How to Get a Paid Sabbatical Leave

Is it possible to get a paid sabbatical leave? I'm talking about the supplemental weeks you plan to add to accrued vacation leave.

Yes. Everything is negotiable and anything is possible.

Not guaranteed, but possible. For example, some women who've used my free Max Maternity Leave Planner & Proposal have reported receiving paid weeks in excess of their company's policy or getting partially-paid maternity leave where there was no policy.

This is an uncommon outcome, but it shows what can happen when you ask. It also shows the value of having a plan and putting it into a written proposal.

Likewise, getting a paid sabbatical is unusual—especially where there is no policy—but anything can happen when you ask.

These Three Conditions Foster a Paid Sabbatical

Besides your negotiating savvy, there are three conditions that foster a favorable outcome:

• Your work performance and professional reputation are so highly regarded that rewarding you in this way is clearly in your employer’s best interest. They may even fear they'll lose you to another employer or to retirement if you don’t get what you ask for.

• You work for a relatively small, private employer. Its small size allows for more flexibility in negotiated outcomes compared with larger employers, the government or a union shop. Special arrangements are customized and off-the-books, because there are no policies!

• Your negotiations for the time off portion of your leave request went smoothly. If you get a solid sense of your manager’s support during the first part of your request, you might segue into the pay issue with relative ease. But if discussions were tense and the time off segment hard-won, it’s probably better to take what you got and back off on the pay issue.

Use Your Judgment

Your gut instinct is probably the best judge when deciding whether or not to make the request to be paid for the supplemental weeks of your leave.

If you do, one to two weeks is a reasonable request. If you're a star player with at least seven years of service to your employer, set a more ambitious target of three weeks or more.

Another Option to Negotiate

Whether or not you line up with the conditions above, you have one more possible bargaining area: the application of “comp time” to your sabbatical leave.

Is there a pressing project requiring extra hours of work in the months before your planned sabbatical leave? Negotiate to apply those hours to your leave request.

If your manager is agreeable, be sure get this—and other terms of your leave—in writing.

Next, consider strategies for self-funding your sabbatical leave.

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