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Yesterday I wrote about how my upcoming two+ week vacation will be the longest vacation from work I've taken. I suppose I should put an asterisk next to that claim. I actually took 3 weeks off from work once before. The asterisk is because it technically wasn't vacation time. It was a sabbatical.
20+ years ago I worked at a big company where sabbatical was one of the benefits. Sabbatical was 6 weeks of paid time off awarded every 4 years. Having 6 weeks off was close to incomprehensible to me at the time, plus Hawk had nowhere near that amount of time off available, so I split my sabbatical into two chunks of 3 weeks each, as company policy allowed.
The first week of those 3 weeks I actually had vacation with Hawk. We traveled together and did some backpacking. Then the next 2 weeks I spent on moving house. We'd just bought a new place! I spent a week cleaning up & packing up the old place for move out, then a week unpacking & arranging in the new place. Overall it was time well spent. But what happened next wasn't good.
In the US there's a broad misgiving about taking long vacations from work. "If you're gone too long, they'll realize they don't need you," the sentiment goes. Indeed, I came back from sabbatical— half a sabbatical— just to be laid off a week or two later. Yup, I had just demonstrated that I wasn't critical path to my company! 😰😱🤯
Let's hope a mere two weeks away from work hits the sweet spot of being long enough for overseas trip but not so long my company decides my employment is no longer consequential to them.
20+ years ago I worked at a big company where sabbatical was one of the benefits. Sabbatical was 6 weeks of paid time off awarded every 4 years. Having 6 weeks off was close to incomprehensible to me at the time, plus Hawk had nowhere near that amount of time off available, so I split my sabbatical into two chunks of 3 weeks each, as company policy allowed.
The first week of those 3 weeks I actually had vacation with Hawk. We traveled together and did some backpacking. Then the next 2 weeks I spent on moving house. We'd just bought a new place! I spent a week cleaning up & packing up the old place for move out, then a week unpacking & arranging in the new place. Overall it was time well spent. But what happened next wasn't good.
In the US there's a broad misgiving about taking long vacations from work. "If you're gone too long, they'll realize they don't need you," the sentiment goes. Indeed, I came back from sabbatical— half a sabbatical— just to be laid off a week or two later. Yup, I had just demonstrated that I wasn't critical path to my company! 😰😱🤯
Let's hope a mere two weeks away from work hits the sweet spot of being long enough for overseas trip but not so long my company decides my employment is no longer consequential to them.
