A Pause That Refreshes
Sabbaticals are not just for college professors. You, too, can take a well deserved break. Just use your imagination and plan ahead.
By Jane Bennett Clark, Senior Associate Editor
From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, March 2006
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3| No one else can do my job. All the more reason to step aside for a while, says Claire Peeps, of the Durfee Foundation, which finances sabbaticals for nonprofit executives in Los Angeles County. Although the program's main mission is to prevent burnout among hard-driving execs, it also aims to create a deeper bench among second-tier employees. "Many of our grant recipients are founders who haven't delegated as much as they should and are carrying more than a reasonable workload," says Peeps. "We hope that there is permanent redelegation of responsibility, and that does happen in most cases."
Similarly, Intel Corp., which offers employees eight weeks off every seven years, considers one person's sabbatical another person's opportunity. "Someone is designated to fill that job, which opens up another slot," says company spokeswoman Gail Dundas. "It helps people to develop new skills, so it's a win-win situation for everyone." As for the All About Eve syndrome (in the movie, the ingenue steals the lead actress's job), not to worry, says Dundas. Whether you return to your old position or decide to transfer to a new one, "your job is guaranteed."
4| My business will suffer. Most clients will stay loyal if you make adequate arrangements, says Michaels, who alerted clients to her sabbatical plan nine months in advance and trained associates to take over during her absence. She let clients know she was available via e-mail and had an assistant check her voice mail.
Gradually decreasing your workload helps, too. When Stephan Melikian, of Jones Hall, a law firm in San Francisco, took a nine-week sabbatical last summer, he finished most of his projects beforehand, tied up loose ends by phone, and handed off new assignments to colleagues, whom he had prepped. Aside from one difficult deal that needed revisiting, "everything went fine," says Melikian, 51. "All of my clients were happy. They were jealous of me."
5| I can't manage my affairs from afar. With e-mail, online banking and automatic bill paying, you can stay on top of your finances even in remote outposts (scout out Internet cafés at www.cybercafes.com). Michaels and Seef tracked their accounts online and paid Michaels's sister, to whom they assigned power of attorney, an hourly fee to process bills and sort through mail.
If all else fails and you need to call home, you can reduce both hassles and expenses by using a prepaid phone card (compare rates at www.speedypin.com) or a cell phone that operates on GSM technology, the mobile-phone lingua franca of countries outside the U.S. Cell phones require a SIM card to activate local service. You can buy both phone and card in the country you're visiting, or shop at www.telestial.com.
On the home front, ask a friend, relative or neighbor to keep an eye on things. The Alperts relied on their tenant, a colleague of Avi's. Says Avi, "We trusted her to keep us in the loop."
6| I wouldn't know what to do with the time. Start with a passion, suggests Michaels, who spent part of her sabbatical studying flamenco in Seville. "I encourage people to do something they've always dreamed of doing." Leslie Brenton Ward, a corporate ghostwriter in Chicago, took nine months off in 2000 to write fiction under her own name. Mike Owen, a CPA in Newark, Cal., cut his workload to expand a boutique winery, Crystal Basin Cellars. He came up with a plan with the help of Clive Prout (www.thesabbaticalcoach.com).
Some sabbatical programs shape the choices for you. For instance, service-oriented Timberland gives employees who have worked there for three straight years up to six months off at full pay to work for nonprofit organizations (see the box on the facing page). Conversely, the Durfee Foundation urges grant recipients to avoid any activity that smacks of their day job. "It's meant to be a rigorously nonproductive experience," says Peeps.
For most people, the chill-out scenario is the scariest option. "People are afraid of downtime, of having nothing planned -- but that's what they really need to rediscover themselves," says Michaels. When Maria Cabildo, an affordable-housing activist in Los Angeles, received a $30,000 grant from the Durfee Foundation in 2004, she ignored advice to unwind and embarked on a travel itinerary as frenetic as her regular job. "I regret that I did too much," she says.
Melikian, on the other hand, divided his sabbatical between traveling abroad and kicking back in his own neighborhood. "You have a different perspective on the world when you're at the grocery store at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, with nothing to worry about but what to get," says Melikian. Besides browsing the produce section, he hung out with his kids, hiked in Marin County and enjoyed the ultimate luxury: afternoon movies. When he returned to his firm, which specializes in municipal bonds, "I was refreshed," he says. "Suddenly, the work was interesting and fun."
Still not convinced? Let the lawyer argue the case. With sabbaticals, says Melikian, "you have the ability to completely forget about work. There are no conference calls. You know what it's like to get up in the morning and not have to rush out the door to do everything. You're not coming back to a big pile on your desk. You go into a different way of thinking. It was one of the best experiences of my life."