Is sabbatical a bad idea?

Photo by Chris Mead on Unsplash

Recently, a friend reached out in panic. The reason for the alarm was a decision that one of our friends was evaluating. The common friend wanted to take a break from work for an extended period. In other words, the common friend was contemplating a sabbatical. When this issue was put forward to me, I had almost forgotten about the term sabbatical. A decade ago, I presented the option of a sabbatical to some of the bright young engineers. But, unfortunately, they had opted for resignation in pursuit of a management degree. Why take a sabbatical when they could always apply afresh in the company they were leaving now? Moreover, the young minds didn’t want to preserve the number of years of service by opting for a sabbatical. Instead, they were looking for a new start. All these thoughts flashed through my mind before I started to understand the reason for my friend’s panic.

I never found the reason for my friend’s trepidation. My friend talked about dissuading our common friend. As the conversation progressed, my friend’s heartbeats went up. Finally, agreeing to speak to our common friend, we ended the discussion. In the hours and days that followed, I did some soul searching on why a sabbatical was considered anathema. It boiled down to three factors. Our common friend was over 40, had family and financial commitments. Are these adequate reasons to coerce a person to continue their current job…