Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea
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Speaking of vacations - I wonder how most people do vacations?
A vacation for me is getting the heck out of dodge and, as the saying goes, sucking the marrow out of life. For example, my up coming trip to Europe will be fly to the UK, visit 3-4 cities outside of London, driving an average of 4 hrs a day (mostly middle, southern UK) then 4 days in London for a convention (most of which will be spent on my feet for 18-24 hours a day), then to Dublin to rent a car to drive to the west coast (4+ hours) spend one night there, then drive back, fly to Amsterdam, visit the sites for 3 days (this will be the relaxing part), then fly to Berlin, another 2 days seeing sites, Fly/train to Hamburg, 2 days site seeing, then home.
This will not be a very relaxing trip, so when I return to work, I won't be revitalized as they say.
So in a case like this, having a whole year to do that trip instead, that would be awesome, and likely I would return revitalized because I was able to slow down and do more of a Scott type trip.
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@Dashrender said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
I understand the "they like you, they feel you bring value to the company" idea, I understand what you're saying about maternity leave (but isn't that only 3-4 months in the US max?), but those things only go so far.
I've definitely worked places with 9 months of maternity in the US. Rare, of course, but they exist.
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@Dashrender said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
I guess I'm not altruistic enough for this situation, I don't expect companies to just take it on the chin.
Any company with a good vacation plan pretty much deals with it already. In the financial industry it is so common as to be nearly standard and sometimes actually expected. My dad's time at Eastman Kodak it was a common thing for his colleagues to do. While living in Nicaragua I hung out with some mid-career American couple that was doing it from their US jobs.
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@Dashrender said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
Speaking of vacations - I wonder how most people do vacations?
I save them up so that they really count. I need enough time to really check out. I went for 20 years with my only break being my honeymoon (ten days) and then I took two months off straight. It was glorious.
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@Dashrender said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
This will not be a very relaxing trip, so when I return to work, I won't be revitalized as they say.
So in a case like this, having a whole year to do that trip instead, that would be awesome, and likely I would return revitalized because I was able to slow down and do more of a Scott type trip.
Busy doesn't preclude relaxing. We did our whirlwind trip in 2012 which was six weeks moving to a different location every two days (with one five day day stay in Piemonte towards the end.) It was rough and exhausting... but mentally it was totally refreshing. It was truly a vacation. Not "relaxing", but that wasn't the idea. It was "refreshing." It allowed me to recharge.
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@scottalanmiller said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
@Dashrender said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
I understand the "they like you, they feel you bring value to the company" idea, I understand what you're saying about maternity leave (but isn't that only 3-4 months in the US max?), but those things only go so far.
I've definitely worked places with 9 months of maternity in the US. Rare, of course, but they exist.
And there are places that give $30k+ bonuses to every employee, they exist, but are not relevant to the conversation.
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@scottalanmiller said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
@Dashrender said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
This will not be a very relaxing trip, so when I return to work, I won't be revitalized as they say.
So in a case like this, having a whole year to do that trip instead, that would be awesome, and likely I would return revitalized because I was able to slow down and do more of a Scott type trip.
Busy doesn't preclude relaxing. We did our whirlwind trip in 2012 which was six weeks moving to a different location every two days (with one five day day stay in Piemonte towards the end.) It was rough and exhausting... but mentally it was totally refreshing. It was truly a vacation. Not "relaxing", but that wasn't the idea. It was "refreshing." It allowed me to recharge.
I guess I don't feel recharged personally unless there is long stretches of chill time. You said you had 5 days near the end so that would qualify in my case.
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@Dashrender said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
@scottalanmiller said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
@Dashrender said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
I understand the "they like you, they feel you bring value to the company" idea, I understand what you're saying about maternity leave (but isn't that only 3-4 months in the US max?), but those things only go so far.
I've definitely worked places with 9 months of maternity in the US. Rare, of course, but they exist.
And there are places that give $30k+ bonuses to every employee, they exist, but are not relevant to the conversation.
Basically it sounds like... good, healthy companies and good vacation and maternity plans go together. Coincidence? Maybe taking care of employees helps you earn the money to do so. And abusing them lowers performance making it harder to make money.
Certainly not the only factor, but if the question is "can companies absorb this" the answer is, I think, generally yes. The bigger question should be "can they afford NOT to do things like this?"
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I just don't see a short term vacation vs a sabbatical being the same at all. Most companies can survive a two week vacation. As I said, all projects on hold, no changes, just worry about the day to day during that time. Of course I'm talking the SMB here, not big companies that generally have larger staffs in each departments.
I suppose larger companies could handle it easier, they just dump a little more load on everyone else in the team, but smaller companies, single man IT shops, it will be a much larger strain on them.
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@Dashrender said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
I suppose larger companies could handle it easier, they just dump a little more load on everyone else in the team, but smaller companies, single man IT shops, it will be a much larger strain on them.
They plan for the necessary load to handle their environment from the beginning and don't try to make individuals carry the capacity of a team.
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@Dashrender said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
Of course I'm talking the SMB here, not big companies that generally have larger staffs in each departments.
http://www.smbitjournal.com/2013/02/the-smallest-it-department/
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@Dashrender said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
I just don't see a short term vacation vs a sabbatical being the same at all. Most companies can survive a two week vacation. As I said, all projects on hold, no changes, just worry about the day to day during that time.
I honestly no of no company like this.... that can go with zero IT for even two weeks. Oh sure, they might get lucky but it's not a way to plan to operate.
Find me a company that doesn't need outside support available for those two weeks, and I'll show you a company doing nothing (or the really rare one that has no computer dependency.)
And how many tiny companies with only one staffer do "projects" at all? And how many of them? I know a lot of SMBs and year or longer delays because of management alone is not uncommon.
But again... how long would these delays be if you quit?
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I took 18 months off after my last job ended. It was glorious. Only got paid for 6 of them though, had to dip into the investment account. But for a few months there i didnt even have a clock. I unplugged my alarm clock, turned the one on my oven to wrong, and hid the one on my computer.
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@scottalanmiller said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
I honestly no of no company like this.... that can go with zero IT for even two weeks. Oh sure, they might get lucky but it's not a way to plan to operate.
They have coverage, just not onsite coverage for that two weeks.
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@scottalanmiller said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
And how many tiny companies with only one staffer do "projects" at all? And how many of them? I know a lot of SMBs and year or longer delays because of management alone is not uncommon.
But again... how long would these delays be if you quit?
I agree the projects, that I tossed on the pile aren't that many/big, but they wouldn't be zero over the life of the tech, sure may be years between.
But even the day to day stuff, can't print, can't get on the network, my mouse is dead, etc.
Most companies with a single IT person will have a MSP as their backup, which is our case.
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@momurda said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
I took 18 months off after my last job ended. It was glorious. Only got paid for 6 of them though, had to dip into the investment account. But for a few months there i didnt even have a clock. I unplugged my alarm clock, turned the one on my oven to wrong, and hid the one on my computer.
To each there own, a complete lack of a schedule annoys me, but I'm glad it worked for you.
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@momurda said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
I took 18 months off after my last job ended. It was glorious. Only got paid for 6 of them though, had to dip into the investment account. But for a few months there i didnt even have a clock. I unplugged my alarm clock, turned the one on my oven to wrong, and hid the one on my computer.
I've not had a alarm clock for almost 18 years. I refuse to do anything that requires one outside of catching flights.
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@Dashrender said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
@scottalanmiller said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
I honestly no of no company like this.... that can go with zero IT for even two weeks. Oh sure, they might get lucky but it's not a way to plan to operate.
They have coverage, just not onsite coverage for that two weeks.
So if they have coverage for the needs, how much more does it take for the "wants?"
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@Dashrender said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
@scottalanmiller said in Is a Mid Career Sabbatical a Good Idea:
And how many tiny companies with only one staffer do "projects" at all? And how many of them? I know a lot of SMBs and year or longer delays because of management alone is not uncommon.
But again... how long would these delays be if you quit?
I agree the projects, that I tossed on the pile aren't that many/big, but they wouldn't be zero over the life of the tech, sure may be years between.
But even the day to day stuff, can't print, can't get on the network, my mouse is dead, etc.
Most companies with a single IT person will have a MSP as their backup, which is our case.
Right.. and doesn't all that sound like a year off once or twice a decade wouldn't have much of any impact? Especially when you consider that you'd be fresh and ready to go when you return? And maybe they'd be ready to make decisions faster?
The rubber banding effect might seriously absorb the whole thing!
