The chances are that you do. According to a survey by Direct Line Travel Insurance, more than six million Brits have taken a career break. The rest of us are plainly envious: three out of four employees are also thinking about it.

With so many valuable staff demanding time out, leading employers have recognised this trend and are adding career breaks to their list of employment benefits. If you work for Accenture, Marks & Spencer, BT or Lloyds TSB, you may already know the benefits. But don’t expect such enlightened policies from everyone: the majority of career-breakers still end up resigning from their job to take a break.

So why are so many people prepared to put successful careers on hold, trade their briefcase for a suitcase and swap their season ticket for a round-the-world airline ticket? For many it is the realisation that work really isn’t everything and that it is equally important to find time to fulfil dreams or to pursue your innermost passions.

As finance director of Hotel du Vin, Peter Chittick, 47, had a thriving career at a successful company. But he wanted to spend time creating life-long memories with his young family. “We had talked about doing a trip like this for several years. Our aim was simple — to have an adventure together as a family that we would all remember forever. Then the sale of my hotel group suddenly made it all possible.”

Many career breakers are driven by the need to change their lives. Amanda Ribbins, 33 (see panel below right), worked for an investment bank, but says she was “suffering from ‘irritable trout syndrome’ — generally tired, stressed and uncharacteristically demotivated. I wanted to get off the treadmill for a while, learn something new in a totally different environment, travel and have some fun.” So she learnt to sail.

Others take a career break to change their career. “I volunteered as a staff member with Raleigh International in Ghana and Costa Rica,” says Michelle Hawkins, a 36-year-old former publicist. “I hoped this would give me the experience I needed to change jobs and move into the humanitarian voluntary sector when I returned home.” And it did: Michelle is now communications and fundraising officer for Médecins du Monde UK.

To maximise the chances of a successful comeback, remember that evidence of a constructive career break is what future employers want to see. This means that you need to spend your time wisely — learn new skills, use existing ones to help others, experience different cultures and countries, or live and work abroad.

So, if you’ve ever dreamed of learning Spanish in Peru, volunteering in a Nepalese orphanage, sailing around the world, or teaching English as a foreign language in Japan, this is the time to do it. Often a career break will comprise several of these elements, linked together by high adventure and independent travel.

The most rewarding career breaks are about far more than seeing the world. For instance, Sally and Paul Beilby, both engineers in their mid-thirties, volunteered as teachers in Tanzania with the career break specialist MondoChallenge. “We lived in a remote mountain village,” says Paul “The setting was breathtaking — banana and maize fields on steep slopes, picturesque streams and each family with their smallholding of chickens and goats. In two months I only ever saw one car in the village.

“I taught physics but the facilities were so basic that I had to make use of objects I found locally to demonstrate the principles — sticks for levers, elastic for springs and our bicycles for gears.”

Career breaks come in many shapes and sizes. You don’t have to go for a whole year — many career breaks lasting four months or less are just as fulfilling. In the words of Amanda Ribbins, the most important part of a career break is making the decision to go. “I stopped thinking about why I shouldn’t do it and thought about all the reasons why I should,” she says. “It has changed my life.”

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