Sabbaticals from work

[Martha]

JG, I too worry about my workaholic tendencies. Will I really be able to work part time this year? Will my free time be spent worrying about what is going on with x, y and z? As it is, I am not working next week but forwarded my email to my home account and left my secretary some work and instructions to email the drafts to me.


As far as sabbaticals, the few employers I know who offer them have sabbatical policies that lay out the rules. Many require you to present a "plan" for what you are going to do on your time off to justify the sabbatical. For example, doing volunteer work or writing a book. The employers I know with sabbatical plans continue the employee under the health insurance plan.

 

[MJ]

The employers I know with sabbatical plans continue the employee under the health insurance plan.

Thanks Martha and Happy New Year to you, all the pre-ER and ERs in this group.

MJ

 

[gratefuled]

I'm with GTM on the question about a 6-12 month resume gap, especially in the case of younger candidates.

In the last 10 years I've interviewed approximately a hundred people and hired at least thirty. I never looked at a gap like this as a detriment as long as the candidate was able to explain to me why the gap was positive in terms of job qualification and/or life experience. Education, a travel opportunity, volunteer work, caring for a sick family member, relocation related to geographical preference, writing a novel, etc. are all work history gap reasons I've considered objectively.

As a supervisor I'm less interested in someone who stuck around in an obvious sweatshop job (professional services comes to mind) than in someone who took six months off to go rock climbing in Asia, or whatever. In terms of experience there's no comparing the two.

Ed

 

[John Galt]

Ed, I think you are in the minority. I have interviewed/
hired/fired a large number of workers. I believe
most decision makers would worry that the applicant
would decide to take off and go rock climbing again.

JG

 

[gratefuled]

John...yup, most would. But I think one six-month break after a three-year dead-end job is probably a good decision, whereas five six-month breaks in seven years is definitely a bad habit. Seen both; took the former and passed on the latter.

Hmm...(sound of spinning wheels)...maybe I should screen my current staff and any future candidates to see if they're members of this forum. Obviously if they're here they plan to bolt at the first chance they get, right?

Hope my boss doesn't try that, tho...

Ed

 

[LiveWell]

I'm with GTM on the question about a 6-12 month resume gap, especially in the case of younger candidates.

In the last 10 years I've interviewed approximately a hundred people and hired at least thirty. I never looked at a gap like this as a detriment as long as the candidate was able to explain to me why the gap was positive in terms of job qualification and/or life experience. Education, a travel opportunity, volunteer work, caring for a sick family member, relocation related to geographical preference, writing a novel, etc. are all work history gap reasons I've considered objectively.

As a supervisor I'm less interested in someone who stuck around in an obvious sweatshop job (professional services comes to mind) than in someone who took six months off to go rock climbing in Asia, or whatever. In terms of experience there's no comparing the two.

Ed

Thanks gratefuled! Just knowing the type of person I am I would have a hard time not doing something that was positive in terms of job qualifications. On the whole I really like my job... its the *having* to come to work every weekday from 9 til 6 or 7 and fighting through traffic that annoys me. I could definately see doing my own project or training that relates to my job... or even picking up some freelance work here and there. Heck, if I could get a few steady freelance clients then maybe I wouldn't even go back to the "regular" work day.

-LiveWell

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

My 3 month sabbatical given to me by my most former employer was wonderful, but detrimental to the employer.

It unwound all the foolishness at work for me and couldnt do it anymore with a straight face. It also showed me I could ER with no problems.

As someone who interviewed probably thousands of people and hired hundreds, a sabbatical gap wouldnt have made me blink an eye. But I'm probably not your average interviewer. That someone had the motivation to get off the hampster wheel for a while as far as I'm concerned would be a plus. I *did* interview one candidate who confessed that she had to take a few years off to get some psychological work done and later found out she threatened the lives of several of her co-workers and smashed the place up when they fired her. I didnt think that was a real positive.

The thing is, the only change a sabbatical makes is removing you from day to day politics and high volume, high detail day to day interaction with specific tools, techniques and data related to your profession. These things are very easily learned and/or updated. You as a worker and person probably dont change much as far as your work habits, the way you deal with people and projects, etc. Its very easy to teach a new technique, tool or set of statistics or characteristics. Its almost impossible to make someone stop being a dick, work better with other people or become an effective employee.

If a company couldnt look past a sabbatical, considering it detrimental, then I wouldnt want to work for them. Now a 10+ year gap might give me pause, but I'd hire a former VP of something with a 10 year gap into a senior position...not necessarily a VP job...and look at them to advance back into the executive ranks. I might not hire someone who wrote code 10 years ago for a new coding job. Besides, I'd get sick and tired of hearing how the programming languages "way back then" were better than they are today...

I also dont think its necessary to jump right back in where you left off. I figure I could get a moderate level job in marketing, sales, IT or engineering in a heartbeat. Someone would take a chance on their $70k a year to see if I still "had it". I figure it'd take me a year, maybe two in a big company, before I was offered a management job and five before I was right back where I started from.

Heaven forbid!