Joe Belfiore Is Taking A Year's Break From Microsoft

Joe Belfiore, VP at Microsoft Windows team yesterday announced his plans to take a break from work starting November for about an year. He is currently responsible for the user experience for Windows that powers devices from Lumias to Surface Hub. He is planning to spend this time with his family. Windows 10 Mobile launch is just around the corner and he won’t be there during its launch. One good thing to hear is that he will be back at Microsoft on the same position in Windows team next summer.

Read his full message below.

I have some news to share with all of you!

Kristina and I are always trying to help our kids understand just how FORTUNATE our family is … we live in a great country, we both have had amazing jobs/great careers, and all of us have benefitted from a terrific educational system (and even an amazing health-care system!).

Beyond those, we also try to maintain an appreciation for what a precious resource TIME is. After all, when you have young kids, you see the time going by really fast. With Alexander in 6th grade, we already feel like high school is right around the corner. Eeeesh.
SO… after dreaming about the idea for years… and with our kids getting ALMOST too old for something crazy… we’ve decided that we are going to take our family on the EDUCATIONAL TRIP OF OUR LIFETIME.

In January – we’re heading out on SEMESTER AT SEA for a journey around the world, along with 600+ college students and a handful of faculty and “lifelong learners” like us.

We think a floating college campus will be an amazing environment for everyone in our family to get a chance to see and experience the diversity all around the world and better appreciate what we have here. We’ve coveted the opportunity to spend a lot of time with each other and our kids—and we’re taking advantage of it while we can!

As for me and my job… when the trip is over, I’ll be right back at it! I’m proud to have spent the last 25 years working for a thoughtful and considerate company here at Microsoft. It’s a company and community whose values align with mine and whose management has been completely supportive of me and my family in pursuing this idea. I’m taking an extended personal leave-of-absence starting in November: we’re gonna visit family and show the kids the great cities of the northeast US before we leave on the ship. I’ll be back at MS in my same job working on Windows next summer, in time for the kids to get back into the normal US school routine.

We’re thrilled to share our exciting news with all of you! At some point, we’ll figure out a blog or facebook page or… something. But for now… wish us luck and send us your ideas on what to see!