This is the first in what I hope will be a series of guest posts. It is called Your Voices because it comprises library career break stories written by librarians for librarians. Each story in the collection features a career break, some a few months, others taking much longer periods of time.

There are many different types of career break available. Follow the blog to hear about the various kinds. If you have a career break story to share, please do get in touch.

In this guest post, Lesley shares her experience on taking a three-month travel career break from her job in a media library.

1. Tell us about your career before your career break.

I completed my Librarianship degree at Leeds Polytechnic in the 1990s and started my job as Recorded Materials Librarian (now called an archivist) at a media library very soon afterwards. I work full-time now with another two librarians who job share a position. The work can be stressful when you work to deadlines on news programmes and there’s a developing story. I’m responsible for cataloguing and indexing the film which goes out on our local news, political and documentary programmes made here in the North East and Cumbria. Most of my enquiries come from journalists within the wider organisation but I also answer enquires from members of the public.

2. Why did you [and your husband] decide to take a travel career break?

I’ve always enjoyed travelling and experiencing new cultures. We have family in Australia that we had wanted to spend more time with and experience what it would be like to live in the country. We were in a very fortunate situation that my workplace allows staff to take a career break from work for travel reasons. After working full-time for 17 years I was ready to take an extended holiday. We had experienced big changes in technology in the library a couple of years earlier which proved very stressful. The computer system wasn’t reliable and we moved our location from the library to a new desk in the newsroom creating a different set up in the library with even more emphasis on working on your own. It felt like the right time to take a break and after careful planning we were able to finance the trip.

3. How did you approach the situation with your workplaces, and what support did you receive?

Luckily other colleagues at work had taken advantage of the career break so it wasn’t the first time my manager had been asked to accommodate this request. I asked if I could take the three month break seven months before we wanted to take the time off. My manager agreed immediately. I also told my work colleague about my plans. My plans were to have a big impact on her as she would be working with a new person for three months and would probably need to train them and take on more work. I was particularly aware of this fact and keen that we found a replacement for me as quickly as possible so I could give them training before I left. Despite asking for adverts for my replacement the management team were not able to do this until a month before I left which meant in practise I only had one week to show my replacement the job. This was frustrating for me and I felt sorry to leave my colleague with someone new who had little experience of the job. This was not ideal and I would definitely recommend more time is given to find the right person to cover the job. There wasn’t anyone else in the organisation who wanted to do the job for three months and it made us think about training other people in our building to do the library job as we had no back-up.

4. How did you plan and save for your career break?

We used a combination of annual leave, long service leave (extra leave given to you when you’ve completed ten years service) and some unpaid leave. We were given some pay each month while we were away to allow our pension contributions to continue. We saved hard for the trip and paid for some parts of the holiday before we went, accommodation and excursions so we had fewer things to pay for during the trip. We also took advantage of staying with relatives for chunks of the holiday.

5. How long was your career break and why?

Three months. I suppose the reason we took three months was financial.

6. Where did you go, and what were your most notable experiences?

We travelled to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to see the Taman Nagara rain forest, Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Buenos Aires in Argentina.
The nature and wildlife of the different countries was breathtaking, butterflies and insects in the Far East and then kangaroos and Koalas in Australia. Seeing the Milky Way and masses of stars. The kindness of relatives allowing us to stay with them, some we’d never met before. The fascinating histories of countries we’d only heard about in school. Seeing people burst into the tango in Buenos Aires and the unforgettable music.

7. Did you include any professional development while you travelled? Visit any libraries? Meet any librarians?

I didn’t arrange any visits in a professional capacity but I did pop into a few libraries out of interest.

8. What did you learn from your travel career break that you would never have learned otherwise?

I’ve learned not to take my job for granted. Other professionals we met during our travels were amazed we were allowed to take time away from our jobs without a penalty. I learned you need time away from your job completely to relax and do things you enjoy not just try and fit them in at the weekend.

9. Did you find it difficult to return to working life after the journey? If so, what was your biggest challenge when you went back to work?

Although I wasn’t looking forward to the daily commute and usual stresses of working I enjoy my job and was keen to get back to a ‘normal’ routine. I felt relaxed and more yet more energetic when I returned to work. The biggest challenge was keeping that feeling going.

10. Do you think your travel experiences have changed your approach to your professional life?

I felt more confident returning to work, I’d survived the jungle in Malaysia and not been bitten by a spider which lived in our hotel bedroom in Sydney! I could easily take on the journalists now.

11. What advice would you give to other people who considering taking a travel career break?

Go for it! The day before you set off on your travels is wonderful – you have lots to look forward to, some exciting places to see and new people to meet.

12. Do you have any travel plans for the future?

I would like to take another career break but it may have to wait until nearer retirement. I’d love to go to Botswana and also Japan.

Thank you so much Lesley for sharing your career break experience with Library returners and helping launch the Your Voices: LIS career break stories section of the website. If you feel inspired by Lesley’s contribution and you would like to be included in this project, please contact me at libraryreturners@gmail.com