Refreshed and Recharged: Sabbatical Stories from the G2 Team

No matter how much you love your job, your coworkers, or the industry – at some point, we all need a little bit of a break.

I’m fortunate to love all of the above – and one of the reasons I enjoy working for G2 is because of how committed our leadership team is to employee happiness and mental health. So much so that one of the benefits offered to G2 employees is that, once you’ve hit the 5-year mark, you can take a 4-week (fully paid!) sabbatical.

In 2024, many of my coworkers and I reached our five-year anniversary and celebrated by signing off and closing our laptops for four weeks. When I asked them how they spent their sabbaticals, two key themes emerged: traveling and resting. Here’s what some of the G2 team was up to during our sabbaticals and how taking this time away helped us return to work ready to amp it up!

Where we traveled

The core theme of the sabbaticals that my coworkers and I took was traveling to places near and far. 

Many of my team members took advantage of this time off to travel internationally. Daniella Alscher, Senior Brand Designer, traveled across Italy alone for three weeks, staying in hostels, hotels, and apartments. “I had never traveled alone anywhere! I visited museums, parks, and churches and didn’t touch a vegetable for 21 days. I made friends with bartenders, hostel-stayers, and people I met on the street—some of whom I’m still chatting with a couple of months later,” she shares.

Breakfast in Florence, Italy

Kai Mitsushio, Senior Relationship Manager, spent 3 weeks in Japan with his wife Lena and daughter Yuna, age 4. He shares, “Yuna attended a local preschool for 2 weeks, where she improved her Japanese and had a great time overall. And, of course, you cannot beat the food in Japan!

Kai, Lena, and Yuna on the Shinkansen (bullet train) for a lunch and ride

Shaun Bishop, Manager of Market Research, traveled with his wife and two-year-old daughter to Vienna, Austria. He shares, “We visited my sister-in-law and her family. Seeing my daughter experience another country’s culture for the first time was really special.”

Shaun and his wife in the Vienna city center

Colin Madigan, Talent Acquisition Manager, traveled to London and Ireland with his fiancé. “I’d never driven on the left side of the road before, and there were only a few moments where I thought we might die,” he shares.

Colin at Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland

Continuing the trips across the pond, Jamie Yates, Senior Enterprise Customer Success Manager, spent over two weeks in Paris with her fiancé. They traveled to various neighborhoods and villages and really immersed themselves in the surroundings like locals.

Jamie and her fiancé outside of the Louvre

In addition to all of this exciting international travel, some other team members and I explored more of the United States! I took a mini girls' trip with one of my best friends to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where we enjoyed a spa day and indulged in some new restaurants. Holly Hunt, Director of Content Marketing, went hiking and explored Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

Yellowstone National Park

And Stacey Turenne visited family all over the country, including Florida, New York, Washington, and Georgia.

Attending a Cubs game in Seattle

How we recharged

Another key theme from our sabbaticals was taking some time to rest and recharge during our four weeks off.

Matthew Miller, Research Principal  shares, “I spent a lot of time with the family, and I even walked 12 miles from my home turf to downtown Chicago. I had the chance to unwind and read, trying to achieve my goal of 500 books read in my lifetime. It was a great time to practice self-care and self-love and to have a splendid time with my family.” 

Like Matthew, I spent a lot of time reading (eight books in four weeks!) and exploring the great outdoors with my rescue dog, Zeke. I also had the pleasure of attending my best friend’s wedding! We did henna a few days before and had such a fun day filled with dancing and laughing.

My best friend Jam and me at her wedding

Holly Hunt also added about her time away: "I allowed myself to rest: lots of afternoon naps, enjoying slow mornings at my favorite coffee shop, lots of reading and yoga!” 

One way a few of us chose to recharge was to take part in some home renovation! Stacy Turenne shared, “I finally completed projects around the house. I felt like I had the time to vet vendors to paint and carpet the main floor of my house. That had been on the to-do list for a while!” 

Shaun Bishop also added, “I painted our detached garage —and like almost every home improvement project I tackle, it took longer than I thought it would, but well worth it to have that freshened-up look.”

How sabbaticals helped us return to work energized

It’s clear we all had our share of fun throughout our four-week sabbatical, and taking this time to do so allowed us to return to work refreshed, recharged, and ready to kick-start our to-do list.

For myself in particular, the timing of my sabbatical was unique because I returned to work the day before our Midyear Meetup event in August – one of our annual company events where the G2 team comes together for connection, inspiration, and information. It was great to attend this event, and I felt rested and ready to focus on new strategies and innovative tactics for the second half of the year.

This time away helped those who struggle to take advantage of the paid time off policy G2 offers employees. For example, Colin Madigan shared, “I’ve always been bad at actually being ‘offline.’ But I deleted Slack, my work email, and my calendar for my sabbatical.  It helped me fully disconnect from work and it was rejuvenating to focus on what I was doing. It refilled my battery better than anything else I’ve done before and meant I returned to work energized and firing on all cylinders.”

These four weeks off work also helped us hone in on what matters most. Holly Hunt shares, “Taking time away helped me clear my head. It’s easy to get bogged down with the little things that happen day-to-day on the job. Taking a step back helped me realize those little things don’t actually matter. The fact that I missed both the work and my team and was looking forward to returning at the end of the month speaks volumes about how great the big picture is.”

Shaun Bishop shared a similar sentiment: "Having the opportunity to spend a longer period of quality time with loved ones enabled me to be fully present with them and feel refreshed by having connected with them. Stepping away from day-to-day tasks at work also gave me a greater sense of perspective when I came back on which of our team’s activities are likely to have the greatest impact, helping me have a renewed sense of purpose and focus.”

Stacy Turenne shares, “Having a month off highlighted what’s important and what’s not- I had a renewed sense of focus and a desire to streamline the work my team and I do. It’s easy to get bogged down in the little things that pop up daily and the stuff you do just because you’ve always done it. My sabbatical gave me enough of a break from the daily grind to gain perspective on what my job actually is (and isn’t).”

Finally, Jamie Yates adds, “I didn’t realize just how much my mind and energy were ‘always on,’ but when I finally turned off notifications and disconnected the apps, I felt an immediate difference. When I came back, I was surprised my customers could tell the difference the rest and rejuvenation made.“

Back to work, better than ever.

Five years at G2 goes by fast – especially when you love what you do.

My coworkers and I are incredibly grateful to have had these four weeks away for travel, home improvement, quality time with friends, and so much more. 

Interested in joining the G2 team? Check out our open positions!