Time off to work, or play?

By JOHN DRINNAN

Outside universities there is a popular myth that sabbatical leave is for rest and rejuvenation - a lazy time to shoot the breeze and reflect.

When you are caught up in the daily grind, having one year in seven to study, work on a pet research project and travel overseas sounds like a dream come true.

Overseas research and meeting colleagues at international conferences can be enjoyable, but academics insist that sabbatical leave is valuable and also essential in a place as isolated as New Zealand.

Maybe the misapprehension has arisen because sabbatical is derived from the word sabbath - day seven, the day of rest.

Academic staff have to win approval from universities for a sabbatical and report back on how it was spent. They pick up their full pay and extra allowances to cover travel and accommodation costs.

Allowances vary between institutions. Massey University staff, for example, are allocated $8000 each.

Most sabbaticals are spent in Europe and North America, where the cost of living is high and full pay and expenses do not go far. New Zealand academics often wind up sleeping on the couch of understanding colleagues.

The Association of University Staff (AUS) says many people cannot afford to take their one-in-seven entitlement and that is a pity, because face-to-face contact is important.

The national president of the AUS, Massey University public policy academic Grant Duncan, says that although email is a useful tool, sharing knowledge often comes down to "serendipity" or fortunate accidents of timing. As an example, he says, during his last trip to London he was introduced to an expatriate New Zealander at the London School of Economics.

When he got back to Massey's Albany campus he received an email saying she had passed on his name to an academic at Stirling University in Scotland who wanted access to New Zealand public policy research for an international survey.

Massey obliged and the payment in pounds sterling more than covered the cost of the sabbatical.

Duncan believes private sector businesses could also gain from adapting the concept of sabbaticals.

In the corporate world sabbaticals are commonly used to describe obligation-free, enhanced leave, usually unpaid, aimed at attracting and retaining key staff.

But the New Zealand Institute of Management chief executive, David Chapman, also detects a trend for corporates offering time out from normal duties.

These are often unstructured sweeteners - sabbaticals in name only - offered to key staff to travel, study or simply follow some dream.

Chapman says: "Companies are looking at work or study experience that enables staff to 'grow their CVs'.

"Study or travel might not be directly related to the job or bringing a payoff to the employer, but solely meet the interests of the individual.

"Someone I value wants to spend a month in Italy studying ancient history. I would say yes, because you know when they get back they are going to be a very happy employee.

"Otherwise it might be two months in the Paris office and a month of study or exchanges."

International recruitment agency TMP confirms that more flexible leave provisions are largely aimed at attracting and retaining staff and are mostly unpaid.

Accountancy firm Ernst & Young has run such a scheme for two years, allowing staff to leave for around six to 12 months. Sometimes staff use it to go on their OE.

"Sometimes people just hit the wall. They may have been with the company only a short time and are not enjoying themselves," says Richard deHaast, national director of human resources.

They come back with a better idea of how they want to proceed. DeHaast says Ernst & Young looked at a structured paid leave scheme for sabbaticals but staff preferred more flexible leave without pay.

One happy staffer is Christine Vendetti. She felt stale and had a lifelong wish to spend some time in the United States. But at 58 she knew that resigning her PA job might mean the end of her career. She returned happy and refreshed in July after a year in Las Vegas.

As non-university bodies such as the Christchurch College of Education seek research funding, they are also working with teacher unions to develop sabbatical schemes.

One of the neatest non-academic schemes has been running for eight years at the Auckland University of Technology. Staff may opt to take 80 per cent of their normal salary for four years and take a fifth year off, also on 80 per cent.

The scheme runs alongside the traditional sabbaticals established two years ago when AUT was made a university. Staff can drop out whenever they like and get a full refund.

AUT counsellor Jan Wilson took a year off in 2000 to start her PhD but says it was difficult spending such a long time on reduced pay. It was effectively a compulsory savings scheme but she probably would not repeat the exercise.

Careers counsellor Robyn Bailey used half of her year off to build a house with her partner and the other half on another six months' travelling. She found four years on 80 per cent of pay a long haul and next time plans to use an alternative 80 per cent scheme offering six months' paid leave after two years.

Peter Boxall, professor of human resources management at Auckland University Business School said the AUT scheme was creative but still not comparable to the university system.