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Archives for May, 2008
Small Firms Invest in Sabbaticals, Too
Many people assume that only Fortune 500 companies can invest in sabbatical programs for their employees, but that’s just not the case. Take Standing Partnership, a St. Louis-based public relations agency with 26 employees and about $3.5 million in revenue in 2007.
The firm began its sabbatical program 12 years ago, and “it’s one of the [...]
Please Hang Up and Try Again: Disconnecting In a Meaningful Way
It took the first half of Lisa Girouard’s sabbatical (see yesterday’s post) just to ramp down, she says. “It was about three to four weeks before I felt like I wasn’t just on vacation.”
Once she really disconnected, Lisa found that her thinking process got more creative. “Not doing email everyday was probably the biggest thing [...]
Europe and Real Estate: A Hybrid Sabbatical
A senior sales account manager with Intel, Lisa Girouard had her first sabbatical in June/July of 2007. Eight weeks’ paid.
For the first half of her time off, Lisa and her 11- and 14-year-olds traveled three weeks in London, Paris, and Italy, where the kids learned a lot about the kinds of food and arts that [...]
Coffee, Anyone?
After 9/11, Patricia Henry had a “radical change” in her life and took a sabbatical from TIAA-CREF to work with the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. There, she worked with 80 coffee farmers, helping them create their own branded cooperative and work toward organic standards.
Romance ensued. Chris, a forestry volunteer, was just down the [...]
A Sabbatical in Myanmar
Billie Madha and her mother left Myanmar (then Burma) in 1976, when Billie was 15. They thought they’d never see their family again. And it was a big family. Billie’s mother was one of 18 children.
More than 20 years later, on her first sabbatical with Arrow Electronics, Billie got to take her mother back to [...]
Back in Six Months – Making It Count
Scott H. was high enough up at Wrigley to get a six-months’ sabbatical, even though the company has no formal sabbatical program. “I created the sabbatical for my own development,” he said. At 44, he’d worked at breakneck pace for the past 20 years and was now head of the company’s global research group, with [...]
Super Sized Sabbaticals
Who offers the most sabbaticals every year? McDonald’s. And they’ve been offering them for years. The fast-food king offers one to company staff every after every 10 years of service. Eligible employees get 8 weeks’ paid to go and do whatever their hearts desire. Every year, thousands go. Thousands! Even the CEO. The company has [...]
Sabbatical Talk on the Career Couch
Today’s New York Times had an article by Eilene Zimmerman on “The Gainful Way to Use a Sabbatical.” Zimmerman discusses how to make the most of time off and how to pitch the concept to your manager. She includes perspectives from a number of consultants and experts, and the article is worth a read. I’d [...]