her partner, her best friend's wedding, and time with friends she rarely gets to see enough of.
She noticed herself listening in conversations rather than driving them, and watched her children crouch down to look at bugs for hours, exploring without any digital distraction, which is not something that happens in the normal routine. The break reinforced her love for the job at Clarity and a wish to bring a busy, fun and warm culture back to her team.
Nick Lansman, President, Policy Communications, London
Nick took his sabbatical in various locations across Spain with family and friends, ‘out of office’ on for the first time in his career. Among the highlights was watching the total solar eclipse from the cliff tops on the north coast of Mallorca, the first visible from the island in over a century and one of the best spots in the world to see it.
For Nick, five uninterrupted weeks meant properly stepping back and seeing things in perspective. He came back genuinely recharged, in a way an ordinary week or two off has never quite managed.
Olivia Knecht, Senior Account Manager, New York
Olivia took her full five weeks and travelled solo across Thailand and Vietnam, a once-in-a-lifetime experience she says she would never have had without the sabbatical programme. She used the time to know and be herself without the outside stresses of everyday life.
“Life often gets in the way of the experiences we could be having,” she says, whether that is work, family or finances. The benefit lets people do those things with the security of a continued pay cheque. No stress, just life lived.
Burnout has become one of the defining challenges of modern work. What these four stories show is what actually helps long-term: not a long weekend, but proper, unhurried distance. Four weeks or so seems to be the point where that shift genuinely happens, burnout easing by as much as a third, and it tends to hold.
What comes through in every answer is not really about the destination. It is the security of stepping fully away, on full pay, and discovering what is on the other side of properly switching off.
If a culture that cares enough to give you this kind of time back sounds like somewhere you'd want to work, take a look at our open roles on the Clarity careers page.