Time Out

American Demographics, June 1, 2002 by Pamela Paul

Byline: PAMELA PAUL

In an effort to cut costs and mitigate the number of layoffs, global consulting firm Accenture last year offered employees an unusual proposal: Workers who agreed to take an 80 percent pay cut would be allowed a 6- to 12-month sabbatical with full benefits. Reaction to the proposal was swift, as more than 1,400 of 17,000 eligible workers in the United States jumped at the chance. Says Keith W. Hicks, director of people matters at Accenture: "When we first rolled out the program, we had no idea what the appeal would be. We were pleasantly surprised."

Computer giant Cisco Systems in San Jose, Calif., experienced a similar employee response when it created a pilot sabbatical program in spring 2001. Staffers who accepted a two-thirds pay cut were offered a chance to volunteer for a year at one of 29 not-for-profits chosen by Cisco. In addition to paying one-third of those employees' salaries, the company would continue to provide full benefits and stock options. According to spokesperson Chris Peacock, Cisco expected 20 or 25 employees to sign up. Instead, 300 people expressed interest, and 80 were ultimately eligible to sign on. The program proved so popular that Cisco is considering ways to permanently integrate it into its benefits package.

Once the privilege of tenured professors, the sabbatical is branching out from the cosseted world of academia into the mainstream. Propelled by today's economic climate, more companies are offering semi-paid "leaves of absence" as an alternative to laying off employees. According to New York-based Mercer Human Resource Consulting's 2000 Survey of Work/Life Initiatives, 15 percent of the 450 large employers surveyed offered paid sabbaticals last year, up from 11 percent in 1998; an additional 5 percent said they were considering adding such programs to their benefits policy. Another 2000 survey by Hewitt Associates, the Lincolnshire, Ill.-based outsourcing and consulting firm, found that while only 6 percent of the 520 employers it polled offered sabbaticals, an additional 12 percent had such programs under consideration. Says Accenture's Hicks: "It helps companies cut costs in the short term, and it gives employees the opportunity to go out and try different kinds of things they wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to do."

Taking a break has never been so tempting. Driven by a multitude of factors - from layoffs to burnout to the lingering effects of Sept. 11 - the idea of taking a time out is seducing a significant percentage of Americans. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the number of "discouraged workers" (defined as those who are not currently looking for employment specifically because they believe no jobs are available for them) rose to 371,000 in February 2002 from 289,000 in February 2001. Although figures are not available for the total number of people who have taken some sort of time off, anecdotal evidence suggests a wide range of Americans are jumping at the chance to get off the reality treadmill temporarily. "Many are taking the opportunity to reassess their direction, think about changing careers or go back to school," says John Van Cleve, a work life consultant at Hewitt Associates.

Julie Jones, a 26-year-old consultant at Accenture's Chicago office, was among one of the first to sign up for the company's sabbatical program. Three months later, she was living in Los Angeles and doing volunteer work for a joint United Way/Americorps program. Not only does Jones not regret going, she believes it has made her a more well-rounded person, and encourages others to make the same leap. "People I know say that if they had the opportunity, they would take it in a minute," she says.

A 2001 survey by New York-based nonprofit Catalyst found that 18 percent of Generation Xers (born between 1964 and 1978) currently take leaves and sabbaticals, and an additional 43 percent would like to. According to a 2001 survey by Des Moines, Iowa-based The Principal Financial Group, more than half the employees of small and midsize companies say they long for a sabbatical. Ten percent of 1,500 employees surveyed have taken or plan to take a sabbatical. An additional 47 percent say they would like to take one but feel they can't due to financial factors or the unwillingness of their employers.

The most common factor leading to the decision to "check out" temporarily is burnout. But experts say long-term trends, such as changing American attitudes about the workplace, are also fueling the surge in sabbaticals. In some ways, the end of the dot-com boom and the disappearance of the 1990s mentality of working around the clock have made more people open to sabbaticals, says Hewitt's Van Cleve. What's more, workers are now taking a less linear, more cyclical approach to their careers. In today's flexible workplace, where people change jobs frequently, there is less loyalty to employers (and vice versa), making employees more inclined to give up a job without worrying that they're sacrificing their long-term career prospects. In addition, workplace experts say the new "free agent" approach to work lends itself to sabbaticals.