The Conservation Capacity Project invited Momentum's Executive Director, Jess Burton, to reflect on her recent sabbatical with our community. One of her big takeaways is that as much as this sabbatical was so good for her personally and professionally, it was just as good for Momentum’s organizational resilience and development. A sabbatical policy is an investment in staff resilience and the sustainability of your organization
Q: How did you know it was the right time for a sabbatical?
The most simple answer is that Momentum’s Sabbatical Policy states that employees are eligible for a sabbatical after 10 years of
employment; this is my 15th year! We created the first version of our policy in 2017, so needless to say I have been thinking about it
for a while…but more importantly, the organization was ready for me to take the time off. With an active board, a stable and talented
staff, and transparent organizational policies and frameworks, we concluded that now was the time.
As a note, we decided about a year ago, in the summer of 2025, that I would take this sabbatical in April and May 2026. The long lead
time was partially because our policy requires a sabbatical plan to be presented to the board no later than 6 months prior to the
sabbatical start, but also because we knew it would be like moving a mountain to get all of the organizational stuff out of my head in
time. And that was the best decision.
And it actually took me many more years to work up to the actual step of saying “Yes - this is the year.” As any fellow ED knows, we
hold a lot of responsibility - for the work getting done, for the staff being paid, for the board getting the information they need… To
manage this responsibility, we must have some semblance of control, of awareness, and predictability. All three of these things go
out the door while on the sabbatical which feels almost irresponsible and certainly unfamiliar. It took a lot of time, energy, and focus
for me to work through these feelings, which I did with support from my therapist and an executive coach. Because I have been in
this job for so long, it was hard to see myself as separate from the organization - making the border was essential for me and for the
organization. It also really helped me that I had/have an incredibly supportive community of staff, board, mentors, and funders.
Personally this was also the right time for me. The last five years have been filled with a variety of caretaking responsibilities for
family members who needed support. As these roles lessened, I started to see an opening of time that I could take for myself.
Q: Sabbaticals offer a lot of time to think. How do you feel about your work now that you've had time to step back and reflect on it?
I still like my job! It is a known fact that a very sizable percentage of people that take long sabbaticals realize that they want different
jobs and end up transitioning out after their return. I do not feel that way.
As a result of this block of time away, I gained an ability to see our work from a different spot - some call it “being on the balcony”
which to me means that I am above the work and able to see it more objectively and at a distance. With this height, I am noticing
that there are things we are doing, or ways we are working, that are based on assumptions that I couldn’t see before I left. I can now
see the different parts of our work with some boundaries around them, which gives me the ability to openly assess their relevance
and alignment with our values and our capacity.
As you read this, I have been back in my job for more time than the time I was away and I realize that I have fallen back into my habit
of scheduling thing on top of thing. I guess it will take more work than just talking about how I am going to change my pace and
order. I am going to try to take time at the end of each week to look ahead and see how things have landed, do some reorganizing
and prioritization of deadlines and projects while also open planning time for catching up and processing lessons.
Q: What did you learn about what brings you joy/fills your cup?
One of the biggest lessons, or rather rememberings, is that I am someone that thrives on change, newness, and a healthy dose of
disorientation. These three things were in the recipe I used for planning my time. I stayed home for some time, traveled to see
family, and placed myself in experiences that were completely new to me in a far away land all by myself.
Disorientation! Feeling like I am upside down, don’t have a map, don’t know what is coming next, and unsure of my physical
surroundings - that is disorientation to me. For most of my time, in my life, I am pretty well oriented - job, home, family, community,
geography. Of course, even still, every day there is something new I learn, see, experience, and perhaps even a bit disoriented, or
taken aback and surprised. But I craved total disorientation - starting from scratch in a new place, with new people, learning new
things. It was so activating and I am still feeling the effects now that I am back in my known place.
I will say that I never felt unsafe - all of this was accomplished with the privilege I have of being a white woman with resources to
find housing and food and transportation. I chose this disorientation, created and contrived it, but I did so with the purpose of
exploring the outer edges of myself so that I could offer more to the world in my work and my life.
Q: How are you feeling now, and how will you carry that forward? Or -- making no assumptions -- do you have plans to sustain the
travel/learning/rest or other practices of your sabbatical?
One of the things that I have noticed is that I am looking at aspects of this work and this job with new eyes that are less accepting of
practices, habits, and processes that I had previously either just assumed went with the job or did unintentionally. I am asking
myself questions like: Do I need to feel frenetic and keep an overloaded pace and workload to do my job - is there an unwritten
value judgement tied up in the concept of “being busy”? Is assessing capacity and always coming up short in the face of the
immensity of our work a red herring and distraction - is there another way to think about our responses, reactions, and intentions?
I am a question asker - coming to any new opportunity, project, idea, my first reaction is to ask questions. We love a good question
storm in the office - only questions, no answers. In my question asking I tend to think first of questions that are practical and
grounded - maybe a perspective that is left over from being a wilderness trip leader - these are questions akin to - does everyone
have snacks, sunscreen and dry socks? Now after my sabbatical, I find the questions I am asking are different ones, they are from a
strategic, higher level, and I want to stay there.
Personally, I have continued a daily practice of sitting meditation and a study of Buddhism. I am finding that these practices help my
perspective to remain at a higher level. I also have just mapped out my remaining PTO on my calendar - not because there is a trip to
go on or a visitor but because honestly taking the PTO that I am given as part of my position is as important as any other expectation
of my job.
Q: What do you think sabbaticals do for organizations, and not just individuals?
Sabbaticals are an excellent tool for organizations in their work towards resilience and overall health. In order to get ready for this
sabbatical, I had to work hard and long with my staff and board to ensure everything I led, supported, was involved in, and
participated in was accounted for and adequately supported. As the founding Executive Director of this organization, much of the
systems, history, and relationships are tied up in me - deep in the inner echelons of my brain and my computer. This is why spending
a year to get ready was so important.
Additionally, I think that sabbaticals are good for organizations because they challenge hidden assumptions and in particular can
help organizations look at their current power structures. As the Executive Director, I hold the power to make final decisions on
many things. Understanding this power was difficult because it really is invisible, was a habit, and was born from the time when I was
the only staff person. Finding the touchpoints where decisions were being made, determining who was making them, and then
thinking about how to facilitate that process when I was not here was a really great staff culture conversation - and continues to
help us understand and shape the culture we have and we want.
Related to this, power had to be distributed in my absence, and as such asked for people to take on this difficult role. Having power
does not always feel good because hard decisions have to be made - but this role had to be taken on while I was away, giving my
colleagues on staff and the board the opportunity for leadership, but also more insight into what my job entails and asks of me.
Q: Any final reflections?
I wrote this paragraph on April 2nd, the eve of the first day of my sabbatical:
“Do I have goals? I would like to have more French - and feel like my language skills have improved. I would like to have a deeper
relationship with mindfulness and Buddhism. I would like to not feel like I didn’t get enough out of it - that I should have done
something different. But that might just be my curse. I would like to feel rested, rejuvenated. But I don’t necessarily need to feel like
a different person or have any big huge realizations or have a totally new outlook. Expecting that is setting up for disappointment
and it is not the purpose of this time. This time is just time to not feel torn. To do the other things. And to feel like that is enough.”
It is really cool to read that because I accomplished this! And I can see in this paragraph all of the years of work I did to get ready
internally and externally. What an amazing opportunity I had and that I hope others can have too. Thanks so much for this
opportunity to share my experience and I hope if folks want to learn more, they reach out to me.
