Timeline for Planning a Short SabbaticalThe timeline for your sabbatical hinges around: the projected start date of your leave I recommend a 9- to 12-month planning time frame, with a target of presenting your proposal five months before your desired leave date. If you think that's a crazy long time, go with your more spontaneous nature and compress the timeline. Still, your manager needs reasonable notice. Aim for no fewer than three months between your proposal presentation and your projected departure date. 9 TO 12 MONTHS AHEAD Review your employer's paid and unpaid time off policies. Assess where your plan fits in. Check conditions for taking a sabbatical, leave of absence or leave without pay, along with accumulated paid time off. Adapt your leave plans accordingly. Check your employer's policy on health insurance coverage during an extended leave. Evaluate your employer's or department's business cycles. Plan your absence to match a relatively slow time or a natural break in your work, e.g., between major projects. If you're the first to ask, identify a comparable organization that has a policy so you can refer to it as an example. Find someone who has successfully negotiated a sabbatical. See what you can learn from their experience. Research sabbatical options of interest. Narrow your choices to three; at least one should have flexible dates since you may have to make adjustments after the negotiated terms of your leave are completed. If your plans include a volunteer vacation or a short-term missions trip, check if your employer offers paid time off to employees who give time as volunteers. (And if not, is that something you can suggest?) Negotiate to transfer that paid time off into your leave. Start to establish firmer boundaries of accessibility. This relates to your work coverage plan. If you're answering emails at night and taking or making work-related calls on weekends, it's time to reset expectations. Your absence will be easier for others to manage if you've reined in your anytime-availability. Years ago, I read Turn It Off: How to Unplug from the Anytime-Anywhere Office Without Disconnecting Your Career. It offers a very specific process for defining and setting boundaries for yourself, your clients, your coworkerseven your manager. It's dated, but remains valuable. Sort of like we boomers. Last I checked Amazon.com, a used one was as low as one cent. The book, that is. Get it. Do it. Sabbatical or not, it's a smart step toward a saner life. Start eliminating low-value work wherever possible. This step streamlines your job to higher levels of effectiveness, making for a simpler work coverage plan. You could make this a project, modeling it after IBM's People Oriented Work Redesign (POWR) process. Read a brief description here. Take the lead and make it a project among your workgroup. Done well, everyone in the workgroup will reap work-life balance benefits from the effort. That makes you the hero. You build goodwill among your team. Aha! You get their support of your sabbatical. And don't let your manager overlook the productivity payoffs that result. Highlight them when you make your next pitch for a pay raise. Make removal of low-value work a high-value work project, and everyone wins. [Optional]: Restructure your position into a job sharing arrangement. If you're interested in weekly time off through job sharing as well as a sabbatical, propose job sharing first. Do this several months ahead of your intended leave date so that you, your partner and your manager are established in the arrangement by the time you make a request for six weeks off. Boost your goodwill balance with co-workers as described in the work coverage plan. Select a trusted-and-reliable coworker who can manage any emergencies in your absence. Consider a quid pro quo for this person and introduce your prospective plans to him or her in confidence. Work with this coworker to get agreement of your prospective plan so that s/he can be included by name in your written proposal. 8 MONTHS AHEAD Arrange remote access to your work computer. Do this step so you can include the following in your proposal: I've arranged and tested secure remote access to my workstation computer to access files from any Internet connection in the world, should an urgent situation require it. This goes under Accessibility During Leave of your Sabbatical Proposal. I hope you really don't want to use it while you're enjoying sabbatical travel, but it could be a tipping point of approval for your manager. In any case, it sets you up to practice telecommuting from home, which you may want to propose sooner or later. If you can't arrange remote access through your employer, either because of technical reasons or you don't wish to expose your intentions just yet, try GoToMyPC remote software, using WorkOptions.com's link for the best deal. 6 TO 7 MONTHS AHEAD Select a coworker who can be your primary point of contact with the office during your absence. (This may or may not be the same as the trusted-and-reliable coworker.) Complete your Sabbatical Proposal. 5 MONTHS AHEAD Make an appointment with your manager to present and negotiate your proposal. ASSUMING A SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME Start any cross-training necessary to fulfill your work coverage plan. Continue with elimination of low-value work for all the powerful pay-off reasons stated earlier. Continue building your goodwill account with your coworkers. Build comp time if your manager agrees you can trade it for some of your sabbatical time. 3 MONTHS AHEAD Revisit your work coverage plan and continue steps to fulfill it. 1 MONTH AHEAD Wrap up your work projects. Finalize work coverage plans. Confirm and finalize your health insurance coverage during your absence Confirm your trusted-and-reliable coworker connection and take him/her to a nice appreciation lunch where you'll review plans. (Logistical plans; no gloating about your upcoming adventure.) THREE TO SEVEN DAYS BEFORE RETURNING TO WORK Call your trusted colleague to get an update about any major issues that surfaced during your absence. Call your manager to confirm your return. UPON RETURNING Start demonstrating the value of your sabbatical. Remember all those employer benefits you stated in your proposal? Now's the time to deliver. Focus on work. Maintain the goodwill of your coworkers by expressing appreciation and being ready for pay-back. Be prudent about how much and with whom you share about your six weeks off. Instead... Share your short-term sabbatical story with me and the Time Off Tactics community.
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