Bosses see benefit in giving sabbaticals to workers
Managers take a page from academia, see extended time off as a way to reward and retain employees.
from the September 24, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
Ken Smith, a general manager at Logos Research Systems in Bellingham, Wash., spent part of his paid sabbatical taking his family on a historic tour of Washington, D.C., and Virginia. Employees can take four weeks off every 10 years. They also receive a $1,200 bonus for travel.
"That paid our entire airfare for all six of us to fly to Washington," Mr. Smith says. In addition to giving his children "a great educational experience," the sabbatical kept him out of the office for three weeks, a welcome change from his usual practice of taking only a week's vacation at a time.
Bob Pritchett, Logos's president, instituted the program a year ago. "I see it as one more piece of our plan to be an attractive employer, a way for people to have a long-term perspective about working here," he says. "We want to give them a chance
to take a real break and not just go home and paint the garage."
Executives at BKD, a financial-services firm in Springfield, Mo., place such a high value on the need to recharge employees that they mandate a one-month-long sabbatical every five years. The company even disables absent partners' e-mail accounts so they cannot work from home while they are away.
"The time away gives the partners a chance to relax and spend time with their families," says Randy Hultz, human resources director. "That benefit is incalculable." Equally important, it gives other employees a chance to show they can handle extra responsibilities.
Yet challenges arise. One difficulty, Rosen finds, is that it is not easy for some people to take advantage of the program. "Picking up and leaving for three months if you have children or a spouse is hard." That makes him concerned about the overall program. "You end up with people who can use it and people who can't, and the people who can't feel they've lost out."
Another challenge for some workers is learning how to let go of the office and relinquish control to colleagues.
"When Lisa [Angel] was gone, all employees agreed not to tell her what was going on," Rosen says. "She stopped calling."
For some managers, delegating an absent colleague's work is also a potential obstacle, particularly in small companies. But when Susan Bassett, director of Corporate Ink in Newton, Mass., went to Tanzania to teach English for three weeks, she found how much employees at the 10-person firm could accomplish without her. "I realized how much they know and how good their instincts are," she says.
RSS feed
