Planning for a sabbatical

And I am headed towards the tail end of my sabbatical, I am feeling a lot more refreshed and energised. Granted that I am suffering from stiff shoulders these days from constantly carrying a growing baby, all things considered, I would think that the overall benefits outweigh the cost(most predominantly, the loss of income).

Looking back, I have been in the workforce for more than a decade and this is definitely the longest break that I have from work. And really, this was a much needed break.

Unlike the time when we were in school, where we had vacation breaks in between semesters, or long summer breaks in college, this was probably something that stopped appearing in our lives once we started out in the workforce. Granted that we could have 2-3 weeks of vacation time off a year but let’s all be honest, how many of us really find that this suffice?

More often than not, the night before we are to head back to work, we start feeling the blues already.

There were a couple of questions from readers regarding my sabbatical – predominantly, how was it possible for me to get a sabbatical from work? And what type of job do I work in to get one?

In my honest opinion, I think that almost all jobs out there qualifies for a sabbatical. The only issue is – how supportive are the employers. Some employers might be gracious enough to allow the sabbatical, hiring a cover in the interim to cover your duties and responsibilities, or distribute it to the rest of the team. But others might rather you leave the job completely and hire somebody else.

Anyway, back to the above question. Did I know that I will get a sabbatical if I requested for one?

The answer is NO.

And to be honest, I thought that there was a high possibility that it would be rejected.

There were also no prior precedents. No one else in my team had ever requested for something similar.

But I still went ahead and requested for one.

There were a couple of reasons why I needed one – for my family, self and health.

You see, I was even prepared to quit my job should the request not be forthcoming. 

And with that, it didn’t really matter then should the request be rejected.

But I am glad that that my employer supported my decision to be away from work for a while, although it came with strings attached (which I shall not be discussing here).

But here are a few tips to perhaps help you get started to think about one or even plan for one.

1. Duration – ask yourself how long a break do you think you will need. Will that be a month or two? six months or even a year?
2. Engineer your sabbatical – speak to your manager and employers about it. Kudos to you if you work for an organisation that promotes work-life harmony but unfortunately, many organisations out there are still pretty skeptical about such arrangements. For an employee to be away for a period of time, chances are replacements will be necessary in the interim to cover your workload. It might take at least a couple of months for the handover to be in place etc. before you can start your sabbatical.
3. Quitting your job – Should the request not be forthcoming, are you prepared to quit your job first before looking for a new one as you approach the end of the sabbatical? That is an inherent risk in itself and you have to be mentally prepared for this scenario.
4. Finances – Lastly and most importantly, the economics of your finances. Especially for longer sabbaticals, you will most likely be out of a paycheck for a longer period. Will you have sufficient funds to cover your expenses during this period? As for me, I wasn’t going to do any travelling and it was mainly local expenses. Also, as Dave and I have been tracking our expenses for a while and know the patterns of our spending habits, we were comfortable to know that even without my paycheck, we will not run into any monetary crisis if I were out of work for 6 months or even a year.

A lot of people think a sabbatical is pretty far fetched. Well, I used to think the same way too. I can be considered fortunate that my employer is understanding and granted my request for one.

The most important question you have to ask yourself is this.

Are you prepared to quit your job for a sabbatical?

If you are, I think you are ready to take one.