I am currently "between jobs" and am taking it as a sabbatical. Earlier I would jump at the first job I got which led to other bad outcomes. This time I will take it easy and slow. Wait for the right one in terms of title and money and work. I am okay to wait longer.

The other thing is I keep this "I am on sabbatical" to myself. I don't announce it.

Comeby! said:

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I think I'd be embarrassed to say 'I took a sabbatical'. I would sounds like some sort of monk that ran off into the mountains for 'find myself'. Vacation, PTO, furlough, sent home packing sounds more typical. Rank and file employees may be able to take extended time off. People close to the nucleus of a company can't. Unless you have some sort of mental breakdown I would imagine. Maybe I'm a boomer.

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It's the inverse in my experience: rank and file can't because they actually do. The world moves and the work still gets done when a Director dueces out for a few weeks.

Consulting, have worked for two of the Big 4:

• Firm A: I took a voluntary sabbatical during Covid. 4 weeks @ 50% pay. Middle management at the time and chilled with my 1 year old when her daycare shut down.
• Firm B auto-Sabbatical: Every promotion at Manager and to above comes with a 4 week sabbatical @ 100% pay.
• Firm B voluntary leave-of-absence: 4-26 weeks of leave @ 20% of pay.

I wouldn't sniff the voluntary option right now with all eyes on a growing bench and delaying our MBA cohort starts. But, I'm a few years from FI and will probably coast out of the consulting life on a voluntary LOA eventually.

Diggity said:

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Comeby! said:

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What industry is this?

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elementary education

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Sounds like summer.

Comeby! said:

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What industry is this?

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I'm in tech, but if anyone's curious here's a link that lists companies that offer a sabbatical benefit. There's quite a range of sectors: tech, food, financial, etc.

https://buildremote.co/companies/paid-sabbatical-leave-companies/

Guy on the right needs proper fish posing. Extend it to the camera to make it look bigger.

I've only seen it done one time. A guy in his 50s was really tired of work yet did not have the assets to retire early. He arranged for a six-month sabbatical. To my knowledge it was the first one his employer had allowed. He was pretty well liked by those in the organization, people from all levels. At first, I think many (though not all) felt he just needed to get away and were ok with it.

Since the plan was for him to come back after the six months off, they did not hire a replacement because when the guy came back, they would have an extra person. Once he was on the sabbatical, part of what he normally did just didn't get done, much of what he had been doing was scattered out for other people to do. The sentiment to his "time away" turned more and more sour as time went on. A few months after he got back, he was replaced and out of a job. Was not a great time to be looking for a job, had a kid in college as well.

I think how a sabbatical works out would depend somewhat on the size of the company. Those larger companies where overstaffing isn't uncommon would seem to work better. A smaller outfit, where they run a tighter ship, it could turn out poorly.

This is the best explanation I've seen, granted only have 15 years in the work force; but that's a sabbaticals design.

My PI went on a semester long one my second year in grad school, he left the country for 5 months with his family.

It was weird but also we as his students were delagated with most of his day to day, and large things we took to the dept head for signatures and what not.

He and the ento dept were surprised at how well we ran his lab and classes; and he came back refreshed.