SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA JOB MARKET : PART TWO: MAKING THE BREAK : Taking Time Out From the Workplace : Sabbaticals Provide a Chance for a Fresh Perspective on Work
Five years ago, Steve Nissen stopped the world and got off. Nissen, now 38, was a high-powered lawyer with a six-figure income for the West Los Angeles law firm of Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Phillips.
But something was missing, so he took advantage of the firm’s informal sabbatical policy.
“One of the best things I ever did,” said Nissen of his break. “I thought I would go back too. But as it turned out I didn’t.”
Nissen is now head of Public Counsel of Los Angeles, which matches needy law clients with volunteer lawyers. The pro bono organization often represents people who have been cheated out of their homes and takes a special interest in abused children.
“I make a third of what I’d be making at a law firm,” Nissen said, “but I look forward to going to work every single day. I don’t think many lawyers with big firms can say that. And I probably would never have made the change without a sabbatical.”
Suzanne Smith, co-director of New Ways to Work in San Francisco, a research group that advocates flexible working arrangements, said: “The idea behind a sabbatical is to give an employee a chance to recharge the batteries without having to give up the job.”
Nissen’s decision to change jobs is more the exception than the rule, according to corporate human resource experts. Most people who take a sabbatical return to their old jobs or to new responsibilities with the same employer.
And almost without exception, according to Smith, they are rejuvenated and ready to make contributions to the company that would not have occurred to them if they had kept at the grind.
That was also the assessment of Sandy Scarsella, corporate compensation and benefits manager for Intel Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., a leader in the microprocessor field.
The high-tech field is known for its liberal sabbatical policies. Intel, like many of the firms, offers paid sabbaticals.
The impetus, according to Scarsella, is a high rate of burnout in an industry that constantly demands fresh ideas and yet thrives on employees’ long, exhausting hours of brainstorming and juggling several different projects.
An Intel employee is eligible for an eight-week paid sabbatical every seven years. That can be combined with vacation time to produce as much as 12 weeks away from the job.
“We urge our employees to do something different on sabbatical,” said Scarsella, who added that the sabbatical is “one of our best recruiting tools.”
In 1980, the Department of Labor reported that 13% of American companies offered sabbaticals. Smith suspects that figure has gone up in the last decade, but many companies are still resistant, she said.
“Unfortunately, in today’s corporate climate long-term planning often gives way to the quarterly bottom line,” Smith said. “It is hard to persuade a company that a sabbatical policy is a good thing because you have to think of the long-term benefits.”
Some companies, particularly in the media and in research, allow their employees to participate in fellowships that usually involve spending a year of study at a university.
In journalism, the best-known is the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, but there are many others.
Tim Connolly, a 34-year-old copy editor for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida, was reading the newspaper industry journal Editor & Publisher when he saw an item about the Center for International Journalism at the University of Southern California.
He was accepted in the program and has just moved to Los Angeles for a year of study that will include three months in Mexico and lead to a master’s degree.
“When you’re editing every day on deadline for a newspaper,” said Connolly, “there isn’t much time to step back and look at the job you’re doing. For me, this is the chance to do that.”
What Connolly hopes to take away from his fellowship year is a better understanding of Latin America in particular.
The USC fellowship includes tuition and a living stipend. Connolly intends to return to his job on the newspaper’s national and foreign desk.
Interviews with employees and employers produced this list of tips for anyone thinking about taking a sabbatical or a fellowship:
* Consider the financial ramifications carefully. Most companies do not pay you while you are on a sabbatical, and some fellowships will not cover all of your living expenses. Most companies will allow you to keep your benefits, however.
* Think about what you want to do on the sabbatical. Although some find simply vegetating at home to be restful, the most rewarding sabbaticals appear to be those that include some sort of accomplishment or the fulfillment of a dream. And that takes planning.
* Discuss with your employer exactly what you will be doing when you return. Some companies hold your job but others argue that that is impossible in a dynamic setting and will offer a different position.
The reasons for sabbaticals and fellowships vary but two motives appear to be most common--the need to get a break from high-pressure jobs or to spend some special time with the family.
At the prestigious Los Angeles law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, partners may take up to a year’s sabbatical and most do it to rejuvenate themselves, according to former Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher, chairman of the firm.
“I think the sabbatical provides a very important period of reflection and renewal,” said Christopher. “At a minimum it is a change of pace for people under exceedingly great pressure.”
For Robert Wessling, a partner in Latham & Watkins, another Los Angeles law firm, the three-month sabbatical he took 10 years ago had little to do with the pressures of work.
“My daughters were only a few years away from college and it was the last time we could all go somewhere together as a family,” said Wessling. “We went to Europe and I will have the memories of that time together with me forever.”
