Sabbatical

[Lighthouseblue]

Anyone had a sabbatical from work? Am considering it and seems like a good idea but am worried I'm not seeing the 'whole picture' and might be missing something.

Hi @Lighthouseblue, I haven’t had one but advise on them in my role as an Employment Law consultant.

The main things to consider are whether you will be asking for the company to keep you employed or whether your employment will essentially ‘end’ with the offer of re-employment at the end. If your employment continues (which is obviously better for you) you would keep any service for purposes of redundancy/sick pay etc, and would also be entitled to holiday pay for the time you are on the sabbatical leave. However, if the company wouldn’t agree to that, give serious consideration to it as you would then have broken service so you wouldn’t be entitled to redundancy until you hit the 2 year mark again etc. Hope this helps.

Sorry, that was meant to say ‘with the offer of reemployment at the end of your sabbatical leave’.

@OCM19

Hi *@Lighthouseblue*, I haven’t had one but advise on them in my role as an Employment Law consultant.

The main things to consider are whether you will be asking for the company to keep you employed or whether your employment will essentially ‘end’ with the offer of re-employment at the end. If your employment continues (which is obviously better for you) you would keep any service for purposes of redundancy/sick pay etc, and would also be entitled to holiday pay for the time you are on the sabbatical leave. However, if the company wouldn’t agree to that, give serious consideration to it as you would then have broken service so you wouldn’t be entitled to redundancy until you hit the 2 year mark again etc. Hope this helps.

Thank you for this advice. I hadn't considered anything like this so really glad I posted this evening!

Happy to give you some more advice or answer any other questions you may have. An informal chat with your employer would be the starting point. How long have you been with your company and how long are you looking to take off? X

@Lighthousebluen have a read of this, it’s obviously written for the employer but gives you the main things to think about before speaking with them.

www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/emp-law/working-time/sabbaticals-guide#gref

Consider any pension implications too. If your employment ‘ends’ as mentioned above, when you restart employment will you be able to rejoin the pension scheme on the same terms? Some companies have changed pension arrangements for new joiners. Would you be able to pay back any missed contributions?