Now Might Be a Good Time for That Much-Needed Sabbatical

A more dramatic option (which I realize is not available to everyone) is to ask for a temporary leave of absence from your current position. It might sound crazy, but depending on a whole bunch of factors—how integral you are to day-to-day operations, how difficult you are to replace, how much specialized or sensitive information you’re privy to, and how much training you needed to get to where you are now—it might be more advantageous for your employer to scrape by in your absence than to search for a replacement.

• Tell about your sabbatical: How did you spend your time? What was the best/worst part? How did it help you clarify your career path?
  

When determining how much time off to request, it might be helpful to visualize a sliding scale. If you’re making the coffee, three weeks may be a stretch. But your company may be willing to hire a temp during that time. If you’re a vice president, you may be able to command a couple of months off. This is another situation in which working for a large company works to your benefit.

Another possibility is to ask for a reduction in hours or if you’re on the road a lot, a temporary reduction in business trips. As long as you can basically keep it together, your manager should be humane enough to allow for a short period of time in which you’re working 30 hours a week.

The bottom line is that there’s no harm in asking for a leave of absence to pursue other projects if that’s what you really want. Just don’t tell your company why you’re taking off. It’s irrelevant and it’s “personal.” If your boss says no, you’re just back where you started. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll give up any turf just for asking. Just make sure that you do so only after you really have a working outline of what you’re going to do once you have some time off so that you don’t while away the days scouring eBay. Internships and community-college classes are great places to start, but in truth, those are avenues that can also be explored without taking a leave of absence.

One more thing: Even if it’s just in a cursory way, stay in touch with your office while you’re out so that they don’t forget how wonderful and irreplaceable you are.