InformationWeek

More Than Just Extended Leave

Companies find sabbaticals can defuse employee burnout and boost their image

Edited by Marianne Kolbasuk McGee
Issue date: May 20, 1996

The idea of sabbaticals for IS staff is almost laughable to many, given the huge workloads heaped upon employees as part of the corporate downsizing trend. "Sabbaticals? I can't even find time to take the vacations I'm due," says an IT manager for a large telecom company in Florida, who requested anonymity.

But experts say companies shou ld make the time to give longtime employees an extended leave beyond their vacations. Sabbaticals not only can defuse burnout but also can increase a worker's dedication and improve a company's image. "If the company is creative, it can get its IS managers to use this opportunity to get people thinking better and working more effectively," says Helen Axel, a senior consultant with the Conference Board, a management research firm in New York.

Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco lets 10-year employees take one-month "personal growth leave," while three-year employees can take "social service leave" for one to six months, under the condition that they volunteer their time with a not-for-profit organization. Susan Munro, an IS VP with the bank's TellerVision teller-support area, took six weeks to help San Francisco's Asian Art Museum replace a manual checkout system in its bookstore with a LAN. "They were having lots of problems so I helped them organize things and give t he technical support they needed," she says.

Munro says her stint at the museum was good public relations for the bank. She also has a better perspective of her role at Wells Fargo. "At the bookstore, I had a real concrete job to do and it made a difference whether I did it right or not," she says. "Sometimes in a big corporation, you don't feel that way. Now I feel more comfortable saying, 'I don't like this. What do I need to do to change it?'"

Frank Russell Co., a private investment firm in Tacoma, Wash., has a year-old sabbatical program.

"People think the company is being wonderfully progressive with this and dif- ferentiating itself as a good place to work," says Steve Sundquist, the firm's CIO. "Individuals come back with a better perspective, more confident, and relaxed. So it's definitely working for the company and the individual."

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