A Kraft Brand Marketer’s Year on Sabbatical

For those us who dream of talking a year off to do whatever we want whether that be hiking the Appalachian Trail, living in a beach hut or simply doing nothing, it takes guts. We give up our jobs and leave our homes and our friends in search of something … something.

I recently read this blog post from the New York Times by Karan Bajaj, who did just that. He was a brand director at Kraft Foods, who took a year off to go on a spiritual and creative sabbatical. He made the pitch to his boss (a few times) and said goodbye to the high-stress, fast-pace of a job marketing Capri Sun and Kool-Aid. Making the pitch is one thing, actually getting the time off is another. Most of us are likely afraid to even ask for fear our bosses will think we’ve lost interest in our jobs, or worse, the job might not be there when we return.

Bajaj and his wife took off with backpacks and plans to live very modestly. The two traveled from Europe to India by road. His journey was fascinating, but not always easy as you’ll read. He did return to his job at Kraft Foods with a year’s worth of memories and activities that didn’t quite quell the ability to calmly deal with the typical stressful work situations. Even so, he had gone off on an adventure that most of us only dream about.