I came across a situation in my professional life where someone I know was taking one. It got me to thinking and I realized I don't know anyone who's done this. I thought it was a religious getaway, unless this is some sort of a nice way to say rehab, or furlough.
Do Aggies take sabbaticals? Weren't sure we programmed with that option at A&M.

One of my old companies had a policy where after 4 years, you could take a 4 week sabbatical or after 5 you could take a 5 week. Do whatever you want. Kept people from burnout and was definitely a perk. I was planning on doing the 5 week version and was RIF'd a couple months before hitting my 5 year mark, though.

Intel used to do them, so I imagine there are quite a few Aggies that took them.

My gf's company has 10-weeks after 5 years. I think it's an easier thing for early stage companies to offer when a very low % of the company ever gets to 5 years. My gf is at 4.25 years and only 1 person has taken it.

First Big 4 firm: Was offered a sabbatical during COVID. It was voluntary and helped keep the bench clear / avoid RIFs. I took all of December off at 75% of pay.

Current firm: Unpaid LOA program (@ 20% of pay for up to 6 months). You also get a fully paid sabbatical for 4 weeks at Director promotion.

I will be taking LOA (probably 3 months) next year before my daughter starts kindergarten.

Charles Schwab offers them to their employees. Every five years they get to take four weeks off.

Wife is at Schwab as well. They are required at 5 years and must be a continuous 4 weeks. Her family is in Denmark so comes in handy. Had one and will get another in 2 years.

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They are required at 5 years

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That's what surprised me. My Schwab contact told me it wasn't an option...you have to take the time off.

SteveBott said:

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Wife is at Schwab as well. They are required at 5 years and must be a continuous 4 weeks. Her family is in Denmark so comes in handy. Had one and will get another in 2 years.

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BIL is in the middle of his from Schwab at the moment.

Yep and as said has to continuous. Americans have no idea of the concept but to her a Dane it's normal. She has very unique job, basically 1 of 1 dept. so training someone takes as much as 4 months. And she still comes back to clean up.

We get 4 months of parental leave, I've taken that 2x and it feels like a sabbatical. I am much happier for doing it. It's almost like an acid trip, where your whole view of the world changes afterwards

I took one back in 2019. It was awesome.

I've built up enough leave to have approx 150 use or lose hours each year. I've been taking the month of July off, and it's great. Sometimes Europe. This year will be a combo of beach, New Mexico, home.

I don't take off much time the remainder of the year so I always start with use or lose.

What are you even supposed to do on a sabbatical?

Yes but for some reason it doesn't seem appreciated enough. The 14 weeks off each year in my example above is pretty significant. Especially for parents with kids on the same schedule. What other job offers that?

Have several Aggie classmates that went into education. All went up the ladder out of classroom teaching to director of a department, assistant superintendent, chief operating officer, superintendent, etc. All seem to have had a great career with minimal commute time and several are now retired and drawing teacher retirement at age 56.

For you sabbatical takers did you work on a team and others had to take over for your work while you were gone? Did they beotch about it? Or were you a manager? If you were part of a team or group and when you came back how long before you would beotch about something? A week? Month? Did anybody call you out and say hey you've been gone a month quit complaining! Just curious on the peer dynamics of not having to answer the phone or email for a month or more.

My team both up and down gladly supported me knowing I would do the same for them. It was a great opportunity to extend the responsibilities of my junior team member and gave us hard timeline to finish side projects. I spent a good amount of time preparing my team to function without me. I got two calls the entire time and both were for my signature on a document. When I came back my team continued to function well and I was able to spend more time on business development and building more teams

I'm eligible to take a 4 week sabbatical between July 2024 and June 2025, which will be the first time I've ever had the chance to do something like this.

Plan is to be in remote parts of Alaska next August for the entire time.

It's not so much an A&M thing about not taking sabbaticals but more so an American thing. It's just not part of our work culture, and people probably have too much anxiety to take one even if given the option.

Sounds like they are slowly but surely becoming normalized, though. I would absolutely love to take one someday. I'd probably rent an apartment on the Spanish coast and chill for a solid month.

At the Management Consulting firm I worked at for years you were eligible after two years. We had a predictably high turnover and burnout rate.

There were two or three different options and I don't remember the details exactly so don't quote me on the numbers, but you could: (1) take like 3 weeks at some percentage (not counted against PTO balance), but had to be taken between projects; (2) take like 40-50% pay for a longer period (like up to 3 months I believe); or (3) take up to 6 months or a year or something at 20% pay. The last one was really meant for you to go spend a year working for a non-profit or pursuing a passion project and the plan and your activities had to be approved by the Partners. Each of them came with certain strings attached on the back end.

I know a guy who went and worked in Myanmar/Burma for a non-profit group for 6 months. Used that to travel all over southeast Asia while he was there. I also knew a family that took the 3 months during their kids' summer and went to travel all through Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and South America as a family. Both of them are still with the firm some 6-7 years later and said it was one of the best breaks they ever took.

Most of the time they are fully paid