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An “Innovation Sabbatical” at General Mills
Rolled out in 2007 along with a personal sabbatical program, General Mills’ “Innovation Sabbatical” is only offered to members of the company’s “Innovation, Technology and Quality” organization, which is comprised of employees in roles related to research and development, nutrition, quality and engineering. After 7 years of service, these employees may apply for an Innovation [...]
How to Prepare for Leaving Work: Insights From An Accountant’s Second Sabbatical
Upon returning to work after his second paid sabbatical, Plante & Moran partner Doug Wiescinski only had to reply to about 20 emails and no voice mails. He had been completely disconnected from work for four weeks.
Re-entry took “no more than a day or two” before being up to speed. His work coverage plan allowed [...]
Jazz Great Sonny Rollins’ Legendary Sabbaticals
The 79-year-old saxophonist known as “the greatest living improvisor” in jazz knows the value of pushing “pause” in a career that requires unlimited amounts of creativity and talent.
On the lengthy sabbaticals Sonny Rollins has taken from playing, he devoted himself to solitary practice, studied Zen meditation in Japan, and even withdrew to a monastery [...]
Majority of 2009 Working Mother 100 Best Companies Offer Extended Leave
Of the companies on this year’s Working Mother 100 Best Companies list, 83% of them allow employees to take leaves, paid or unpaid, of six months or more and return to a comparable job. This includes leaves taken for any reason outside of parental or medical leaves, like sabbaticals. We’ll be leading a “Next Big Thing” roundtable discussion - all about sabbaticals - at Working Mother’s WorkLife Congress in New York City, October 27-29.
Sagmeister on Sabbaticals
If you don’t know about TED’s “ideas worth spreading”, then you absolutely must. If you haven’t been invited to its invitation-only global conferences, I am feeling your pain.
Renowned for album covers, posters and his recent book of life lessons, designer Stefan Sagmeister invariably has a slightly different way of looking at things. He views sabbaticals [...]
Surf's Up For Sunny
During his sabbatical, Sunny Trinh started 9 Fish Surfboards, which he now runs in the evenings, outside of his management position with Arrow Electronics. “By starting a business, I learned quite a bit that I bring to my job at Arrow,” he says. “I am also able to use the surf business to build relationships [...]
Lisa's Sabbatical: Sailing Across the Atlantic
With four weeks away from her job at General Mills, Lisa Skluzacek sailed from the Canary Islands to St. Lucia in the Caribbean. While she was away, her co-workers experienced cross-functional training, and the team became more closely aligned. For Lisa, the trip was a “huge personal accomplishment and really increased my confidence.” She also [...]
Edelman's HR Leader Realizes Sabbatical Benefits for Herself and Her Team
I feel renewed and so grateful to work at Edelman. - Laura Smith
It'll Be No Small Sabbatical for Angela Petitt
At 41, Angela Petitt left her job as a business systems analyst with Waste Management’s corporate office in Houston, TX, to embark on a sabbatical. “I felt it was time to step out, take control, and do something different for a change,” she says. She had been with the company almost four years.
Deloitte Rolls Out Two Sabbatical Programs
In June, professional services giant Deloitte rolled out two sabbatical offerings for its US employees:
Four weeks of unpaid and unrestricted time off. Offered to any employee who has given at least six months of continuous service and has good performance ratings.
Three to six months of time off to pursue career development or volunteer experiences. Offered to high [...]
Career Strategist Renee Trudeau on Personal Retreat Sabbaticals
Renee Trudeau is a big believer in “hitting the pause button.” A career and life balance coach, owner of Career Strategists and author of The Mother’s Guide to Self-Renewal , Trudeau and her team work with mid- to senior-level professionals to help them integrate who they are with what they do. And, she says, people [...]
Reports on Sabbaticals: Work+Life Fit's survey, leaving law for Uganda, & an Intel author
Still think flexibility offerings like sabbaticals don’t have a place in an economic downturn? Think again.
As job loss numbers continue to increase, 94% of employees say they’re willing to change their schedule or cut their salary to avoid layoffs - with 31% saying they would take an unpaid sabbatical. That’s according to the 2009 Annual [...]
No More Straight Lines in Careers: A Boomer's Sabbatical
At age 56, Toni Riccardi “retired” from her partner role at PricewaterhouseCoopers in order to take a sabbatical for a year before returning to work. Her friends, Toni says, “were horrified”.
“They told me, ‘You’ll never get back in the job market if you leave now. You’re too old’”.
Toni’s sabbatical ended up being a two-year break, [...]
Why Tim Ferriss Irks Me and How a Sabbatical is Not a "Mini-Retirement"
Along with a gazillion other people, I am inspired by Tim Ferriss and his book, “The 4-Hour Workweek”. He’s the uber rock star of work-life balance, and he challenges us to rethink how we live and work and escape the 9-5 box.
But - and he himself probably knows this - Tim’s concepts aren’t entirely reality. [...]
McDonald's Puts Action Behind "You Deserve a Break Today"
Uh, yeah … that’s me with the funny hair. I’m kinda crazy about someone you know.
Digital nomad Chris Brogan talks about how McDonald’s is pretty darned smart, how it’s a business run by savvy business people and master marketers, even if the fast-and-fatty chain is “antithetical to all you hold pure and dear”.
Serving up mystery (and certainly [...]
Sabbatical Misconceptions and Why I Need a Break
Right up front, a big applause to all the people and the companies that get it. They understand that sabbaticals are not an extended vacation.
But then there’s a group who challenge us with their old thinking and hang on to dark-age misconceptions about sabbaticals.
Misconceptions aren’t always bad, of course. My friends tend to assume that [...]
Leveraging the Recession: Dirk Baxter's Sabbatical Story
Not too long ago, Dirk Baxter, a management consultant with global experience and a PhD in industrial and organizational psychology, spent two weeks doing business in Spain. After a week of saying “escuche” to any Spaniard due a pardon, Dirk was informed by an American who knew better that, although “escuche” sounds like “excuse me” [...]
Branding Your Career With a Learning Sabbatical
Whether you’re currently employed or not, Amy Balog’s latest post gives thoughtful ideas and concepts for moving beyond identifying yourself through your resume bullet points to a “whole” you with a unique story. It’s easy to confuse our roles, skills, or professional reputations with who we actually are.
She describes a “connected leader” - one who draws in [...]
Sandy Hofmann's Five-Course Sabbatical
There’s a petite woman in Atlanta whose impact weaves through the city in surprisingly large ways. Formerly CIO and Chief People Officer at MAPICS, Inc. - a software company that was a spin-off from IBM - Sandy Hofmann’s sabbatical clarified for her that building relationships and making connections between people would become one of her [...]
Resumes: Turning Employment Gaps into Sabbaticals
We just Tweeted in response to PongoResume’s suggestion to use a “functional resume” (organized by skills, not dates) to help “hide” employment gaps. Our response: Why not turn an employment gap into a sabbatical and make your resume stand out?
Millions of Americans - and millions more globally - are now faced with an employment gap, [...]
When Job Hunting is Fruitless, One Boomer Goes for an Internship
Lois Draegin, 55, lost a six-figure editing job with Readers Digest. Now she works unpaid for a start-up website, trading her knowledge for new online skills. Her very cool story - about a media maven who’s mentor is a 20-something social networking wiz - is in today’s Los Angeles Times. Written by Geraldine Baum, the [...]
Car Makers Push Sabbaticals to Save Jobs
Jaguar Land Rover offered staff three-month sabbaticals on 80% pay, and 300 employees accepted. Honda announced it would halt production for two months from February. And General Motor’s UK-arm Vauxhall has offered nine-month sabbaticals on 30% pay.
Other companies, in both the auto industry and beyond, are working hard to preserve jobs. Even small businesses are [...]
Flexibility Offerings (Sabbaticals) Ride the Economic Wave
As companies grapple with strained budgets, tight credit, waning demand for products, and layoffs, flexible arrangements like sabbaticals are a way to keep morale high. And they don’t have to cost much.
Employees worried about their jobs tend to be reluctant to seek out such arrangements, said Ellen Galinsky of the Family Work Institute, in a [...]