I think everyone should have the right to a sabbatical

[Poppadumpony]

Just thinking sadly about how I want to go travelling for 3 months but will never be able to do it while employed. My employer can’t give me a sabbatical because my work is essential and they wouldn’t get anybody to cover me while I’m away. It’s a niche role and I can’t imagine anyone would accept a contact to do it full time for just 3 months or even just a year (It’s in quite a remote place, nobody would want to relocate for a temporary post).

I was thinking about maternity leave and that if I had a baby, I’d have the right to 9 months off and my employer would just have to suck it up and muddle through.

I am single, however, and probably unable to have children. People have children to fulfill a yearning and lead a more fulfilling life. I would love to travel for an extended time and it would certainly give me a more fulfilling life, yet I know it would not be allowed. It seems unfair.

I think everyone should have the right to a sabbatical, which employers can’t refuse. Maybe once every 10 years or similar.

It’s not unreasonable is it?

Am I the only one wondering why you'd want to go travelling during a pandemic? A holiday is one thing, but you want to go and visit multiple countries. Doesn't sound like a good idea, unless this is planning for the future, in which case why bother with the post? The company might have changed their mind by then.

Despite knowing it's not a holiday, I'm a little jealous that I'll never get maternity leave as a bloke. Realistically, I'll be lucky to ever get more than a fortnight off in the rest of my working life as always need to keep some holiday back for xmas.

Shared parental leave exists now. Women still have to take 2/6 weeks off for maternity “recovery”, but the bulk of maternity leave can be shared as “parental leave” in the UK now. Increasingly common in my workplace.

Surely the reason why maternity leave etc is “acceptable” and protected in law is that society/economy would collapse if we didn’t have younger generations coming through?

YANBU OP. I think in Switzerland, this is allowed (please someone correct me if I'm wrong). I have a friend who is a lecturer at a Swiss University who is entitled to 6 months paid sabbatical every 5 years.

It will never happen in Britain though. We are meant to rush into work ASAP, masters degrees are relatively uncommon in my field (law) here but standard in the rest of Europe, where most people often don't start their "proper job" til 30 or so. And woe betide you if you have a career gap if even a few months - it's so difficult to get back into the profession as you will treated with great suspicion.

but people by and large decide that they want to have children and their decision is accommodated by employers.

Wrong on so many levels.

@IncandescentSilver

YANBU OP. I think in Switzerland, this is allowed (please someone correct me if I'm wrong). I have a friend who is a lecturer at a Swiss University who is entitled to 6 months paid sabbatical every 5 years.

It will never happen in Britain though. We are meant to rush into work ASAP, masters degrees are relatively uncommon in my field (law) here but standard in the rest of Europe, where most people often don't start their "proper job" til 30 or so. And woe betide you if you have a career gap if even a few months - it's so difficult to get back into the profession as you will treated with great suspicion.

Academics take sabbatical in the UK too, but it's a very misleading term as it means time where they focus fully on research rather than teaching not time off - they still work, just shift the focus of their work during that time.

You could move to an employer that allows a sabbatical. Mine allows a years sabbatical (unpaid). A year gives the company to employ someone to backfill your job, but I guess there is the risk that you don’t have a job to come back to.
3 months though, that just seems an annoying length of time for your colleagues to cover.
Have you looked at taking the max holiday you can over Christmas so you could do a long trip somewhere? That’s an option I’ve seen people do, we have to request special permission for more than 2 or 3 weeks, but can be done.
Or have you asked for 3 months unpaid leave?

@seayork2020

Why should employers have to fund people because they want to go off and find themselves so people want study leave, leave for a baby, period leave, stress leave, meditation leave, leave for when they need to care for someone, their pet dies when are they actually at work?

Well, for starters, it might be cheaper to have the essentials of my role covered by contractors/consultants for three months than to pay me.

My idea is slightly different though. With everyone living longer, put five years of "pension" time into the middle of people's careers. They finish work later (on different duties) but you get five years of your prime to enjoy.

This would cover early child care for most people too, and parents could stagger their times.

I understand where you’re coming from OP.

However it doesn’t exist in your workplace. You’re letting work rule your life, if you want to travel there are ways you can and it will be worth it, I have never met anyone who travelled and it was a bad idea.

I sold my house in my 20’s as I couldn’t save to travel whilst running the house and working. I used some of the money to travel and saved the rest. I hindsight I should have rented it out as I could have paid that mortgage off by now. That’s only a small regret though as I have owned many homes since then and met DH whilst travelling so 🤷‍♀️

Sell your house, quit your job, there will be another job, or rent it out with the furniture and chuck a load of other tat and put anything worth keeping in the loft.

Yes people will say ‘there’s a pandemic, no jobs, blah blah’, if you rent it out you will need a bit of time to save and flights to be going again. There will be some kind of job when you come back !

My company didn’t have a sabbatical policy but when I approached them and told them what I wanted to do (3 months off), they decided they would rather have me take the three months than leave completely so they implemented a new policy. I used all my leave as well for the year and came back refreshed and excited about work. It pays to have the conversation.

My employer offers sabaticals of up to a year in return for long service. Maybe the simplest thing to do would be to change employer. Or try asking your current employer- with plenty of notice. They might say yes if the alternative is you leave anyway. Somebody has to be the first.

Friend in Oz got to choose 3 months sabbatical or a lump sum after 10 years - took the money and bought a holiday house.
I managed to take 8 weeks off work to go travelling - holiday entitlement and unpaid leave.

I love the idea of everyone getting the chance to have a sabbatical. Yanbu.

@ForrestTrump

Despite knowing it's not a holiday, I'm a little jealous that I'll never get maternity leave as a bloke. Realistically, I'll be lucky to ever get more than a fortnight off in the rest of my working life as always need to keep some holiday back for xmas.

In a weird way I enjoyed my seven weeks of furlough knowing I'd likely never again get this amount of time for reflection until I retire.

Bit you'd be entitled to adoption leave if you chose that path.

@BikeRunSki
Surely the reason why maternity leave etc is “acceptable” and protected in law is that society/economy would collapse if we didn’t have younger generations coming through?

This. I don’t know why so many people in MN dismiss the need for a social contract with ‘children are a lifestyle choice’. Potential employees apply to work at a company after being birthed and educated which is why we have parental rights and corporation and other taxes enshrined in law.

You can have 12 months off on maternity leave! Don’t apologize for the comparison OP. It is a big long holiday for some women - - full of coffee shop trips everyday and days out.

I think the idea of being allowed to take time out for a few months or a year isn't a terrible one.

But I find it really horrible to compare it to maternity leave. Maternity leave is a pretty unpleasant experience for an awful lot of women. I spent a considerable period of both maternity leaves in horrendous physical pain due to the births, and all of my first maternity leave in a very perilous state mentally, due to a combination of being physically isolated (couldn't drive due to the pain I was in), having post natal anxiety and having no friends to turn to because, unsurprisingly, they were all at work all day.

My experiences are not unique and they're not even unusual. Pretty common actually.

So Forrest and other men with their maternity leave jealousy can, frankly, piss off. Nothing more pathetic than a man who can't see women have anything without wanting some for themselves, only I'm guessing when he says he wishes he could have maternity leave he's imagining leisure time, not crying for hours every day from sheer loneliness. My husband has often said that skipping out to work each morning to see adults and drink a coffee in peace was very much the better part of the parenthood deal, and he felt sorry for me being so isolated.

If you have enough goodwill with your employer sometimes they do let you take unpaid leave. People did at my former workplace from time to time

I handed in my resignation to go back to university to do some research, mainly because I couldn't imagine contiinuing to do the same really intensive job from that time right through to retirement without a break.

My employers came back and offered me 12 months unpaid leave instead with the option of resigning at the end if I hadn't changed my mind.

I took it and, knowing I was potentially coming back, interviewed and selected the people who were covering my role while I was away, and kept in close touch with work through the year, including emailing some clients and attending 3 or 4 big events for free.

I came back. My employes actually kept my cover people on in their part time roles (there was always too much work for one person, which is partly why I think I decided to resign in the first place) and it worked out well.

I don't know anyone else who has had that chance, but I think the fact that the other option was for me to walk away completely - not a threat, the reality - and my work didn't want to lose me at the time, coupled with very sympathetic mangement made the difference. Would absolutely not be offered now by the management or in the current climate, but actually, everyone won.

I came back refreshed, the work stayed on track throughout, and we built a team for that workstream which was much more practical and flexible than one individual.

I didn’t mean to offend by talking about maternity leave. But it is an opportunity for some time out of the workplace with no questions asked. I knew plenty of women at my workplace who welcomed that opportunity.

Over 44 years of work (now retired) I regularly had breaks in employment as I changed jobs often. I used to save up to cover these pay free periods, so this is one way to do it.
I'm curious op - did you have a year out before uni to go travelling? That was really the time to do it, before you settle down to your career.

I'm lucky enough to work for a large company that offers them, and took one. Came back to a different but similar role. Really wanted to do it so I'd have been fine if they'd asked me to sharpen the pencils and make the tea on my return. Luckily not.

Travelled the world and had the time of my life. OP of travel is something you really want to do, do it. Tell them you want to leave & why, and suggest if they'd give you unpaid leave and an opportunity to go back to a similarish role on your return you'd love to stay at the company. But if they won't, find a way to go anyway. You only get one life and you won't be on your deathbed feeling glad you played by the rules and worked really hard instead of following your dreams.

I didn’t mean to offend by talking about maternity leave. But it is an opportunity for some time out of the workplace with no questions asked. I knew plenty of women at my workplace who welcomed that opportunity.

Men have the right to parental leave. Nothing to stop you from taking it as a father.

The only thing you won't get is the first few weeks to recover from the birth- but then you won't get your genitals ripped apart, either, you won't be bleeding for weeks afterwards, and you won't be required to feed a small human being from your body.

@corythatwas I’m not a man, why did you think I was? I’m a woman who could not have children.

[quote SerenDippitty]@corythatwas I’m not a man, why did you think I was? I’m a woman who could not have children.[/quote]
Are you the OP under a name change?

YANBU. I think this would be a brilliant idea, and a good way to retain a motivated, energised work force. I think the government should seriously consider how it could help. Before the pandemic we'd have considered the government bailing out firms to cover 80% of everyone's salary a ridiculous, unattainable thing. Then it turned out it wasn't. Subsidising a 3-month sabbatical for all workers once every 10 years would make excellent sense in terms of promoting health and well-being and if we can afford furlough we can afford universal sabbaticals.