Personal Sabbaticals: What You Do In Life Echoes For An Eternity

It’s finally summer in the mid-west. The trees are green and full. Everyone is either walking and sweating or jogging and sweating. The air is thick with the smell of someone’s dinner cooking on the outdoor grill. It’s that time of year when people try to make the most of every single day. Everyone wants to shake off the winter blah and rejuvenate themselves with exercise, garage sales, and scores of outdoor festivals. A longer day means more time to spend doing the things that you love.

Like the movie, “Ground Hog Day,” I’ve watched Wisconsin summers repeat themselves in perfect form for too many years to count. I can also remember many times sitting on a park bench, watching the grass blowing in the wind and asking myself, “what if this was my daily routine for a month, three months or a year?” “What if my responsibility each day was to engage myself in a good book, quiet walk or an interesting project?” “What if I could do whatever I wanted to all evening, tomorrow and the next day?” Of course if I could do those things, I would probably be retired or better yet I would be on a "personal sabbatical."

I came to the conclusion that every human being needed a personal sabbatical twenty-five years ago. My lay-off in 1981 from a local truck seat manufacturer made me the recipient of an unplanned sabbatical. At the time, I considered it a gift from the heavens since it allowed me more time to complete the admissions process for acceptance into the undergrad program at UW-Madison. The plan was to begin my second attempt at higher education when the fall semester came around. Indeed, the layoff gave me twelve months to make the transition from a factory worker to a returning adult student.

I jokingly refer to that year as the most important year in my life. It was the year that I spent planning the next 15 years of my life. For 12 months I exercised diligently, wrote in my journal religiously and generally slowed life down to a snail’s pace. I read, I listened and I thought. I would sit and think for hours and then I would think about my thoughts. I reconciled the gap between who I was, and who I wanted to be. I existed in the moment.

Normally we associate the concept of a personal sabbatical with the academic community. However, sabbaticals, which have been part of the fabric of higher education for over 100 years are now becoming a common practice in corporate America. In fact, with a little research I discovered that roughly 11 percent of large companies offer paid sabbaticals to employees and another 29 percent offer unpaid sabbaticals, according to the latest data from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

Even though paid sabbaticals are typically the province of large companies, 16 percent of small companies and 21 percent of mid-size companies today do offer unpaid sabbaticals.Five years ago, only 15 percent of all companies offered unpaid sabbaticals.

Call it enlightened or call it HR strategy, but employers that offer sabbaticals know that making it easy for employees to explore their interests beyond their career is a good way to build loyalty, increase retention and foster greater creativity at work.

In an article entitled, “The World’s Best Perk,” J. Robert Carr, SHRM's chief professional development officer said it best, "The theory behind sabbaticals is that everyone wishes to do something perhaps radically different for some period of time. A sabbatical can curb the impulse to quit. You don't want talented people to walk out the door. The goal is to hold on to your employees."

While personal sabbaticals are relatively new to much of the corporate world, workplace sabbaticals date back to the early 1970s, particularly for firms in the Silicon Valley. Companies such as Tandem Computers Inc. and Apple Computer Inc. initiated such leave programs in order to offer relief from the daily grind of a corporate high tech environment. Employee burn out has been a concern in the high tech community for many years. The success of these high tech firms is heavily dependent upon the creativity of their employees.

By offering employees a chance to focus on their personal goals, firms such as Tandem, Apple, Intel, and IBM offer their employees opportunities for personal growth which, in turn, enhances their creativity. High tech firms aren't the only ones using sabbaticals to combat stress. Programs to counter job burn out have also been put in place in law firms, consulting agencies, and other industries.

Besides replenishing energy and creativity, individuals who have experienced sabbaticals express a wide range of benefits including the ability to focus on learning new skills, accomplish life-long goals, contribute time to volunteer programs or spend quality time with family. Whatever the focus of the sabbatical, employees routinely return rejuvenated and eager to resume their jobs.

Apparently the often held belief that sabbaticals are a luxury of the academic community and something that will never be allowed in the business world is no longer valid. It’s clear that personal sabbaticals are not just for professors anymore. They are becoming a part of corporate America and are gaining popularity. So if you’ve had a desire to send the summer working on that novel, or think it’s time for a bicycle tour through the hills of France, start planning your sabbatical today. You won’t regret it and you might even learn something new.